How bad has the Devils defense been this season? 

What was already shaping up to be a disappointing 2025-26 season for the New Jersey Devils reached a brand new nadir on Tuesday night in Long Island.

In a key divisional showdown against a New York Islanders team that the Devils are chasing in the standings, New Jersey got shellacked. Goalie Jacob Markstrom allowed 9 goals on 24 shots, and Ilya Sorokin blanked the Devils on the end for an embarrassing 9-0 defeat.

The game before, defenseman Luke Hughes scored one into his own net in a 3-1 loss to Carolina and got another goal most of the way to the net before Taylor Hall poked it off his stick and past the goal line.

A defensive unit that was supposed to be the strength of the club has become a glaring weakness, and a team with Stanley Cup aspirations entering the season is looking less and less likely to even make the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the season goes on.

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by former NHL video coach Steve Peters to discuss the struggles surrounding New Jersey’s blue line.

Tyler Yaremchuk: When you lose 9-0, when you’re on the streak that the Devils are, they’re 13th in the Eastern Conference… there’s a lot that is going wrong, and yesterday we talked a little bit about the offensive struggles which have been noteworthy since Jack Hughes’ injury, but I want to start on the blue line. Luke Hughes is getting booed by the home crowd. It’s a fan base that is fed up with Dougie Hamilton. How bad has the defending been for the Devils?

Steve Peters: This is a team that needs their defense to help participate in the offense. They’re 25h in the NHL in points by defensemen. That needs to be much higher, especially Dougie Hamilton… A year ago at this time he had 27 points, this year he’s got 9… But the problems run much deeper defensively for this team and their ability to defend and keep the puck out of the net. This team is struggling. They’ve got the worst 5-on-5 goal differential in the NHL. They have the worst overall goal differential in the Eastern Conference… They’re struggling. They can’t keep the puck out of the net.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…