What happened to the New Jersey Devils?

[ottomaddox]

They've lost 6 straight games, and their goal differential is shocking (creeping up towards Vancouver's goal differential).

What kind of problems are going on over there?

PS- You can't blame Lou anymore.

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[KingBran]

Its all Brodeur's fault!

Please send him back to St. Louis!

 

[M88K]

They are falling back to Earth, there is one team that way overachieves 1yr and regresses to their norm the next, nothing unusual.

 

[The Assclown]

They clearly want Jack Hughes and Hirschier down the middle. What a dream.

 

[Rhodes 81]

Hall is not playing like an MVP, the goaltending has been sub par, and their third and fourth lines have not been scoring much.

It also doesn't help that they've lost a bunch in overtime. They won a lot of overtime games last year.

 

[tucker3434]

They squeaked in last year, so it isn’t like they were a juggernaut to begin with. This kind of thing just happens sometimes to younger teams.

 

[joestevens29]

Barely made the playoffs last year. Didn't really have any solid additions to the roster, while losing some pieces to free agency.

Goaltending is playing poor and Hall has no real help up front. Palmeri going on a cold streak didn't help.

Now I don't blame Shero for goaltending. You really have no choice other than to see it Schneider can bounce back, but up front he didn't bring any depth in. Sure there was hope that Butcher, Miles, Bratt, Nico etc.. all would take steps forward, but that's a fools bet in this league.

 

[135ace]

Hynes has the team practicing with volleyballs instead of hockey pucks. He's been doing this to try and make it easier for Cory "donkeycrap" Schneider to make a save. But after months of practicing with volleyballs instead of pucks the players are slowly forgetting how to play actual hockey.

 

[StoneHands]

Just look at their roster. They aren't very good.

 

[Pens x]

They overachieved last year; that’s all.

 

[Erndog]

Overachieved last year. Everyone was surprised last year they did what they did (on the backs of Halls Hart caliber year, good goaltending and some help offensively from the depth guys).

Halls not playing like a Hart guy. Their goaltending has been bad. Depth guys not scoring as much.

Voila.

 

[Devilsfan118]

They've lost 6 straight games, and their goal differential is shocking (creeping up towards Vancouver's goal differential).

What kind of problems are going on over there?

PS- You can't blame Lou anymore.

Lou and Conte drove this franchise into the ground, and we're still attempting to recover from their poor management. He absolutely deserves blame for this mess.

Presently, goaltending has been atrocious. We're relying on a backup and AHL guy (sorry, Cory. Prove me wrong) to win games.

Defense is real bad. Offense outside of the first line is non-existent.

 

[Advanced stats]

They have a poor team. Nothing to see here .

 

[CupsOverCash]

They were dangerous last year. They just dont seem to have that same drive this year. Also Hall isnt beasting nonstop like last year.

 

[GoAwayPanarin]

Voldemort will fall on the sword eventually, but I don’t think they’re that bad.

Their schedule has been death.

 

[puckpilot]

Heard they relocated, and the people of Newb Jerseys are still pissed. It's all Stu Limamellow's fault.

 

[Uncle Scrooge]

Main difference between this year and the last is that teams treat the Devils with respect and came ready to compete from the start.

Devils went 17-6-4 in their first 25 games last season. Since then they went 27-23-5 and that includes not losing to a single bad spoiler team in the last month of the season while making their playoff push.

Basically they were a .500 team last year that got off to a really hot start on the backs of big surprise element with their speed and Taylor Hall playing like a champ. Remember how Brian Gibbons had 11 goals in the first 23 games ? Newsflash: he doesn't have a goal this year in 22 games for the Ducks.

Devils regression was the most predictable thing in the summer. I never had them penciled in as a playoff team.

That all said, they're obviously not last in the Eastern Conference - bad. Things have snowballed in the wrong direction and the team has potential to play better. But they're basically already out of the playoffs. It feels like Ottawa last year where the team wasn't as good as the year before, they got off to a good start riding that confidence from the prior season but then they fell flat as teams kept bringing their a-games and so the Sens just couldn't get much going and fell down in the standings. Also EK wasn't nearly as good as the season before, which is sort of like Hall right now. And the goaltending sucked. Which is what it is now. Guys started to look deflated like they are now for the Devils. Lots of similarities.

There's nothing more deflating than thinking you have something to build on from last year and set higher goals, only to realize your team isn't that great and it's hard to win a game. From the fans point of view it looks like lack of effort, when it's really more like frustration, and then people start calling out the coaches head etc.

When a team breaks out you 1 season isn't enough to tell you anything. The 2nd one is always the most telling. Devils need more good players to be a good team.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Goaltending sucks, Hall isn't having an MVP season, and the secondary scoring has dried up. Young players struggling with consistency. Half of our coaching staff is new.

Last year we were able to out-hustle a lot of teams, now that sense of urgency seems to have disappeared.

Despite that, a lot of our underlying numbers are better than last year. We're having some rough PDO and have had a brutal schedule. We're not as bad as our record indicates.

 

[Sky04]

Played the lightning too many times.

 

[Thread The Needle]

They're a bunch of newbs.

 

[Kaapo Cabana]

They got off to a hot start last year, and have been garbage ever since. They almost missed the playoffs after lighting the league on fire before Christmas.

 

[Pens x]

Lou and Conte drove this franchise into the ground, and we're still attempting to recover from their poor management. He absolutely deserves blame for this mess.

Presently, goaltending has been atrocious. We're relying on a backup and AHL guy (sorry, Cory. Prove me wrong) to win games.

Defense is real bad. Offense outside of the first line is non-existent.

Shero has been there for 3.5 years now; at some point he needs to be criticized as well.

 

[Kcb12345]

Did anyone actually expect them to follow up last season with another good year?

 

[PizzaAndPucks]

They got off to a hot start last year, and have been garbage ever since. They almost missed the playoffs after lighting the league on fire before Christmas.

They still were atleast a .500 yeam after the hot start and made the playoffs...smh

 

[crackdown44]

Did anyone actually expect them to follow up last season with another good year?

Oddly enough I remember a TSN panel discussion from the beginning of the year where Bobby Mack said he thought the devils weren’t a flash in the pan and that they would take another step forward this year