The New Jersey Devils still have lots of questions as the season starts.
Questions are always looming large for a team going into the regular season. Last year’s New Jersey Devils team had a lot more questions than most fans realized. What will be Taylor Hall’s compete level in a contract year? How will P.K. Subban adapt to new expectations? Will all these players work with John Hynes? Can Jack Hughes really jump from the USNDTP to the NHL? All those questions had answers we didn’t want to hear.
This season, the Devils’ questions are a little more reserved. There aren’t any playoff aspirations, at least from outside the locker room. The expectations are very low. This is a season of growth for the Devils. If wins follow, it’s only going to be a bonus.
Every team is facing major questions right now. The Tampa Bay Lightning are wondering if the Nikita Kucherov injury is actually going to hurt. The Dallas Stars are hoping the goalie tandem can carry them to similar heights. Up in Boston, the Bruins are hoping David Pastrnak’s injury isn’t something that lingers too far into the season. They also have to see how Tuukka Rask deals with the Boston media after leaving the bubble.
So, which Devils question is going to determine what this season is? Some might seem obvious, but others could fall under the radar at this point. No matter what, the Devils are going into this season hoping for positive answers to all of these questions. That would be the complete opposite of what happened last season.