New Jersey Devils Continue To Struggle In Loss To Rangers
The New Jersey Devils came up well short after a very fast and strong start against their biggest rival the New York Rangers on Thursday night. Things are really trending down for the black and red. They have now lost four-straight games and seven of the last eight. The only win came against an awful Buffalo Sabres team in overtime.
They will need to turn it around and go on a winning streak immediately or the playoff push that looked almost possible will be long gone and eyes will be turning towards the NHL Draft.
The Good
The lineup shake-up was needed and got the jump in everyone’s step early. It looked like a good decision by head coach Lindy Ruff. There is not a lot more that could have been done from a coaching perspective for him, so it should be pointed out that he does appear to be doing all he can.
Michael McLeod is all over the ice and landed a big punch in his fight to try and change the momentum for the Devils. While not the biggest part of the game, he was taking nothing from anyone on the ice and still trying to get the team going late in the game.
Jack Hughes was incredible again even with some odd linemates (he played most of the game with Janne Kuokkanen and Yegor Sharangovich). Putting him with guys who are likely the first to be benched was an odd choice on paper, but they did show some chemistry and Hughes can definitely bring the level of people’s game up already at his young age. Even so, it would have been nice to see him have one more consistent scorer as a linemate.
The Bad
Mackenzie Blackwood has been surprisingly bad over the last few games and with a .733 save percentage Thursday night, he really let the game slip away. This is on top of the previous three games where he had a .906, .826, and .870, which is not going to help a mediocre team win a lot of games.
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Aaron Dell came in late and stopped 2 of 4 shots, so not a lot can be said about that other than 50% is bad even coming in cold. Scott Wedgewood needs to get another shot at playtime to shake things up. This might let Blackwood figure out what is missing in his play.
Sami Vatanen struggled to stay in front of the net. He has cost them plenty of goals and needs to come out of the lineup. He’s being outplayed by Will Butcher, and the Devils need to find a way to get Ryan Murray back in the lineup. On the penalty kill, he moved towards a man already covered again and expected a young winger in Nathan Bastian, who was a step behind, to cover for him and the Rangers buried it easily. At this point, the only way to send the message is to bench any defender who gives up the front of the net or the team will suffer especially on the PK.
The penalty kill was 50% again. Alain Nasreddine is in charge of it and needs to be held accountable. This is a long enough sample size that they have shown clearly that the strategy is not working. They have no ability to adapt. Another person on that bench needs to take the reigns to steer this in the right direction. The worst team since they began keeping track of this was the ’79-’80 Los Angeles Kings with a 67.7% and the Devils sit at a whopping 62% and have a good shot at it.