The New Jersey Devils lost again. It doesn’t matter that Jack Hughes returned to the lineup. It doesn’t matter that Jack Hughes scored the first goal in his return. The fact that Timo Meier and Arseny Gritsyuk also returned, and looked great offensively, didn’t help the Devils score more than one goal.
The entire offense looked terrible. Well, outside of Jack Hughes, who was a one-man wrecking crew. His goal was the only goal scored by the Devils.
Meanwhile, the Buffalo Sabres, who are on the second half of a back-to-back, were faster on pucks and harder to play against. After a disastrous second period where the Sabres scored the two goals they needed to win, the Devils didn’t push hard enough in the third period.
After taking 12 shots in the first period, with many of them really looking impactful, they only had six shots in the second and nine shots in the third. For the first 15 minutes of the third period, there seemed to be a lack of urgency.
There is a lot of blame to go around for the offense. If you don’t include the extra goal given from winning a shootout, the Devils have scored one or zero goals in six of their previous 10 games. That’s unacceptable from a team with this much talent. Even with the injuries, the Devils need to score way more than this.
There are a few culprits to the Devils’ lack of scoring, but at the top of the list might be Jesper Bratt. The Devils’ star winger hasn’t scored a goal since December 11th, which was his first goal in more than a month. He has one goal in his past 22 games. That seems almost impossible.
In the past 22 games, Bratt has as many goals as Brenden Dillon, Angus Crookshank, and Ondrej Palat.
Bratt is hardly the only problem. The power play has been atrocious as of late. Dawson Mercer’s goal scoring dried up. Nico Hischier hasn’t scored since December 1st. Dougie Hamilton has one point in his last 17 games. It’s a serious problem that the Devils can’t score right now.
However, Bratt is the biggest problem of them all. If he doesn’t get his scoring going, the Devils aren’t going to go far. They have too many issues at forward and not enough cap space to address the scoring wingers. They already have players who will be passengers a few games a year. Bratt can’t be one of them.
What’s the answer? Should he go back on Jack Hughes’s line, pushing Dawson Mercer or Arseny Gritsyuk back with Nico Hischier? Bratt-Hischier-Meier should be working, and they had their chances on Sunday night, but they didn’t score.
The answer might also be to just let it ride. With Meier back in the fold, the Devils might get that chemistry back. With Hughes back, as well, the Devils now have two top lines, and teams will have more problems playing matchups against them. Either way, Bratt needs to score. The excuses are over, and a playoff spot is there for the taking. If the Devils can win five of their next seven, it could put them firmly into a playoff spot. Heck, if they won on Sunday night, they would have been tied for second place. They cannot let these situations pass them by anymore.