After a hot start to the 2023-24 NHL regular season, the New Jersey Devils have cooled off, losing four of their last five, including a tough 6-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
Their 2019 No. 1 overall pick Jack Hughes has been out since Nov. 3, and 2017 No. 1 overall pick Nico Hischier hasn’t played since Oct. 27, leaving the Devils shorthanded in their top-six forward group.
But New Jersey’s issues go beyond not having two of their best offensive players. Bad giveaways and shaky goaltending have plagued the team as we enter the second half of November. Now sitting with a 7-6-1 record in their first 14 games, good for fifth in the Eastern Conference’s Metropolitan Division, there’s plenty of work to be done.
On Wednesday’s episode of "Daily Faceoff LIVE," Tyler Yaremchuk and Steven Ellis discuss what’s aching the Devils and if they can turn it around.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s talk about a team that’s on quite the ugly slide, and that is the Devils. They were just humming along early in the season. Jack Hughes had 20 points in nine games before being injured in his 10th game. Since then, it’s been a struggling season for the Devils, going 5-5-0 in their last 10, losing three in a row.
Their leading scorer since losing Hughes? John Marino with five points in five games. It is not going well in New Jersey right now. Do you think they can find a way to string some things together? Or do you think they’re going to have to wait until Jack Hughes is back and carrying this team?
Steven Ellis: Well it’s good that the defense is contributing on offense because they’re not contributing in their own zone. This team is a giveaway machine, and some of the giveaways are things you see in Junior A hockey, not at this level. Bad position, bad pinching, you name it.
If you look at the goaltending, Vitek Vanecek’s numbers are just slightly better than Jack Campbell’s this season. With Vanecek last year, you saw the 13-game winning streak the team went on, and they looked unstoppable for a bit. But his numbers weren’t spectacular. The team was outscoring the flaws they had on that team.
You can listen to the rest of the segment and the full show here…
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