5 Things That Must Happen For New Jersey Devils To Make Playoffs
The New Jersey Devils are looking to finally make the postseason after five years away. What must go their way for that to happen?
‘Why can’t that time be now?’
That was the quote New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald gave to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun when they sat down for a one-on-one interview earlier this month. They were talking about making the playoffs. The Devils have been knocked out of the playoffs before the midway point of the season for the past four years. Every year, the Devils are major sellers at the trade deadline. A big reason for that is their putrid record.
Last season, the Devils thought they might have the right formula to make a run. So, we did this same article back then. Here is what they needed to make the playoffs:
- Mackenzie Blackwood bounces back
- Dougie Hamilton leads the defense
- Major jumps from Hischier and Hughes
- Massive improvements on special teams
- Young players stepping up
The Devils got some of that, but they definitely didn’t get all of it. This year, they need more to go right. It all starts with health if the team wants to make the playoffs.
1. Devils must stay healthy
Last season, seemingly every important player got hurt at one point or another. Even with Jesper Bratt’s miraculous season, he even missed a few games. Nico Hischier got hurt. Jack Hughes got hurt. Dougie Hamilton spent time on the IR. All the important goalies spent time on the shelf. Health was not anything the Devils could expect at any point last season.
This season, the Devils need to get much luckier in the health department. The announcement that Hischier is starting the season on injured reserve (along with Tyce Thompson) is not a good start. However, that could just be a paper move. Hopefully, the Devils can stay healthy this season. If they don’t, hope could be gone pretty quickly.
2. Some goalie has to step up
The Devils have Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek on the opening night roster. Both goalies looked quite good in the preseason. In fact, all four Devils goalies looked pretty good. Blackwood technically had a negative goals saved above average, but it’s just slightly too low. Vanecek was the 25th-best goalie in that stat according to Natural Stat Trick. Nico Daws and Akira Schmid had positive GSAA numbers, too.
Great, we saw some decent goaltending play in the preseason. We’ve been there before. How can this translate to the regular season? For one, the Devils hope Blackwood realizes he’s on his last chance. The Devils signed Vanecek to a three-year deal this offseason for a surprising raise. Meanwhile, Blackwood is in the last year of his own three-year deal. He’s making $2.8 million trying to earn the big payday this offseason. While he might be a restricted free agent at the end of the deal, the Devils could still decide to move on if it doesn’t work out.
Then, there’s Jonathan Bernier. He will be there to clean up the mess if it goes terribly like it did last year. We expect him to return around Thanksgiving from major hip surgery. If Blackwood and Vanecek falter, then hopefully Bernier can do something.
Either way, the Devils need one of these three goalies to work out. They cannot make the playoffs without a goalie. Even if the defense is dominant, they need someone to stop the puck.
3. Power Play can’t be this bad
The New Jersey Devils’ power play was so bad last season, it couldn’t get any worse. The Devils let Mark Recchi go, and they replaced him with Jack Adams Award candidate and former Florida Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette. Brunette might be the Devils’ best signing of this offseason. That’s because the Devils desperately need the power play to do better, and the Panthers’ PP was one of the best.
However, this preseason brought on some issues. Five teams allowed at least two shorthanded goals this preseason. Of course, the Devils were one of them. They were one of three teams to allow as many goals on the power play as they scored. In about 38 minutes of power play time, the Devils scored two goals. They allowed two goals.
That can’t be the norm. Not this season. They have too many great offensive players to be in the same conversation as the Philadelphia Flyers in any offensive category. The Devils need to start scoring on the power play, and they need to stop doing the slingshot. It hasn’t worked. Ever. They don’t have the right personnel to make it work. The Devils need to find a power play system that works, or it could end Lindy Ruff’s Devils tenure.
4. Hughes Keeps Chemistry With Linemates
The Devils believe they found something great for their first line. It’s not the line fans thought would be the top line to start the season, but we’re all pretty excited to see what happens when Jack Hughes, Alex Holtz, and Ondrej Palat take the ice on Thursday against the Flyers.
Most fans thought Yegor Sharangovich would be the winger with Hughes like he’s been the last two seasons. If not him, then it had to be Jesper Bratt, right? Neither is going to be his linemate, but it’s still working out swimmingly. Hughes is playing with a rookie Holtz and a veteran Palat.
Hughes is entering his fourth year in the NHL. He hasn’t exactly had much consistency in terms of linemates. This year is set up to be different. Hughes could easily spend all season with Holtz and Palat. They had amazing chemistry in the preseason, and Hughes’ strengths are really accentuated with his linemates.
Hopefully, Hughes’ chemistry with Holtz and Palat carries on into the regular season. If they can keep this up, it would be huge for the Devils. They played about 40 minutes together in the preseason and scored four goals. One goal for every 10 minutes of 5v5 play would be incredible in the regular season.
5. Keep opponents to fewer than eight high-danger chances per game
The Devils’ defense looks like the best it’s been in a decade. Dougie Hamilton, Damon Severson, and John Marino make one of the best right sides in the league. On the left side, they have one of the better defensive defensemen in Jonas Siegenthaler, and a really good contributing player in Ryan Graves, and when he gets called back up, Kevin Bahl looked really good in this lineup. The Devils also have Simon Nemec and Brendan Smith as extras to trade spots in the lineup.
There is no arbitrary number to show the strength of a defense, but with a question still in net, the Devils need to keep shots away from the net.
The number eight isn’t the make-or-break number. It’s more of a metaphor. The Devils need to keep pucks away from their goalies. They especially need to keep high-danger chances away from the net. The Devils we’re really good at that last season, and they were still bad at allowing goals. Only four teams allowed fewer high-danger chances than the Devils (who ironically allowed 666 such chances at 5v5 last season). They allowed the seventh-most high-danger goals. They unsurprisingly had the worst high-danger save percentage in the league.
With this even better defense, things will only get better. The Devils should try to keep the high-danger chances to around that 650 number they had last season. With better goaltending, even slightly, it should lead to more wins.