Angry Letter To New Jersey Devils Power Play

Dear New Jersey Devils power play,

You make me sad. Like, really really sad. You make me sad like how I made my ex-girlfriend sad when I took her off my Myspace Top 8. You make me sad like when my cat knocked over my XBox while I was playing a literally just purchased NHL 09, scratching it to the high heavens. This is a sad state of affairs, this power play.

There has been no attempt at a fix here. The Devils power play is the exact same as it was on day one of the season. That is probably the most frustrating part of all of this. The Devils should have tried SOMETHING to fix their woeful power play. Nope. They tried absolutely nothing.

It’s the same personnel, except this time we’re adding Jack Hughes! And he’s going to play like a winger! Because that clearly worked in the past. And we’ll make sure to pass the puck to the end wall! And then, well I don’t know something will happen then we will profit/score goals!

The Devils had four power plays on Friday night against the Nashville Predators. Guess how many goals they scored? Zero, obviously. In the first period, the Devils had three power plays, and they had zero high-danger chances. How is that even possible? They got a dangerous chance on the stick of Yegor Sharangovich, but he was stopped point-blank by Juuse Saros.

It’s one thing to make a great play and get blanked by a good goalie, but the Devils power play is providing one good chance for every four power plays. About one in every four good chances goes in the net, so the Devils are scoring about one every 16 power plays as of late. That’s not an actual stat. The truth is they have nine goals with the man advantage this year. Somehow, the Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes have less. However, since November 1st they’ve scored six power-play goals and they’ve allowed three shorthanded goals.

Since November 1st, the Devils have had 15 high-danger chances on the power play in 81 minutes of ice time. This is going to sound weird, but it’s an easy way to see the ineptitude of the Devils power play. They get a high-danger chance once every 4.8 minutes on the power play this season. They get a high-danger chance once every 4.6 minutes at even strength. They get a high-danger chance more often when the other team has the same advantage as they do.

The Devils don’t move on the power play. At even strength, the forwards don’t stop moving to try and find space. On the power play, when they should have more room to move and more motivation to make their opponents tired on their skates, they sit there and stare at the puck carrier. Then the guy with the puck tries to find a pass. Then that guy tries to find a pass. Then another. And another. And finally, they throw the puck at the net from the blue line. Wait, you passed it six times just to take a desperation shot with a defenseman?

This power play is broken, and in turn, it’s breaking the Devils. They lost Friday night’s game by one goal. They had four power plays. Scoring on none of them lost them the game. It is a direct line from losing games to bad power plays.

I’m not going to yell at Mark Recchi. There are enough people doing that in this fanbase. But the power play must know, the crowd boo’ed you on Friday night. This fanbase is not happy, and it’s time for a change. The change must be in the philosophy of the power play. It’s not even the slingshot that is the problem before. It’s the standstill. The team is getting into the offensive zone. Once they are there, it’s brutal. Fix it.

With love,
A very angry, sad, and disappointed fanbase.