The New Jersey Devils sunk to rock bottom earlier this week. However, Sunday’s 4-3 loss to the 32nd ranked Winnipeg Jets buried them in the ocean floor.
Now, the Devils are on a four-game slide. They’re a team that looks like they’ve given up. Undoubtedly, the Devils are waiting for the other shoe to drop off the ice.
Dougie Hamilton became the black cloud they didn’t need hanging over their heads. They knew it internally for a while. We know now that it’s become public.
This is UGLY, ugly hockey by a disjointed team who can’t find a reason to dig deep to reach another level.
Let’s get to some observations
Observations
- An early play by Luke Hughes stuck out to me. Perhaps after his verbal lashing several games ago, he’s become more aware of his patience level. It was a simple, yet effective play in the defensive end that showcased the elite talent he possesses, but just needs to find consistently. Against Kyle Connor—Winnipeg’s best forward, uncontested—Luke met Connor high in the Devils’ zone as the Jets tried to establish the offensive zone. A simple poke check while closing the ice on Connor opened the neutral zone for Luke, who then quickly jumped on the puck and transitioned it to the offensive zone for a scoring chance.
- And then he later factored into the Devils’ first goal on a great play between him, Jesper Bratt, and Nico Hischier. At the Devils blueline, Bratt fed Luke who was sneaking past the Jets defender on the left wall. With the puck on his stick and using his elite skating, he gained the offensive zone, and threw the puck to traffic where Hischier was battling for net presence. With the rubber at Hischier’s feet, he deposited the loose puck to tie the game at one with seconds on the clock. Luke was a positive impact early, and helped ensure his team didn’t play from behind for too long.
- Something the Devils HAVE to be better at is their passing. They created some decent chances in the first period, but would have had even more if they could cleanly connect passes tape-to-tape. Several passing attempts by New Jersey were either intercepted or they tried to put pucks through defenders, which saw play go the other way.
- The most frustrating thing about this is it comes from some of New Jersey’s top players. The Hischier, Bratt, Jack Hughes line were most noticeable. They have all the talent in the world, but they certainly need to simplify things.
- One thing was abundantly clear early on Sunday. Johnathan Kovacevic’s size was missed. He’s an inch shorter and a few pounds lighter than Hamilton, but he uses it differently. Kovacevic has a good stick, and his defense first mentality puts him in positions that make it difficult to create offense around. He’s also a more physically menacing player. You could see why Keefe preferred Kovacevic over Hamilton, even if there are trade-related reasons keeping the latter out of the lineup.
- Keefe advocated for Simon Nemec over Hamilton in his explanation of scratching the veteran defenseman. Yet, on Winnipeg’s second goal, Nemec’s effort was poor. Cole Perfetti handled the puck on an odd-man rush, however, Nemec wasn’t far behind. Yet, instead of moving his feet, he opted to glide as Perfetti was moving in on Jake Allen. The Jets forward wound up ringing iron, which left a rebound. Nemec was nowhere to be found for the clearing attempt, and Jonathan Toews scored. Certainly, a bad look for the young blueliner.
- What even is goaltender interference anymore. On Jonas Siegenthaler’s goal called back, Connor Hellebuyck was CLEARLY out of his crease. Sure, Paul Cotter made contact, but he was pushed into the Jets netminder. Again, all out of the crease. It was called back anyway. I don’t get it.
- Jack did not play on the first power play unit on Sunday. Instead, the first unit was Hischier, Bratt, Timo Meier, Nemec, & Dawson Mercer. Jack played on the second unit with Luke, Gritsyuk, Glass and Evgenii Dadonov.
- The Devils’ third period was unacceptable. They looked like they gave up. With under seven minutes remaining, the Devils were being outshot 8-1. It wasn’t until the Devils pulled Allen that they closed that gap. The third ended with a 9-6 shot differential in favor of the Jets, and ultimately Winnipeg took the two points. That’s a bad, bad look against the last-ranked Jets.
- The broadcast revealed what’s under Jack’s right glove that he had surgery on earlier this season. A completely tapped pinky, down the side of his hand and around the wrist. He’s been okay since returning, but he’s clearly not 100%:
