The New Jersey Devils decided to go on Christmas break early when they decided to postpone their game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. The NHL already postponed their game against the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, so this gave them a true break from what has been a tumultuous season. After losing Jack Hughes in the second game of the season, the Devils went on quite the run to look like one of the surprise teams in the league. Then, it all fell apart.
The Devils are now near the bottom of the standings again, and they are currently entrenched in a six-game losing streak. The Devils can’t buy a win. That’s clear because they spent a boatload of money this offseason, and it hasn’t helped.
This is the team at the 30 game mark. They are 10-15-5 despite all the additions this team made. Dougie Hamilton has struggled with Ryan Graves out of the lineup. He was placed on the COVID-19 protocol list with Nico Hischier. The team’s defense has taken a few steps back since Graves left the lineup. They had trouble finding the right pairings. Ty Smith is all over the place. Kevin Bahl has been trying to fill holes. P.K. Subban has also been out of the lineup. It’s been a rough go of it.
The forward group has had trouble getting consistent offense from anywhere. Andreas Johnsson was a scoring fiend early in the season. Now, he has one point in December. Dawson Mercer has two points this month, albeit two goals. He went from a Calder Trophy nominee to fighting to prove he still deserves an NHL spot. Okay, that might be pushing it, but he hasn’t had the impact he had in November.
There is so much this team needs to fix. First of which is the power play. That’s why the pause is so important for the Devils. The coaching staff can sit back and re-evaluate what is going wrong. Tom Fitzgerald made it clear he thinks the answer to the Devils’ problems is in the locker room, so they need to find those answers over the next few days. While other people might be spending time with family and opening presents under the tree. The Devils need to spend this time fixing the issues of this team.
The team also needs to re-evaluate the coaching staff. This is a gift to a staff that really has to prove itself. Lindy Ruff is coaching for his job right now. Mark Recchi is coaching for his job right now. Heck, even Alain Nasreddine needs to prove himself right now. Those three know if a new coaching staff comes in, they aren’t surviving the change. So, they now have extra time to fix what this season has become. Tom Fitzgerald sent them a vote of confidence earlier this week. So, they have a little bit of time to turn this around, but they don’t exactly have forever.
This is perfect. The Devils can see if all they really needed was time to reflect. If they come back healthy, with Hischier, Subban, and Graves coming back, it could be time for a run. Will they get back into the playoff race? Probably not. They are eight points out of a playoff spot. They are 13 points out of the first Wild Card spot. Most believe that the Boston Bruins are going to take the second spot. So, the Devils would need to win seven games in a row and everyone else would have to lose a bunch for the Devils to get back into the race. It’s a huge ask, but at least the Devils could make a move towards consideration. They need to show progress this season. That is as important as ever.