Once again, the mood in the New Jersey Devils locker room was one of frustration after they dropped their fourth straight contest on Friday night. The fact of the matter is that they have not played great hockey. They’ve gotten mediocre goaltending, haven’t found consistent line combinations, and the defensive attention to detail is lacking.
All of those are valid reasons for concern. But for the second season in a row, the Devils aren’t getting any help from the NHL schedule makers. In 2023-24, the Devils faced the most back-to-backs in the entire league, with 16. Of course, it didn’t help that on the back half of those, they dropped 13 of 16. But regardless, it’s a little baffling how that’s allowed to happen.
Devils’ Demanding Schedule
In the blink of an eye, the 2024-25 Devils have already played 11 games – 13.4% of their season. That’s at least two more games than any other team, with the NHL average being 7.5 games played. Two Metropolitan Division opponents – the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals – have played just a little over half of the games the Devils have, with six.
It would be fair to assume that starting the season early in Prague, Czechia would be a reason for that. But the Buffalo Sabres, who also started in Prague, have played three fewer times (8). Head coach Sheldon Keefe said, “Nine games in 16 days is a lot. Fatigue is hard to fight through. You’re not going to look like you want to. (We’ve had) two practices in 16 days. There are times out there tonight where there are things we’d address in practice (but) we haven’t had that time.”
Frankly, the eye test and numbers back up that the Devils are a team that just needs to make some adjustments, but haven’t been able to do so accordingly. In their first seven contests, they went 5-2-0 while only giving up 14 goals (avg. 2.00 per game). In their next four, they went 0-2-2 and surrendered 23 goals (avg. 5.75 per game).
Based on the start, it’s clear they have it in them to play better. On paper, too, the team is too talented to struggle that mightily. But as Keefe also mentioned, video work and talking to guys about what to fix can only do so much. If they aren’t able to actually get on the ice, it’s much more difficult to make the proper adjustments.
Related: New Jersey Devils’ Multi-Year Home-Ice Struggles Need to Be Addressed
Some may view Keefe’s mention of the schedule as an excuse, but it’s not like he’s been shying away from criticizing the team’s play. Earlier yesterday morning, he admitted that the goaltending needs to be better. He’s also mentioned that attention to detail is lacking and even acknowledged the home ice struggles head-on.
“It’s not an excuse, it’s the reality of the league,” said Keefe. “It’s been hard to get a real traction with how we want to look, quite honestly, just because of the demands of the schedule. We’re trying to manage our way through this.”
Thankfully for the Devils, they’ve been able to scratch out some loser points throughout their recent struggles, which could pay off in the long run. Last season, they gave up 27 empty-net goals and only tied the game once with the extra attacker (via Natural Stat Trick). With Jesper Bratt’s late third-period goal against the New York Islanders, they already got their first with 71 games still to go. Getting games to overtime is so crucial; just look at the Islanders team last season that only won 39 of 82 games, yet made the Stanley Cup Playoffs by essentially gaining eight extra games with 16 overtime losses.
Hit the Bratt signal and Jesper delivered. pic.twitter.com/WtSbImF0CH
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) October 26, 2024
In the game against the Washington Capitals, Dougie Hamilton scored a late power-play goal to tie it up and secure that extra point. Last season, that almost never happened. Yes, the Devils are surely a work in progress and there’s some reason for early concern. But their schedule is going to ease up a little bit. They’ll have two full days off between games multiple times in early November, and then a four-day break in between Nov. 16-21. The goaltenders will have a chance to settle in, Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes will get up to speed, and then we can reconvene and discuss whether it’s time to panic. But for now, it’s way too early. Remember, the 2023-24 Edmonton Oilers started 2-9-1, and they ended up just fine. The Devils are in a much better position than that.
