New Jersey Devils Need More Time to Click

The New Jersey Devils followed up one of the worst opening nights in recent memory with an embarrassing showing on the road. If this is going to happen at any time at least it is happening now with time to get it fixed.

This New Jersey Devils offseason gave us much excitement, energy, and new faces to the franchise that created anticipation for the upcoming season the likes we’ve never seen before. October 4th could not get here fast enough because Devils fans were so excited to see what this new team could do. Then opening night finally came and it started out like it was a dream, the Devils went up 4-0.

Then, it was as if this was meant to be a cruel joke and the hockey God’s slapped us with a dose of reality. That reality being when you put together a team with a bunch of new guys on it, it isn’t supposed to come easy and there are going to be some real struggles when it gets started.

There is no reason to panic right now. It has been a terrible start, there is no debating that. It’s probably the worst way to possibly start. On the other hand, it is an opportunity to work on glaring problems early in the year while there is still plenty of time to get it fixed. Unfortunately, there are plenty of problems that need to get fixed.

The Devils can at least say they managed to get one point from these two disasters, so there is that silver lining to hold on to. It is going to get better, this team has far too much talent for it to keep heading in this direction. A problem they are having right now is they need more time to work together and to click, it is egregiously clear.

Think about all the new players that are on this team. There’s number-one pick Jack Hughes, KHL signee Nikita Gusev, former Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban, Wayne Simmonds, Swedish prospect Jesper Boqvist and not to mention they only had Taylor Hall last year for 33 games. When you bring in that many new faces, it is going to take a while to get everything together, especially in certain phases of the game.

Everyone on the team needs to be able to play with one another and know what works, what doesn’t, who plays best with who, who not to play with who and so on. The talent is there, that is obvious. At the beginning of the Buffalo game, there were a few moments where they were just “missing” from connecting on a big play. This was before the flood gates opened, of course. In those moments it was clear that the skill was there for these players, it was as if we could see what they wanted to do, but it just wasn’t coming to fruition for them.

The losses are making this feel much worse than it really is. The blown lead to Winnipeg was devastating, and to follow it up with the junior varsity effort in Buffalo capped off a terrible start. There are 80 more games left to play with tons more practices to get the chemistry working.

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A major aspect that needs to be worked on immediately, however, is the defensive structure. It has been a nightmare, to say the least. Andy Greene can not be paired on the top line with P.K. Subban. He is not a top-line defenseman. Greene needs to be on the second or even the third pair. Will Butcher has had a poor two games and has looked lost at times, but that can be said about a lot of the players. He can be given a shot to play with Subban or even put Sami Vatanen on the left side with him. The most imperative change that needs to happen is to break up Damon Severson and Mirco Mueller. They made a ton of mistakes together and are allowing teams to suffocate them in our own zone. The team has given up 11 goals in two games. The defense is not entirely to blame, but they have contributed to a lot of the problem.

There are bright spots to appreciate. Through these two games, Blake Coleman has played very well, all things considered. In his NHL debut, Jesper Boqvist made three to four really good plays that moved the Devils in a positive direction but negative plays proceeded that nullified them. Jack Hughes, while it’s only two games, has been quiet but when you see him with the puck and how he skates with it, it is only a matter of time before that all comes together. That is much like this whole team right now, that talent is all there and we can see how it can look, but it will take some time, perhaps a lot of time.

The most important thing for this team right now is to work at this together and pick your brothers up because there are better days coming. The players have plenty of blame on them but there is also a ton of blame to go around on John Hynes and the rest of the coaching staff. This will require a collective effort from everyone involved to get this headed in a positive direction. If it does not turn around soon it is a very slippery slope to fall behind in the Metropolitan division with how many talented teams are in it. There is time to correct the mistakes that have been made and there is time to reflect on how bad these two games turned out but this is the NHL and time is not something you want to play around with so corrections better come quickly or heads may roll. We are looking at you, Coach Hynes.