The New Jersey Devils need to win a hockey game. They haven’t done it yet and they need to get their first in the worst way possible.
The New Jersey Devils are 0-3-2 right now heading into their game against the Florida Panthers this afternoon. It is a tough situation with a bunch of new faces are trying to gel and so far they haven’t been able to put it together for an entire game yet. It is coming and they need to get their first win of the season in the worst way possible.
The Panthers present an interesting opportunity for the Devils. The Panthers, like the Devils, have some big changes to their team from the offseason. They added legendary head coach Joel Quenneville and a Vezina Trophy-winning goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky to help them look like a true threat in the Eastern Conference. They also have some really good players in Aleksander Barkov, Mike Hoffman, Aaron Ekblad, and Jonathan Huberdeau amongst others and the Devils are going to need to be ready for them.
They also have a pretty good group on defense with players like Ekblad, Keith Yandle, and Anton Stralman that the Devils are going to need to contain. Not only are they going to need to keep them from making plays from the back end, but they also need to attack them with their speed and skill. Guys like Taylor Hall, Jack Hughes, and Nico Hischier need to pounce on them early and often otherwise they are not going to win.
Another thing the Devils need to do is score a power-play goal. They are one of four other teams in the NHL that don’t have a single power-play goal. That is not a good company to be in and they need to score one soon if they have any hope of getting out of their slump. They have started to show some good signs on the man advantage but they need to bury one bad. They also need to be better on the penalty kill as they are dead last in the NHL in PK percentage with 50%. If this doesn’t get resolved, they are going to have a bad time all year long.
The Florida Panthers are a good team but they are beatable and the Devils need to beat them. It is going to be a bad look if they lose and don’t get a single win within their first six games of the season. This is an afternoon matinée for the Devils so hopefully, they wake up and get the job done. This is the most important game of the season so far and they need to take care of business. No matter what it takes to win is what they need to do.