The season comes to its merciful end tonight in a home game with the Islanders
The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (38-38-5) vs. New York Islanders (37-27-16)
The Time: 7:00pm ET
The Broadcast: MSGSN, MSGSN2
Last Devils Game
A dismal 1-0 loss in Philadelphia on Saturday. The only goal of the game was a shorthanded goal allowed to Travis Konecny. Kaapo Kahkonen played well, but the offense was nowhere to be found.
Last Islanders Game
The Isles took on the Rangers on Saturday, losing in a shootout, 3-2. It was the Islanders’ 16th loser point of the season, which has become the story of their campaign and a big reason why they’re right in middle of the playoff race.
Last Devils-Islanders Game
It happened on March 24th, and it was a 4-0 victory on Long Island. Kaapo Kahkonen shone as he led the Devils with a 36-save shutout, the first shutout victory of the season for New Jersey.
By The Numbers Part 1: The Team
The season ends tonight. This game has plenty of meaning for the Isles, but none for the Devils. It has been an immensely frustrating campaign for a team that had such high hopes back in October. In preparation for the last game of yet another lost season, I thought it would be fitting to run through some numbers that I believe are emblematic of all the problems the Devils have faced in 2023-24. We’ll start at the team level:
0: That’s the amount of winning AND losing streaks above three games the Devils have experienced this season. No three+ game winning streaks. No three+ game losing streaks. It was a wildly choppy season, filled with more starts and stops than my old 2001 Nissan Sentra.
38: That’s how many wins the Devils have entering tonight’s contest. Putting aside the loser point for a moment (but only for a moment), the best New Jersey can finish this season is 39-43. New Jersey will finish either four or six games below .500 this season, an utterly unacceptable outcome given the talent on this roster.
5: That’s how many post-regulation losses the Devils have (see I told you it would only be a moment). New Jersey actually enters this contest with more wins than the Islanders, but the Isles are in playoff position because they’ve dragged so many losses past 60 minutes. Whether you look at that as a testament to the Islanders or an argument against Gary Bettman’s loser point is up to you. The point is, as terrible as the season has gone for New Jersey, if you go by just wins they’re right there with every other team in the race for the final playoff spot in the East.
277: That’s how many goals the Devils have given up this season according to NHL.com. That’s the 5th-most in the entire league, just behind the actively tanking Chicago Blackhawks. Last season, New Jersey gave up 222 per NHL.com, which was good for 8th-fewest in the league. The offense took a hit as well but if you can believe it, the Devils are still in the top-10 in goals scored leaguewide. New Jersey has already given up 55 more goals than last season with one game left to go. A truly monster step back.
36.8% / 17.2%: That first number is the power play success rate for the Devils from the start of the campaign through November 28th. That second number is the power play success rate since November 28th. Why November 28th? That was the last game Dougie Hamilton played this season. Yes I am aware Hamilton was not on PP1 to start the year, but it’s not a coincidence that unit went into the tank and never recovered after his injury. The power play went from nigh-unstoppable force to a unit that actively cost New Jersey games.
By The Numbers Part 2: The Players
Now how about some numbers on an individual level:
64: That’s how many starts Vitek Vanecek, Akira Schmid, and Nico Daws combined for this season. That triumvirate put up save percentages of .890%, .895%, and .894% respectively. Over 75% of the season was wasted on starts from goalies who just gave the Devils no shot to win on most nights. Once Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen came along the goaltending stabilized. But by then it was far too late.
20: That’s how many games Dougie Hamilton played this season. I mentioned him in the above section when talking about the power play, but his value went well beyond that. Yes he wasn’t having the best season defensively, but in retrospect I think a lot of that could be attributed to Jonas Siegenthaler’s regression. If New Jersey had gotten a full season out of Hamilton, it’s very possible they would be getting ready for postseason hockey right about now.
74: That’s how many points Jack Hughes finished the season with. That’s 25 fewer than 2022-23 when he registered a franchise record 99 points. Obviously a big part of that is the injuries Hughes sustained that limited him to 62 games. He was still very productive on a per game basis. But the injuries knocked his total point production down significantly, and the injuries hampered his play overall. Just going by the eye test, Hughes didn’t look like himself this season. And going by the advanced numbers, Hughes didn’t control play like last season either. A healthy Jack will go a long way toward this team rebounding in 2024-25.
21:26: That’s the average time on ice for Luke Hughes this season. He led the team in that category. I think we all expected big things from Luke prior to this season, but I don’t think anyone expected him to lead the team in average TOI. This is a good news/bad news situation to me. The bad news is, in an ideal world this probably wouldn’t have happened. Hamilton would have been the TOI leader, with Siegenthaler and John Marino probably next on the list. Then maybe Hughes. But Hamilton’s injury and the shocking ineffectiveness of Siegenthaler and Marino have forced the Devils’ hand. They had to throw Hughes into the deep end right away out of necessity. The good news is, while there were certainly rookie mistakes and cold streaks for him this season, Hughes has mostly met or even exceeded expectations. The future looks bright for the youngest Hughes brother.
5: That’s how many Devils have played every single game this season. They would be Jesper Bratt, Luke Hughes, Kevin Bahl, Dawson Mercer, and shockingly, Alexander Holtz. Everyone else missed anywhere from a little to a lot of time. In a season defined by injury issues, give a tip of the cap for these iron men.
82: We’ll end on a high note. That’s how many points Jesper Bratt has entering this game. The winger has guaranteed himself a point-per-game pace while playing every game this season. his 82 points is a new career high. Good for Bratt for stepping up when everyone else around him faltered. And good for him for proving his monster contract he signed in the offseason was a good investment.
Those are the statistics that stick out to me. Obviously there are many more that are worthy of mention, but I don’t want this preview to go on forever. I’d be curious to hear what your favorite (or “favorite”) stats from this season are.
You Have My Thanks
Obviously this will be the last time I either preview or recap a Devils game this season. I was certainly not expecting the campaign to go this poorly, I thought these writeups would be generally a lot happier than they’ve been. Nevertheless, I have greatly enjoyed my first season with All About The Jersey, it has been so rewarding writing about my favorite hockey team and interacting with you, the People Who Matter. My thanks to John for giving me this opportunity, and my thanks to you all for reading and interacting with these writeups all season long. Here’s to, hopefully, a successful offseason and a good 2024-25 ahead.
Your Take
For the last time this season, what do you make of tonight’s game? What do you want to see out of the Devils as they end their season tonight? How important is it to you that New Jersey spoils the Islanders’ playoff push? As always, thanks for reading!