Is the answer for the New Jersey Devils‘ woes in the room? Or is it somewhere else? Well, we asked the head coach about it.
It was a longer than usual wait outside the Devils’ locker room on Thursday night following an 8-4 beating by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Inside, the Devils had a meeting that forward Jesper Bratt coined “vocal,” and “honest,” amid a slide of games where New Jersey has dropped six of seven games, five on home ice.
“We had to be vocal, most of the things that we talked about, I’m going to let that stay in here,” Bratt explained. “We had that talk in the locker room, and it’s going to stay here. We have a practice day [on Friday], and then we have two games coming up that we’re excited for. So, it had to be an honest conversation, man-to-man, and I think we did a good job.”
While the Devils were talking over their loss, Steven Stamkos scored four goals for the Nashville Predators en route to a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues. Ryan O’Reilly potted a goal himself, and won 57.1% of face-off draws. And over in Rodgers Arena, the Vancouver Canucks lost again, this time to the Buffalo Sabres, in regulation. Quinn Hughes picked up a helper.
The loss on Thursday starts with Jacob Markstrom. His goaltending performance against the Lightning was so poor, that usually Sheldon Keefe lets his veteran netminders work the entire game. However, he was pulled after just 07:56, and in came Jake Allen.
Yet, paired with the poor play in goal, the play in front of the netminders was awful. Boys among men, if you will. Keefe noted just how poor he thought it was.
“We can’t flush this one. We got our ass kicked.” Keefe admitted. “We were outworked, out-competed, out-classed in lots of ways to just push past through. There’s some real lessons in this one.”
This, of course, comes after the Devils showed some encouraging signs on the road against the Boston Bruins, and the Ottawa Senators when they finally got back in the win column.
“Yeah, it’s hard to hard process,” Keefe explained. “I thought we had real simple and direct plan here today, which was talking about how we there was going to be more work, more speed to the puck, and more physicality at the puck. All that was going to be required to compete in this game today. And we just didn’t bring that. We didn’t we didn’t have that.”
After the season series with the Lightning wrapped up, Keefe noted that losses to Tampa Bay are an annual occurrence, wrapping up their only three meetings of the season on Thursday with a 1-2-0 record vs. the Bolts.
As opposed to the team who won eight straight games earlier this season, the Devils no longer look like that group.
Injuries are a factor, for sure. However, the 2025-26 season has been a tale of two teams. So, which one does Keefe think the Devils are?
“Yeah, I think it’s fair to say we’re somewhere in the middle, which is exactly where we kind of find ourselves in the standings, just kind of in the middle, you know? It’s hard to tell, obviously, exactly who and what we are yet,” Keefe admitted.
No Jack Hughes, no Brett Pesce, and Jonathan Kovacevic, who has yet to even start his season. There are significant bodies out of the lineup.
Yet, the Lightning didn’t have their captain, Victor Hedman. They didn’t have their franchise goaltender, Andre Vasilevskiy. They also didn’t have veteran defenders, Ryan McDonagh and Eric Cernak. And yet, in the words of Keefe, still go their “ass kicked.”
“We haven’t played a game yet this season with a full lineup,” Keefe started. “That said, there are injuries happening all across the league, including the team we played here [on Thursday]. You can’t have this drastic of a drop. I thought we took some real good steps on the road, and disappointing we couldn’t bring that here.”
Piggybacking on that response, we asked Keefe if he felt the Devils need some external help amid an uncomfortable slide, losing six of seven games, five on home ice, in a season where the expectation is the Devils were not just a playoff contender, but a bubble Stanley Cup threat.
He didn’t say no.
“I think that we’re capable of playing far better than the guys we have, as we saw in previous games,” Keefe said. “I mean, you want to get healthy, you want to get some guys back, but we’ve got enough guys to be able to compete and give ourselves a chance.”
Keefe referenced previous games against the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights as contests where the Devils hung in with some of the NHLs best. As opposed to scoring four goals on Thursday—something they perhaps don’t do with a healthy Vasilevskiy in net—the Devils scored a collective goose egg against the aforementioned teams.
Whereas Keefe isn’t off base, the Devils did, in fact, keep it close for the most part. They still lost each game 3-0. Perhaps, a healthier lineup with Jack and Pesce changes the outcome.
“We had two of the best teams in the league in Dallas and Vegas in here last week. It’s 0-0, it’s 1-0,” Keefe stated. “And you can still say we’re not playing that great, but we’re right there in the games. So you get every opportunity to get points. We just need to play better as a group. You don’t have a chance to play better if you don’t meet the necessary, emotional and competitive requirements. That’s, to me, more than anything, is what’s disappointing here today. We have to invest more physically.”
Yet, coming into the 2025-26 season, the Devils had needs, specifically a top-six winger, and a third-line center.
Word is, the Devils are working the phones. And not just taking inquiries. They’re trying to make something happen.
However, it has to be money in, money out, which means it could be a bit of a longer process.
The GM sees the Devils need help. The coach didn’t say no when asked. And the fans have made it known they’re not happy with the product on the ice, hailing boos from their seats at the Prudential Center.
It’s time to shake things up a bit.
