The New Jersey Devils season has not really gotten off to a great start based on the expectations put on them over the offseason, but they are nowhere near done.
The New Jersey Devils made a lot of sweet additions over the summer to bolster up their roster. They added an elite puck-moving defenseman in P.K. Subban, the best player that was not in the NHL in Nikita Gusev, the number one overall pick in Jack Hughes, and a solid veteran free agent in Wayne Simmonds. With all of that added, they have not gotten off to the start that they wanted.
At 2-5-2 and six standings points, they sit-in dead last in the Eastern Conference and the entire league. That is not exactly where they wanted to be after nine games but here we are. The thing is, they are not out of it yet. They are currently tied with the Rangers in games played with nine as those two are the only two who haven’t played double-digit games yet. When the Devils take the ice on Wednesday night they will be in sole-possession of the least amount of games played.
They also have clearly been still getting used to all of the new players on the team and they have not all gelled as quickly as you would have hoped. They also appear to be making things harder on themselves by the way they have been creating their lines and style of play. Maybe you think the coaching staff needs to go or not but there is definitely the need to change things up in some way, shape, or form.
October is coming to a close and the Devils need to go on a run here soon otherwise they might bury themselves too far for them to come out of. There are still so many games left and there is plenty of time. Nobody in the league is literally out of it but you usually know what a team is more or less by the time November is over. If players like Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, P.K. Subban, and Kyle Palmieri can really get going like we know they can and Jack Hughes continues to be awesome, they can absolutely pull off being a playoff team.
The last main key is holding leads, which they have not been able to do so far this season. It has become a serious problem as multiple games have ended on the wrong side of blowing a 2 or more goal lead. That needs to change and fast. There is time to do things right and hopefully, it gets much better and fast.