5 Moments That Ruined New Jersey Devils Season

The New Jersey Devils have just been a constant disappointment this year. There has been quite a bit of bad luck, but the Devils have every chance to stay in the playoff race, and they've failed again and again. Just take this past weekend, where the Devils had a back-to-back against two Western Conference teams. The Arizona Coyotes are playing for nothing, but yet, the Devils got swept by both teams. Meanwhile, two wins would have had them two points out of a playoff spot with 14 games to play.

It's just how this season has gone, but truthfully, this entire year has been awful. The Devils have now lost four more games than they won after winning every one of their preseason games. It's just a disaster for a team that was supposed to be a legitimate Stanley Cup contender.

So when looking at dozens of low moments this season had to offer, which moments really put the season in the tubes?

One thing that's not technically on the list but we still wanted to mention was the arrest of Michael McLeod and Cal Foote. Being a teammate with these guys has to have impacted the rest of the team. The allegations are heinous, and now one player who's been here for years and another who joined them this year were there one day and gone the next without basically no notice.

The Devils are 8-14-1 since the McLeod and Foote arrests. Even beyond their on-ice impacts, this had to be a burden for the rest of this team to bear. The crime is just awful, and being tied to it at all is an embarrassment for the organization.

4. October 13th
Overtime Loss to Arizona

There are certain moments in sports that can only be described as "humbling." That was exactly what happened when the Devils fell to the Arizona Coyotes in overtime. After surviving the first game of the season against the Detroit Red Wings, they failed to show up against the Coyotes. If it wasn't humbling for the team, it sure was humbling for the fans.

This moment told all of us that this season was different. It was a good effort in the second period to come back from going down 2-0. They scored three goals in a row, and they went into intermission up 3-2. Most thought the Devils would continue the pressure through the third, finishing an easy win to go 2-0. That wasn't the way.

The Devils allowed four high-danger chances in the third period while only getting three themselves. They were missing that killer instinct.

In overtime, the Devils dominated play, but they still lost. The Coyotes survived the onslaught by the Devils, and they won in a shootout. There was a very insidious reaction by the fanbase. It turns out, it wasn't unwarranted.

3. January 5th
Jack Hughes falls down

This is the turn that was really hard to come back from, and it was really hard for Jack Hughes to come back from. The Devils were playing the Chicago Blackhawks, a game the team had to win. They were actually losing most of the game, putting the team in a desperate spot. Right after Simon Nemec scored the game-tying goal, Hughes went down after losing his footing, and he came up favoring one side.

Devils fans were hopeful it was just a precaution. The team took the lead for good a few minutes later, so it wasn't necessary to keep him out there. He even tried to take another shift before he was shut down. It can't be that bad if he was able to take another shift, right?

It sounded like it wasn't going to be that bad an injury, but then Lindy Ruff came out and said it would be "weeks not months." That showed that the injury could indeed be more serious than we hoped.

Hughes ended up missing more than a month. That would have been fine if he looked even close to what he was when he got hurt. Hughes had five goals and seven assists in the 10 games before he was hurt. Let's just take Hughes' last 10 games for an example of what he's become. He has three goals and eight assists. That's good, right? More than a point per game? If anyone has seen the Devils, Hughes is not impacting the game the same at all. The assists are not as important, and he has missed more than he's hit on passes.

2. March 1st
Jack Hughes misses a penalty shot

This one still hurts. The Devils needed the game against the Anaheim Ducks. It would have brought them back within striking distance of a playoff spot. They needed to win as the Red Wings were surging and the Flyers were floundering. The Devils were looking at an uphill climb, but it was a climb that was possible.

However, the Devils needed this win. A Frank Vatrano goal late in the second period put the Ducks up two. That left the Devils in desperation mode for the entire third period. The Devils ended up getting 10 high-danger chances that period, but they only ended up with one goal. Tyler Toffoli scored a goal with just over two minutes left in the game.

Lukas Dostal stopped 52 shots that game. The Devils did everything they could. Well, except for their very last chance. That was when Vatrano pushed the net off its moorings clearly on purpose, and by NHL rule, that's a penalty shot.

Dostal didn't get credit for a save on Jack Hughes on the penalty shot. That's because there was no shot. With just two seconds left in the game, Hughes tried to dangle to the high heavens, and he lost control of the puck before getting a shot off.

The Devils ended up losing, and the next day they got the doors blown off by the Kings. That led to the Devils selling at the deadline, taking assets for Toffoli and Colin Miller. This was likely the moment Tom Fitzgerald decided this team wasn't going to fix itself without major changes, and Lindy Ruff was fired that Monday.

1. November 28th
Dougie Hamilton's season ends

The New Jersey Devils lost their number one defenseman on November 28th against the New York Islanders. The Devils won that game, going 10-9-1 and bringing their record above hockey .500. The Devils were already devastated by injuries. Now, they were without their top guy, especially offensively.

Hamilton is still the Devils best player at even strength, something the Devils struggle mightily with. According to Natural Stat Trick, he leads the team in CorsiFor Percentage (basically changes for vs. chances against), high-danger chance percentage, and fourth in xGF percentage (behind Jesper Bratt and Ondrej Palat).

Obviously, the Devils power play is terrible right now. Hamilton would have taken Luke Hughes' spot on PP1 by now. His rocket of a shot would be exactly what the Devils need to get pucks through and get rebound chances.

Looking back at everything in a vacuum, the Devils were never able to replace Dougie Hamilton while also employing Simon Nemec. If the Devils just went with Nemec and Hamilton along with John Marino on the right side, who knows where they'd be now. Instead, the Devils are looking at a lost season.