3 Adjustments New Jersey Devils Need to Make to Get Back into Playoff Race
Two more brutal losses this week have knocked the Devils further out of the playoff race. What will it take to get back into the hunt?
The New Jersey Devils are slipping further and further from the race for a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They dropped a game to their biggest rivals on Thursday night. The New York Rangers are the hottest team in the Metropolitan Division, so pulling out a win was going to be tough. But the Devils didn’t just lose the game. They showed once again that they’re not a playoff-caliber team right now. Every time we think we’ve seen their worst effort of the season, the team manages to put up an even worse performance.
From top to bottom, the players just didn’t show up. Although they took a lot of shots on goal, there were a lot of low-danger chances. The power play was awful. The defense was awful. Nico Daws had a rough night in goal. There was nothing to celebrate. Most Devils fans had left Prudential Center by the time Jack Hughes finally broke up the shutout with one measly goal. Besides disappointment, the only thing the Devils provided to fans who came out to the game was free fruit snacks on the way out the door.
We all know the Devils need to play better. They’re not playing to the level of talent they have on their roster. A lot of that is on the players, but some of it is on the coaching and a lack of adjustments to the system. What can be done at this point? Here are three adjustments the Devils need to make.
1. Lineup Construction
The Devils’ lineup construction has been a problem. Jack Hughes is playing out of position on left wing. He hasn’t looked great at LW, although this can be chalked up to returning from injury. It might be time to put Hughes back at center where he shines, with Jesper Bratt on his wing. Perhaps it's also time to reunite Timo Meier and Nico Hischier. Alexander Holtz continues to get buried on the fourth line with a lack of ice time despite his 5v5 production. This is limiting his opportunities for growth and hurting the Devils’ offense. Holtz needs to see more ice time with more productive players.
With Jonas Siegenthaler back in the lineup off the Injured Reserve and John Marino returning to the lineup after missing a game due to illness, Lindy Ruff had a decision to make regarding which defenseman would sit. It’s beyond puzzling why Brendan Smith was in the lineup playing on his offhand side over Colin Miller. To be fair, Smith does have experience playing on his offhand side (and this goes over better than the Marino offhand side experiment), but there’s a better option.
Miller has the highest goal differential of any Devil this season with a +11. Smith has spent twice as much time as Miller in the penalty box in close to the same number of games played. Neither of them generates a ton of offense, but Miller provides more stability. Leaning on Miller takes some of the heat off the young defensemen like the struggling Luke Hughes. Lineup construction is crucial. Play the players who deserve to play and put them in a place where they’re likely to succeed.
2. The Power Play
There’s no arguing this fact: the Devils’ power play has been awful. Despite starting the 2023-24 season with the best power play in the NHL, it has completely flatlined. The Devils had a five-minute power play on Thursday night. Not only did they fail to score, but they failed to generate opportunities. They couldn't even keep the puck in the offensive zone. Then the Devils proceeded to allow the Rangers to score an immediate power-play goal. The rest of the night didn’t go any better on the power play.
The Devils are now 2 for their last 46 power play opportunities. Notably, they have been without Dougie Hamilton for the past three months. Hamilton is a big threat on the power play with his wicked shot. Even still, the talent on the PP units should be generating more chances and more goals. At this point, it may be too late to completely change the power play system. But something needs to change. There’s a lot of passing back and forth and not taking shots. Players need to move around more with the puck.
After Thursday night’s loss, Ruff told the media (who he felt were creating excess pressure) that he and his staff would look at the power play to see what changes needed to be made. It’s past time to mix up the units. Perhaps Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec could switch units, even if that means splitting up the Hughes brothers. Or maybe it’s time to try a different defenseman on the power play, like John Marino, who has found a little bit of offensive pop this year, or Colin Miller, especially given Hughes’ recent struggles. Erik Haula or Timo Meier could switch to the first unit, moving Tyler Toffoli to the second. At this point, just make the changes and see if there’s some new chemistry.
3. Goaltender Load Management
We've talked about goaltending and the trade market all season long, but here's a different angle to the team's goalie woes. The Devils are officially running Nico Daws into the ground. The 23-year-old rookie goaltender had hip surgery in the offseason and returned to play in December. He has started six games in a row, playing six out of eleven calendar days following Vitek Vanecek’s recent injury. Goalie load management is critical, especially for a rookie coming off a major surgery.
Daws was fantastic in four of six games in the past two weeks. He stopped 45 shots last Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers, setting a new record for saves in an outdoor game. He seemed to run out of gas in the most recent games against the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers. This isn’t on Daws. He’s being overworked. These past two games have been a brutal hit to his save percentage, knocking him back below .900%.
It’s become clear that the Devils don’t have confidence in Akira Schmid right now, and perhaps that’s warranted. But Daws can’t play every game, especially with a back-to-back this weekend. They recently called up Isaac Poulter, who is having a strong season in the AHL. It’s either time to see what Poulter can bring to the table, give Schmid another shot, or trade for a goalie. Considering playoff hopes are slipping away, it may not be worth trading anybody away for a goalie at this point. Regardless, the load management needs to change. Overworking Daws has shown disastrous results.
The Devils have themselves up against a wall, and the hill to climb to make the playoffs might be too steep at this point. If they have any hope of battling for a spot down the stretch, they need to win both games this weekend.
feed