The New Jersey Devils are in trouble after their first six games of the season and there are some guys who a better performance out of would go a long way.
The New Jersey Devils are back in action tonight when they welcome their biggest NHL rival in the New York Rangers. The Rangers are that team that the Devils always feel they must beat no matter what the circumstances are, and this year the circumstances are less than ideal. The Devils are winless in their first six games, but it would be no better time to end their slump than against the Rangers.
This is also the first time that the top two overall picks in the 2019 NHL draft will face off as Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko will meet for the first time ever in NHL sweaters. This is a game that the Devils need to have for a multitude of reasons. They want to make sure that Hughes isn’t shown up by Kakko in their first meeting, and they are going to need to take the proper precautions to make that happen.
It isn’t going to be easy, but every player in the lineup needs to be better. They are going to once again be without their captain Andy Greene who has an injury and now they will be without Nico Hischier for at minimum one game as he has an upper-body injury as well. They need everyone to step up in their place, and with certain expectations set on certain guys, there are five players in particular who need to be better. If some of these guys don’t start contributing some more the Devils are going to continue to lose more than they win: