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[New Jersey Devils]

Fifty Games Into the Season, What Are the New Jersey Devils?

After last night’s victory in Edmonton and the Devils pulling a rare feat in itself where they swept a back-t0-back, they currently sit in 6th place in the Metropolitan Division with a 26-22-2 record and 54 points. Technically, one could argue they are tied with Philadelphia and Washington, but the Flyers have two games in hand and the Capitals hold the regulation wins tiebreaker, so I consider that 6th place placement to be accurate.

Much has been written on this website about what this team isn’t. They’re not a true contender because they don’t do X, Y, and Z well. They’re not a true contender because they can’t beat Carolina. They’re not big enough, strong enough, fast enough, talented enough, or mentally tough enough. A lot of those critiques are valid complaints when it comes to this group.

But what is this team? What are they trying to be when they’re at their best?

The Devils Are a Team That Can’t Score​

You can use whatever metric you so choose but the bottom line is this….the Devils simply aren’t good enough when it comes to putting the puck in the back of the net.

They’re 28th in goals scored, 29th in goals per game, 15th in power play percentage, and 32nd in shooting percentage. They’re 22nd in 5v5 expected goals for per 60 and 32nd in goals scored above expected. According to Moneypuck, they’re still 32nd in rebound goals despite being middle of the pack in rebound shots for.

I always like to say that your best players need to be your best players to ultimately raise the floor of the entire group. Unfortunately, the Devils best players haven’t been quite up to the task this season.

Jesper Bratt has 7 goals in his last 43 games. After scoring in his return from a hand injury, Jack Hughes has 0 goals in his last 14 games. Timo Meier has 5 goals in 22 games since Thanksgiving. Dougie Hamilton might have picked things up in terms of racking up assists, but he has 1 goal in his last 35 games. Even Nico Hischier, who leads the team in scoring, had a stretch where he basically went 0-for-most of the month of December.

Those are five of the highest paid players on the team. Those are the guys who are supposed to be driving the bus for the rest of the group. The fact that they’re not giving the Devils quite enough offensively is a big part of the reason why the Devils are where they are.

There has been a lot of piling on for guys like Ondrej Palat, Luke Glendening, and Juho Lammikko for not being very good. That’s fine, but they’re not the Devils best players (even though Palat is being paid like one). The Devils simply need more from their best players. All of them.

The Devils Do Defend. Sometimes.​

Sheldon Keefe mentioned after the win last night that from a defensive checking standpoint, the first two periods against Edmonton was about as well as the Devils had played in a long time, and maybe all season.

I don’t necessarily disagree with that. The fact the Devils held the Oilers to ten measly shots through two periods is a testament to how they are capable of defending well.

That said, there’s that, and then there’s whatever the third period was last night when they were more or less holding on for dear life and asking their goaltender, in this case Jake Allen, to win the game for them.

The Devils are 9th in shots blocked at 5v5, which is all well and good in the sense that you want players who are willing to get into lanes and do what needs to be done to keep the other team off of the scoreboard. But it’s also bad in the sense that you do not want to be a team that is getting bombarded. You don’t want to turtle. You don’t want to get caved in. Especially when you’re 3rd in the league in high danger shots at 5v5 against like the Devils also are.

For as much criticism that Jacob Markstrom has taken this season, and rightfully so, the Devils could stand to make things easier for both him and Jake Allen. A good start would be more periods like the first two in Edmonton last night where they’re not allowing the opposition to do much of anything with the puck. That does start with a good forecheck.

Some might say that’s boring hockey, but the Devils could use a little more boring given their offensive struggles.

The Devils Do Have a Grittiness Aspect That I Appreciate​

One of my guilty pleasures this season has been whenever the Devils post Sheldon Keefe giving the boys credit after a win on social media. It might be mostly cliche stuff and its not like the team is going to put stuff out there that they aren’t comfortable with the general public seeing, but when you get a chance to get a glimpse inside the room, it’s appreciated.

If there’s a common theme to those speeches, its usually how the team grinded, or battled through it, or whatever buzzword Keefe uses on any particular night.

I do appreciate that the Devils seem to have this quality. For all the talk about being able to play “playoff style” hockey, its something that you do need once you get there.

I simply wish the Devils didn’t need to grind as much as they apparently need to in the regular season.

Case in point, in the Devils last 13 wins, only three of those have been by multiple goals. The 5-0 win in Buffalo on the day after Thanksgiving, the 4-1 win vs. Anaheim, and the 5-2 win in Minnesota last week.

To borrow a gambling term, almost every Devils win is a “sweat” where its never easy. This goes back to what I said about their inability to score. Is it asking too much for this team to have a stretch where they win a bunch of games 4-1 and we’re not on the edge of our seats the entire time?

The Devils Have a Deceptively Good Penalty Kill With Brett Pesce Back​

If one were to take a quick glance at the stats, they would just assume the Devils with their 20th ranked penalty kill at 78% is mediocre at best and teetering towards not being very good.

I dove into the numbers a bit a few weeks ago when I said I was cautiously optimistic about the Devils, but to briefly recap, the Devils were killing penalties at a 90% rate pre-Pesce injury and a 66.6% rate while he was out. Since Pesce returned on December 17th, the Devils have killed 30 of 36 penalties (83.3%).

It’s not outlandish to suggest the Devils might’ve had a top 5 penalty killing unit had Pesce never gotten hurt. But when the team goes 10-13-1 without him in the lineup, those goals they’re allowing on the penalty kill add up. Conversely, the Devils are 16-9-1 with Brett Pesce in the lineup.

I don’t want to overrate Pesce’s contributions but he’s clearly an important piece to what the Devils are trying to do, and they’re better with him than without him.

Final Thoughts​

Fifty games in, I think what the Devils are trying to be is a team that wins because of their defense and goaltending. And they could actually potentially be dangerous if the guys who are being paid to puck in the net did their part and put the puck in the net.

I think you’re walking a tightrope trying to win in that manner.

For starters, it leaves little margin for error that you would have if the team was able to score goals more consistently. Yes, there will be playoff games where you need to win 2-1 but there’s plenty of playoff games where you need to be able to score four, five, even six goals consistently. It’s something all of the recent Cup champions from Florida to Vegas to Colorado to Tampa Bay have been able to do. They bludgeon teams in playoff games, and they do it consistently.

The Devils have scored five goals twice in a game since Thanksgiving….the aforementioned games in Buffalo and Minnesota.

Now, can the Devils get back to being that type of team? Perhaps. They showed an ability to score lots of goals during the 8 game win streak, and also defend. I don’t think that you necessarily just lose that ability overnight, although one might argue that they took advantage of some early season sleepwalking.

Maybe that’s the case, but now that we’re in the dog days of summer (or winter, whatever, you know what I’m trying to say), why can’t they get back to that?

Obviously, the Devils need more high end talent. Hopefully, Tom Fitzgerald finds a way to add some. But they also need the high end talent they have at home to start pulling their weight. Until they do, this feels like a fringe playoff team at best.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...nto-the-season-what-are-the-new-jersey-devils

 

[New Jersey Devils]

New Jersey Devils Grind Out 2-1 Win Over Edmonton Oilers

On the second half of a back-to-back, the New Jersey Devils went into Edmonton and came away with a 2-1 victory. Arseny Gritsyuk and Cody Glass were the goal-scorers, while Jake Allen was terrific in net with 22 saves on 23 shots. It was a pretty low-event game overall, which is impressive considering the best player on the planet, Connor McDavid, was on the other side. The Edmonton Oilers did not have Leon Draisaitl available to them, as he is currently back home in Germany attending to a personal family matter. Still, shutting Edmonton down sans-Draisaitl isn’t easy, and credit must be given to New Jersey for finding a way.

Let’s go through it.

First Period​

Because tonight’s game was part of a TNT national doubleheader, and the first game (Boston vs. Dallas) ran long, the puck didn’t drop in Edmonton until 10:22pm ET. Kill me now.

Once the game finally began, the Devils were on the front foot through the first few minutes of the game, but didn’t have any shots to show for it. As a matter of fact, at the first media timeout, shots were 2-1 in favor of Edmonton. It was a sleepy start to this very, very late game.

Around the 10-minute mark, the Jack Hughes line put together a terrific shift where they put the Oilers in a blender for about a full minute. But despite all the zone time and crisp passes and battles won, they couldn’t actually put any shots on net. That was New Jersey’s problem through the first half of the opening frame: They were outskating and outplaying the Oilers, but Edmonton was blocking every shot the Devils mustered, rendering all that territorial domination moot.

That changed with about 8:30 left when Cody Glass gained the zone and drew Oilers defenders to him on the near wall. He found Brett Pesce darting toward the net on the weak side and fed a terrific pass his way for the first premium scoring chance of the night for New Jersey. Alas, Pesce couldn’t beat Tristan Jarry and we remained scoreless. Hey, at least it was a shot that actually made it to the net. Progress!

A minute and a half later, the Oilers had their first good shift of the evening when they pinned the Nico Hischier line in and registered a couple shots on net. They were reasonably dangerous, but Jake Allen answered the call on each of them to bail his team out.

With 2:49 left, the one and only Connor McDavid cut into the zone on a rush up ice, and Johnny Kovacevic laid a moderately big hit on him in the slot. Vasily Podkolzin IMMEDIATELY charged toward Kovacevic and dropped the gloves, which I thought was totally unnecessary. The officials apparently agreed with me, as they tagged Podkolzin with the two-minute instigator, as well as a 10-minute misconduct, in addition to the five for fighting he and Kovacevic got.

On the ensuing power play, the Devils continued their months-long embarrassment with the mad advantage, as they registered only one shot on goal, and it wasn’t all that dangerous either. Edmonton held almost as much zone time as New Jersey during the power play, and the Devils were held without a goal.

The period ended shortly after. It was a frame that started quite well for New Jersey, even if tons of zone time didn’t result in shots. The Oilers started getting their chances around midway through the period, and it was pretty even until the power play late in the first. Shots were even at 4-4 after a low-event 20 minutes.

Second Period​

The second period began with the Glass line putting together a good shift with a couple shots on net, but still no breakthrough. Lenni Hameenaho, playing on Glass’ wing, had not been as noticeable as he was against Calgary thus far, but he certainly was not looking out of place through a period-plus.

Then with 14:37 left, the Devils finally broke through. It was once again the Glass line, with Glass himself corralling a Dougie Hamilton pass in the corner to Jarry’s right. Glass found a streaking Arseny Gritsyuk in the slot, and Gritsyuk absolutely blasted a one-timer through Jarry for his ninth goal of the season. The secondary assist gave Hamilton points in his last six games.

The lead was short-lived though. With 12:58 left, Jake Walman ripped a slap shot from the point off a faceoff win. Matt Savoie redirected the shot down and past Allen to knot the game at one. It was very close to being a high stick, but Sheldon Keefe chose not to challenge.

But then exactly 90 seconds later, the Devils retook the lead! Connor Brown, back in Edmonton, collected a pass in the neutral zone and found a wide open Gritsyuk at the blue line on the right wing side. Gritsyuk gained the zone and feathered a wonderful pass to a cutting Glass on the far side. Glass ripped a one-timer past Jarry to restore New Jersey’s lead.

At 10:08, Brenden Dillon took a puck over glass delay of game penalty to send the league’s top-ranked power play to their first man advantage. Granted, this was a unit without the services of Leon Draisaitl, but it is still a lethal grouping without him. New Jersey actually did a great job killing the first minute and a half of the power play when Brown led a 2-on-1 with Glass. Brown found Glass to Jarry’s left, and Jarry made a really nice glove save to rob Glass from his second consecutive goal and third point on the night. After the glove-save, the Devils successfully killed off the rest of the penalty.

With 5:50 left, the Hischier line was in the midst of putting together a nice shift with plenty of pressure and shot attempts. That all changed when Jonas Siegenthaler couldn’t handle a pass, and in the process of trying to recover the puck, he tripped Savoie to send the Oilers to their second consecutive power play. It was a really frustrating turn of events to INSTANTLY end the Devils’ attack.

About 30 seconds into the kill, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins slipped a great pass from the corner to an activating Jake Walman, but Walman was robbed by Allen sliding to his right. It looked like Allen got it with either his pad or the paddle of his stick. Either way, it was a big save.

Then, around 20 seconds after that, McDavid and Brown were called for coincidental minors after they got tangled up in the Oilers’ end. It remained a 5-on-4 PP for Edmonton, but without McDavid which is massive.

In the final moments of the power play, Hischier and Dawson Mercer were spring on a 2-on-1. Mercer took the shot, and because this is the 2025-26 New Jersey Devils, Mercer’s shot caught the shaft of Jarry’s stick and did not go in. This team is full of bad shooters, but their finishing woes are also the product of insanely bad luck. That Mercer chance was the perfect embodiment of that.

The period ended a few minutes later. The Hughes line put together another good shift that featured Timo Meier making a terrific play to steal a puck and set up Hughes in front, but Hughes couldn’t get a shot off. That was it until the horn sounded though. Aside from the penalties, it was another pretty good period for the Devils. The two goals were nice of course, and beyond that, New Jersey was starting to get some actual chances at the net. Shots 10-6 in favor of the Devils in the period.

Third Period​

The Oilers had the better of the play through the first few minutes of the third. Edmonton caught a massive break when Savoie blatantly clipped Meier up high with his stick, but the officials threw the dart at the dartboard and it landed on “keep the whistle in your pocket for no reason at all”, so we played on.

Then with about 14 minutes left in the period, Podkolzin (who had spent a large chunk of this game in the penalty box to this point) was sprung on a mini-breakaway. He tried to deke to his forehand, but Allen sprawled out and made a strong pad save. The Oilers buzzed for a while after that until Allen snatched an easy wrister from the point to get a much-needed stoppage. Edmonton was starting to tilt the ice, and New Jersey was hanging on for dear life.

As has been the case far, far, far too often this season, the Devils went an absurdly long time without registering a shot in the period. We reached eight minutes to go in the frame and New Jersey still hadn’t hit Jarry with a puck. Meanwhile the Oilers continued to pile up zone time, shot attempts, and quality looks at the net. It really seemed like the schedule was starting to factor in. Playing the third period of the second half of a back-to-back on the opposite end of the country very late at night was starting to take its toll.

Finally, almost exactly 15 minutes into the third, the Devils put a shot on goal, and it was a dangerous one. Brown was sprung on a partial breakaway, and he wired a wrist shot on target that Jarry made a glove save on.

Edmonton continued to apply pressure, but Allen continued to stand tall. With about two minutes left, Hamilton and the Hughes line combined to actually make Jarry work a little bit, but he turned aside both shots he faced on that shift.

Edmonton pulled Jarry with about two minutes on the clock. The Oilers sustained a lot of zone time and whistled a lot of shot attempts at the net, with some of them reaching Allen. But the Devils weathered the storm and the clock hit triple zeroes with New Jersey holding on for the 2-1 victory!

It was a tense third period, with the Devils seemingly running out of gas. Edmonton controlled play basically all period long. Shots were 13-3 in favor of the Oilers in the final frame. But Allen stood tall, the defense was structured enough, the team as a whole was lucky enough, and New Jersey held the fort to get a huge win.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

Quick Hits​

• Tonight was Jack Hughes’ 400th career game in the NHL. Congratulations to the middle Hughes brother on an even 400.
• The Gritsyuk-Glass-Hameenaho line was terrific this evening. According to Natural Stat Trick, in 5:10 of ice time together, that line out-attempted their opponents 5-0, outshot them 3-0, and won the Scoring Chances and High Danger Corsi battles 3-0 and 1-0 respectively. And of course, they outscored Edmonton 1-0. They controlled play all night long.
• Speaking of that line, Hameenaho was less noticeable than the night before, but I thought he had another solid game. He continues to look poised, smart, and dangerous when given a little room. More of him and less of Glendening, please.
• I also thought Timo Meier was great tonight. He was a forechecking demon, and the Oilers did not have an answer for him through the first two periods. I do wish he could have hit the net more, as he registered three shots on seven shot attempts overall. That number led the team, by the way.
• Finally, Jake Allen was dynamite in this game, and he needed to be, especially in the third period. Per NST, Allen saved 1.8 Goals Above Expected, which is stellar work. He was arguably the best Devil on the ice, with only Glass or Gritsyuk or Meier serving as his only competition.
• Don’t look now, but the Devils have won the second half of a back-to-back, and have won four of their last five overall. They still have way more work to do to climb out of the deep hole they’ve dug themselves, but four of five is a good start.

Next Time Out​

The Devils continue their west coast swing on Friday, when they travel to Vancouver to battle the Canucks. Puck drop is slated for 10pm ET.

Your Take​

Leave your take in the comments section. Goodnight.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...devils-grind-out-2-1-win-over-edmonton-oilers