It’s a big New Jersey Devils gameday as Mike Doc Emrick and Eddie O will be in the booth for tonight’s game. What will be more important than ever is the breakdown of how to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers are back from Prague, Czech Republic after beating the Chicago Blackhawks.
One of the important details John Hynes must focus on is getting his team off to a big start offensively, defensively, and play with lots of discipline. Having Cory Schneider as the possible starter in net tonight will be huge. If Cory can drink a shot of Blake Coleman‘s pickle juice to prevent cramping, then Cory should be even better than on opening night.
The other aspect besides goaltending is to properly manage the defense. Philadelphia exchanged odd-man rush goals, and bad line change scoring drives every opportunity they seemed to get versus Chicago. If the Devils are going to win big they have to clog up the neutral zone, hit clean shoulder to hip. You can’t make bad passes versus any team in this league.
Last game, Hynes’ Devils got too cute with the puck. Getting too comfortable with the puck leads to bad turnovers. If players like Gusev and Hughes play smarter and shoot the puck quicker, they can pull apart the Flyers. Too many turnovers can become apples to the Flyers which would be “apple turnovers” just like in Buffalo also known as assists.
This game is a testament to coach Hynes sending a message to his team to iron out the flaws in their team strategy. When the Devils are on a penalty kill or boxed in their own zone, the defenders need to stay within the dots.
In order to prevent such a catastrophic let down, the Devils need to stay behind the dots, not having multiple defenders chasing the same puck carrier. On the other hand, when you have the opponents at low-danger areas you have to take a nice poke at the puck and create a breakaway. Taking away any passing and shooting lanes will make the Flyers miserable, and create Devils scoring drives. Also you gotta get out of the way of your goalie to make key saves.
Having a kid like Jack Hughes on a breakaway brings a lot of excitement, and having seen him come so close in the 3rd period vs. Winnipeg is where he’s adjusting his shot. After Hughes gets his first NHL goal and point, he’s gonna be a scoring machine. If tonight’s Devils lineup can come up big and smart versus Philadelphia, then this will be a big morale boost to the team and fanbase.