Happy Sunday, Devils fans.

In the final year of the “Jersey Jersey,” the New Jersey Devils are slated to wear their alternate 11 times. The Devils just returned from their season-opening road trip back on Thursday, and I already cannot imagine them wearing anything other than their red jerseys. With a 4-1-0 record on the season, a 2-0-0 record at home, and their first four-game winning streak in nearly three years, I wish the Devils could keep their red identity a little more consistent throughout the season.

NHL teams only get 41 regular season home games, though they’ll soon get 42 when the schedule expands. Having an alternate home jersey means that there’s only a three in four chance that a randomly-selected home game will feature the team’s permanent jersey. After the Devils go on Christmas break on December 23, the Devils will wear their Jersey Jersey in five out of nine games between their return to play and the pause for the Olympic Games, including the final two home games before that break.

Do I really want to see a stretch like that at any point of the season? No, not really. I understand that today’s NHL wants teams to push these jerseys so their fans can buy them and make the league and Fanatics lots of money, but I think most people are just happy to get their hands on one jersey that is well-made and will last them for years. And when I go to see the New Jersey Devils, I like to see them wear something that really identifies them as the New Jersey Devils — not whatever this is:

So I have considered this workaround to the pitfall of overusing alternate jerseys: a white-based, road-wearable alternate. The Devils have not had such a jersey since they had their Kansas City Scouts and Colorado Rockies-inspired Reverse Retro in 2022-23. So, it’s been a few years! The Devils have had their Jersey Jersey, they have had their Stadium Series alternate. They should think about a way to spruce up their road look with an alternate jersey. Just look below at what the Edmonton Oilers did for this season:

The current Devils road jersey is still not really my favorite. The absence of the black stripe still bothers me, as it looks too boring as it is now. There’s just a little more gravitas to the old look. The post-2017 look is too clean and too simple: the torso of the jersey looks far too long in white, and there’s nothing to take the eye away from the empty space beneath the logo. I, for one, think Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Jack Hughes, and Timo Meier would look a lot better on the road scoring goals while wearing a road jersey like this:

But this is about alternate jerseys. The Devils may yet make a good decision by bringing those classic roads back, similar to how the Minnesota Wild brought their classic home jerseys back into the rotation, as they will be wearing their old white-based home jerseys four time during this season. Wouldn’t something like that be great for a well-designed road alternate? The great thing about making a white alternate jersey is that it could be worn on the road and at home. Many hockey fans still remember the days of white home jerseys, and many Devils fans still wear white jerseys that were home jerseys when they bought them. A good road alternate will not stop fans from buying it. On top of that, the alternate jersey would not have to eat up a whole quarter or more of the home game schedule. Eleven non-red home games can turn to four or five while they wear their alternate as much as they want to on the road.

What do you think the next alternate jersey should look like?

Other Thoughts: The Return of Noesen

One guy who plays the game like many Devils forwards did when they were good in those classic white jerseys is Stefan Noesen. I am rather looking forward to him getting back into game action over the next week. Since Evgenii Dadonov and Zack MacEwen went down with injuries, Brian Halonen has not shown very much in his three games on the fourth line. He is now pointless in seven career NHL games, and he only has one shot on goal this season. To be fair to Halonen, the fourth line is not amazing as currently constructed. Paul Cotter has great wheels and hands, but he runs into a lot of trouble from his decisions with the puck, and Luke Glendening is here to play defense, win faceoffs, and kill penalties. There is no driving force to that fourth line as it is right now.

So Halonen might have fared better in more of a third-line situation. He does, after all, play a goal-scorer’s game in Utica. But with Arseny Gritsyuk and Connor Brown clicking with Cody Glass, there is no spot for him there. And now that Jack Hughes is producing with Ondrej Palat on his wing, Halonen would not even be able to catch a break from Palat being used on the fourth line.

Stefan Noesen, by comparison, is more familiar with that level of play. I do not think that the fourth line is the best place for him, but I imagine he will start there with the other lines clicking. Last year, Noesen played a career-high average of 15:56 per game, scoring 22 goals. Most importantly, Noesen played his best hockey away from the fourth line, and the team had no success trying to pair him and Paul Cotter. In the regular season, this is how they split:

Cotter with Noesen: 284:55 TOI, 48.10 CF%, 9 GF-12 GA (42.86 GF%), 44.91 xGF%Cotter without Noesen: 682:18 TOI, 50.92 CF%, 18 GF-31 GA (36.73 GF%), 50.30 xGF%Noesen without Cotter: 693:52 TOI, 54.30 CF%, 30 GF-28 GA (51.72 GF%), 56.25 xGF%

In the playoffs, the quality and quantity of possession worsened with Cotter on the ice.

Cotter with Noesen: 39:28 TOI, 33.33 CF%, 1 GF-1 GA (50 GF%), 27.22 xGF%Cotter without Noesen: 30:39 TOI, 33.33 CF%, 0 GF-1 GA (0 GF%), 26.00 xGF%Noesen without Cotter: 20:04 TOI, 56.10 CF%, 1 GF-0 GA (100 GF%), 49.99 xGF%

The importance of bottom six forwards during the season and playoffs is very real, so I think this is something to keep an eye on when Noesen does return to the lineup. Does the fourth line finally start producing, or do Paul Cotter and company continue to have problems with defensive breakdowns and missed opportunities? What happens when the fourth line is on the ice when the Devils ice the puck against teams like the Oilers, allowing players like Connor McDavid to have offensive zone faceoffs against them? I was holding my breath when this happened yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, the fourth line only allowed three shots to the top Edmonton line before Jake Allen froze the puck after the Devils were unable to make good of Luke Glendening’s defensive zone faceoff win (and what was Paul Cotter doing throwing late hits at the blueline instead of helping out down low with Edmonton in possession?).

I will not say anything about Glendening’s performance yet, as the penalty kill is running at 95% efficiency through five games, and he was not on the ice for that goal against. He did inadvertently set up Connor Brown’s breakaway goal on the penalty kill yesterday. As far as I am concerned, he is doing his job there, and he is on track for over 200 penalty killing minutes at the rate he is currently playing.

Paul Cotter needs to be better, though. His last regular season assist was 50 games ago. He has plenty of skill in his hands, so I would like to see the 16-goal scoring version of Paul Cotter diversify a little bit and become a serious threat on the fourth line. He needs to be able to do more than hit and shoot, as teams know to just close down on him since he does not make passing plays. When Juho Lammikko is back from injury, is Cotter’s lineup spot guaranteed? He is going to need to play better defense and make plays with the puck with more consistency. Glendening brings something on the penalty kill and in the dot. Noesen will be improving the netfront work on the power play. Cotter needs to bring something big or round out his game.

The top six looks fantastic right now. The third line is promising. But the fourth line currently looks like it’s going to leave a lot of the burden on them, and I am not sure if Stefan Noesen can drag both of Paul Cotter and Luke Glendening to even strength adequacy.

What do you think the next Devils alternate jersey should be? What would you think of a road alternate? How do you feel about the fourth line so far this season? How do you think Stefan Noesen’s return will impact the team? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.