What Really “WENT WRONG” For The New Jersey Devils

What Really “WENT WRONG” For The New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils. What a roller coaster year it’s been for one of the NHL’s more promising franchises. The Devils began the year as a top team favorite to win the cup. And for most of the season, it seemed like they might actually be able to live up to some of the heights that were set on the market. However, like past years, injuries just continued to pester this team. And following the Four Nations break, Jack Hughes would go down with a season ender and everything would change for the Devils. Now, at the end of the season, the Devils couldn’t string together enough wins to separate them from some of their rivals in a very tight Eastern Conference. But fortunately for them, they had enough of a cushion to get themselves a firstround matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes. While this series is now in the books, and unfortunately for New Jersey and their fan base, they are the ones heading home with nothing left on their schedule. So today, let’s break down the Devils, what happened in this playoff series, review their season as a whole, and what they can build off of from this year to come back stronger next [Music] [Applause] [Music] season. Another year in the books for the New Jersey Devils as they fall short of their goal, losing in the first round to the Carolina Hurricanes 4 to1. And this has left a bit of a sour taste in their fan base’s mouth about the direction of this team moving forward. And I don’t like to make excuses for teams because I do think everyone’s dealing with something in the playoffs, especially when we’re talking about injuries. But I do believe New Jersey is a unique case here. They’ve been riddled with injuries all year long and we’re going to talk about that in a minute. But I do think I’m going to give them a little bit of a pass as we go through this review. So keep that in mind when we get to those sections. But let’s just start this video off with my takeaways from this series between the Carolina Hurricanes and the New Jersey Devils. Now, I would be remiss to not talk about the winners of this series. So, I just want to quickly go through the Carolina Hurricanes and then we’ll touch on all of the Devils issues. Now, for a team that dealt with so much drama the first half of the year, making that Miko Rantin trade, dealing with the contract nonsense, they really seem to have played with a lot of passion in this series, trying to prove everyone wrong who doubted them against the team that quite frankly was just less talented. Now, my main takeaways for the Canes, they are just fine without Rantin and Stanovven was a great pickup for this group and will fit in perfectly with their future core. Their defense is still smothering and generating offense against Brenda Moore’s system is going to be a hefty task for any opponent going forward. Andre Fetchnikov so underrated. I know people think he’s talented, but people don’t talk about his game enough. And the only negative that I could really think about when it comes to this Hurricanes team in general was the injuries to their goalending. Frederick Anderson top tier goalie when he’s healthy, but that’s always going to be the question for him. every series, every year, it seems like he goes down with something. And Peter Kachchov, he’s a great backup to have, but they don’t seem to trust him as much as they trust Anderson, which I believe will eventually lead to their downfall if they get eliminated at some point. But overall, great execution and performance from the Canes. Quite frankly, they handled business, got this one done, and we’ll be moving on and getting some rest before their next opponent. So, cheers to the Canes for pulling out in this one. That was a big statement win for them. Now, let’s get into the opposite side of this series and break down the New Jersey Devils and how they performed in this one. It’s hard to get a real read on where the Devils are at after just one year under coach Sheldon Keefe because the team was once again hit with a lot of injuries this year, which I alluded to a bit earlier. New Jerseys top offensive center, Jack Hughes, saw his season end in early March with that shoulder surgery. Markstrom sustained an MCL sprain back in January and both of the teams top pairing defenseman in Douggee Hamilton and Seganthaler missed substantial time. Like I said, no excuses though in the playoffs. But with all that was happening this year and adding in the fact that they had a new head coach and system, I think it’s fair to say that the Devils never really had a chance to polish their game as they went down the stretch. With these particular players that the Devils put out during this series, they were just simply outmatched during 5v5 play despite the fact that that was actually their best attribute throughout this series. And with how solid the Hurricanes played defensively, they just never stood a chance without their best offensive playmaker. Even with some of the other very talented forwards within this group, watching the Devils attempt a zone entry was just brutal. They could never get past the blue line of Carolina without dumping it in, which just isn’t their game. And with Jack Hughes being so special, quick, and having those slick moves to get by defenseman, they really could have used him in a lot of different moments during this series. And the result was exactly what we expected, a team playing a style of hockey that was unfamiliar and not complimentary towards