The New Jersey Devils are in the midst of their worst start of the decade and it is largely a much better roster than they are showing.
The New Jersey Devils are a frustrating group right now. They can’t seem to gain any bit of traction as the season moves along. They are seeing a roster loaded with talent and upgrades at basically every position struggle in ways that nobody can explain. They are lethargic in the way they play and are just simply boring to watch. There are some extremely skilled players on this team that are just not able to maximize their talent because of the team’s style of play.
They were defeated by the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-1 and gave up 41 shots. The Penguins were without Sidney Crosby, and the Devils were still destroyed by them. The Devils defeated the Penguins one week earlier despite being outplayed in that game as well. The Penguins are one of the elite teams in the NHL and their recent history shows a pedigree of winning. With that said, it is annoying to see them just make easy work of the Devils.
New Jersey is now 7-10-4, which is good for 30th out of 31 teams in the National Hockey League. They are playing like a team that is going to be in the conversation for the NHL Draft Lottery for the third time in four seasons. That is not a good look for the organization. They need to pull out of this or they are in big trouble. It is time to make a change of some sort.
This game against the Detroit Red Wings should be it for John Hynes as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils. The Red Wings are that one team worse than them in the standings right now. A loss to them would be a horrible look, but it should honestly be Hynes’ last game no matter what the result is. The Devils have more talent on their roster as of right now, but there is no guarantee that they beat Detroit which is concerning.
Taylor Hall finally scored a goal against Pittsburgh and Nico Hischier made an impact by being upgraded to the top power-play unit. Outside of the way they played, along with Nikita Gusev and Jack Hughes, they are getting nothing from the team as a whole. They need a change in the worst way. A new coach might be able to come in and get the most out of these guys’ skills if they were to hire the right guy.
Detroit may be a bad team all around but they have some players there that can burn you. Dylan Larkin, Anthony Mantha, and Andreas Athanasiou are all strong players that can score goals. The Devils should be able to get their touches and control the pace but they need to play well in order to do so. There should probably be a change anyway, but if they lost this game they need to let John Hynes go and bring in someone who suits this roster better.