The New Jersey Devils went into the season with a few questions. The biggest question surrounded the goaltending, where Nico Daws, David Rittich, and Jake Allen were supposed to be a three-headed monster in net. Now, two of those guys aren’t on the Devils (although Rittich is still in the organization), and Connor Hellebuyck and Remi Poirier join Allen as the team’s goalies.
Another question was about who would be the Devils' top defensemen, and if this unit could survive the modern NHL. They have multiple defense-only players at a position that’s being relied upon more and more for transition purposes. Well, Luke Hughes has been playing like a true 1D. Brett Pesce is a great first-line player. The rest of the defense has been just fine, as well. There were some kinks to work out, but Brad Shaw’s system has been working perfectly over the past two weeks, which included two games against the Colorado Avalanche and matchups with the Dallas Stars, Vegas Golden Knights, and Anaheim Ducks.
The Devils' coaches have been doing very well this season. The special teams still need work, but the way the Devils are playing at 5v5 makes that less of an issue.
One of the underrated aspects of this Devils team is that the coaching staff is completely different. The only returning coach is Shaw, and that brings us to the third major question surrounding the Devils coming into the season. Sheldon Keefe was considered to be on the hot seat, with some even saying he could be the first coach fired.
Now, he might be on the opposite side of the spectrum. It’s still only October, but the Devils coach has done one of the best jobs in the league in the first month.
The Devils had an issue where the team was playing well below its expectations. They were fighting just to stay .500. The finishing wasn’t there, and the goaltending was ruining games. The defense was leaky, and the offense couldn’t fix the issues. Then, one practice seemed to fix it all. About two weeks ago, Keefe talked about how they focused on closing gaps in the defensive end, especially near the net, and we haven’t seen near the issues we saw in the first two weeks of the season.
Sheldon Keefe has competely reversed his fortunes with the Devils
Now, with the Devils looking at least like fringe contenders, Keefe is leading them to a nightly pursuit of success. Even how he’s reacting to losses seems to have changed, as evidenced by how he spoke after the Devils were thoroughly dominated by the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday. Some coaches would demand perfection no matter the circumstances, but Keefe being able to shake that loss off because of the circumstances (it was a schedule loss) shows he knows when to put his foot on they as and when to lay off.
We don’t want to lose sight of the context here. Keefe did not do a good job last season, but at this point in the season, the Devils were riding high. Nobody is giving him the Jack Adams Award after one month, but last year’s team always felt like they were doing it with smoke and mirrors.
This year’s team is one of the most dominant in all aspects of the game now that they have the goaltender in place. And Keefe just has to let the players play in a system that has proven to work.
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