their young pieces, resulting in a gentleman sweep for the Carolina Hurricanes. It wasn’t just 5v5 that hurt the Devils in this series. In fact, like I kind of mentioned, they played pretty well in 5v5, considering the fact they were missing some of their more important pieces. But regardless of whether you agree they played well in that area or not, I think we all can agree that their special teams was just downright awful. The Devils had zero power play goals in this series. Zero. This was a team that ranked amongst the best when it came to power play percentage throughout the entire year. And even without Jack Hughes not being in the lineup, not having one power play goal is just kind of pathetic in my eyes. Their penalty kill didn’t fare much better. Having a kill rate of 68.4% which ranked them 12 out of 16 teams in the playoffs. Realistically, if it weren’t for Jacob Marshm, these games would have been blowouts every night based on how the team executed throughout this series. Specifically, that last game, he was extraordinary and stood on his head. He averaged a 911 save percentage and 2.78 goals against average throughout the series. And in two of the five games, he faced over 40 shots with that last one reaching 54 total in their 5 to4 OT finish. Quick fun fact about Marky, he made 33 saves between Aaho’s equalizer that game and the eventual gamewinner, which is just a great sight if you’re a New Jersey fan who has experienced all the ups and downs that they’ve had at the goalending position. There’s still some real talent on this squad and Marshmall showed that he’s still at the peak of his game regardless of his age. And with the Devils being so young, if they can just stay healthy, I think year two under Keith could be one that extends them past the first round and maybe even further. Now, in the offseason, the Devils do have their work cut out for them. I think the biggest thing they need to focus on is the future of this decor and who they want to be a part of this group moving forward. Do you want to hang on to Douggee Hamilton or do you want to bring up some of your young guys like Neck and Luke Hughes and let them continue to progress with their game? I know a lot of people are disappointed with Nek and people are really optimistic about Luke Hughes, but Hughes has also dealt with a fair share of injuries and if you don’t believe that Neck is going to fit in with this group, then maybe you’d be better off moving off of him now and trying to get someone who better fits this ideal blue line that you have at the moment. Now, when it comes to the other thing I think the Devils need to address, maybe some things like ancillary pieces of their forward group outside of Hishir Meyer and Brat. The Devils just couldn’t get anything going offensively in this series. And I think if they want to actually be a legit contender moving forward, they’re going to have to get some better depth scoring. And who knows if the Devils would have added at the trade deadline, if Jack Hughes were still healthy and maybe some of their defenseman were in the lineup all year, they could have had a better seating position. Who knows what would have happened? But the reality is they didn’t add anything. And I think in the offseason they should be addressing this as well as their defense. Tough way to end the year for New Jersey. Just couldn’t stay healthy long enough despite having so much potential and promise. And like I said, this is the team that deserves the biggest pass for the first round of the playoffs just because all of their injuries happened the entire season and continued into the playoffs. So unfortunate ending for them, but congratulations to the Carolina Hurricanes. You’re moving on to the next round. And I think a lot of people just woke up a little bit to your game and hopefully you can figure out your own goalending situation and go and potentially go on a deep run. I think a lot of people would like to see that. But New Jersey fans, how are you feeling about the state of your organization? How do you feel after watching this playoff series? Are you less disappointed because you didn’t have Jack Hughes or Luke Hughes and you think maybe next year if you’re healthy, you could have done a little bit more? Or are you kind of optimistic about the future and you’re just like, “Hey, this is just another year in the development cycle. We’re gonna come back in year two with Sheldon Keefe and be a much more organized team. Let me know what you guys think in the comments below and what series you want to review for next. I’m hopefully going to put out a video for every series after the team loses, just giving them a review for their season, going through all 16 of the playoff teams eventually once the year is over. So, thank you guys so much for watching this video. If you enjoyed it, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel for more stuff like this. I will see you guys in the next episode.

Today is the first of our Playoff Series reviews and with the New Jersey Devils now eliminated I think it’s time we address the team and what their next steps will be going forward. New Jersey had their ups and downs all season long. New Head Coach new roster pieces and like years of the past an annoying amount of injuries all leading to a season of average contention. Well let’s look into their season as a whole, their playoff run and first round exit, and what the future has in store for this promising young team. Subscribe to Jimmy Hockey for more NHL News and Breakdowns.

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