The New Jersey Devils special teams were good last season. No, seriously they were. For a team that seemingly went ice cold at times, the Devils finished 3rd in the league on the power play and did even better on the penalty kill, coming in 2nd. When you look at who was on the ice the most in those situations, it’s probably less surprising. What is surprising however is that a team who did so well in both of those areas managed to just crawl over the finish line into the playoffs. So what gives?
61 goals on the power play is great, and also was 4th in the NHL last season. When you look at those 61 being over 25 percent of the team’s total goals (240 – tied for 20th) the problem starts to become a bit clearer. Add in the fact that the Devils also were a top five team in goals against (220 allowed) and the problem is now apparent: the offense at even strength just wasn’t good enough last year.
If the Devils want to truly be a competitor, they need to be better at even strength. Now, changing the depth forwards, which we’ve spent time discussing this summer, should be a step in the right direction here. A lot of the depth guys were mainly used at even strength last season and they contributed… well, practically nothing. However, some of the others need to step up as well. Whether it is the support guys who did put some pucks in (Dawson Mercer and Stefan Noesen for example) or the core guys, I leave that opinion up to you.
If you take away the power play tallies, the Devils had 179 goals. However, not even that number represents their “success” at even strength; seven of the goals were shorthanded goals, leaving us with a mere 172 even strength goals. That’s just over two goals a game at even strength, and in today’s fast-paced, high-scoring NHL that’s just not a good enough number. I remember watching last season and feeling like the special teams were adversely impacting the game, but in reality, the special teams did their part and then some. If not for how successful said special teams were, the fate of the Devils 2024-25 season could’ve been very different.
Coach Sheldon Keefe and his staff are tasked with getting more from the Devils at even strength this season. As stated earlier, improved depth pieces should help, but for everyone to step up, some of the weight must be on the coaches. It will be up to them to find the right combinations to maximize even strength scoring. They’ll also need to deploy lines to get the best matchups. If they can do this, maybe we see the Devils closer to the top of the league in even strength scoring, rather than being in the bottom half of it.
What are your thoughts on the Devils even strength scoring? Are you surprised that more than a quarter of their goals came from special teams? What do you think Keefe and his staff can do to improve even strength scoring? Do you think other factors, such as bad luck played a role? Leave any and all comments below and thanks as always for reading!