The New Jersey Devils were not good in the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule, but they need to forget about it and move forward.
The New Jersey Devils are coming out of the holiday break dead last in the Metropolitan Division. It has been another season of missed expectations. They were supposed to be a team that competes for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that’s almost certainly not happening. Now it is about seeing development from the players who are going to be there for the long haul. Forget about what this team was supposed to do this season and focus on what they can do in the future.
It all gets underway Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. After a shaky start, they fired head coach Mike Babcock and have been much better since. They are a team that will compete for the playoffs and has a shot at going on a run if they get there. The Leafs are built in a similar fashion to how the Devils want to be built. Lots of developed homegrown talent supplemented with a few good veterans and a good goaltender.
They have high draft picks that have panned out like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Morgan Rielly, and William Nylander. They also won the John Tavares sweepstakes in the summer of 2018 so there is little doubt about the firepower the Leafs have. They also have Frederik Andersen in net who has established himself as one of the best goalies in the world. This is a tough matchup for the Devils because the Leafs have great players at every position.
They also have depth at forward with players like Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson and on defense with players like Jake Muzzin and Tyson Barrie. They needed a coaching change in the worst way because they were not utilizing their talent the right way. It happened and now they only trail the Boston Bruins in the Atlantic Division. Their confidence was definitely shaken at one point but it is probably at the highest its been all season heading into this game.
The Devils can try to build off their huge win over the Chicago Blackhawks headed into the break. They had seven different goal scorers lead them to victory. Guys like Jack Hughes and P.K. Subban all ended goal droughts so maybe if they get hot this team can really start to get going. Expect them to be motivated after the holiday break and that big win to go on a run. They are not giving up on themselves which is exactly what you want to see from a young group.