The New Jersey Devils are a complete mess right now.
We’ve talked about it over the course of at least a week here at AAtJ and more than a few articles. From accountability, to change being needed to not wanting internal replacements if and when moves are eventually made, it seems everything is going wrong for this organization. The off ice pieces have been looked at, the on ice product has been scrutinized, but there’s one aspect of said on ice personnel that maybe hasn’t been looked at yet.
Have the players given up on each other and/or on the season?
Maybe your answer is a resounding yes and you don’t feel the need to read any further. Maybe you think the problem is underperforming players and not that they’ve given up. Perhaps your opinion is somewhere else. I do not buy the idea though that the Devils have completely forgotten how to put the puck in the net. I do not buy the idea that everybody has suddenly gone cold at the same time. No, rather for one reason, another, or a combination or multiple, this Devils group seems to have given up.
The leading goal scorers for the Devils right now are Timo Meier and Nico Hischier each with only 12. There are support players on many teams around the NHL that have just as many, if not more goals than those two. Only two of Timo’s goal have come across his last 12 games; it’s worse for Nico with only two in the past 17. And yet there’s no one else on this team who has stepped forward to take on the scoring load. The only other Devils in double digits for goals are Jack Hughes, who has missed half the season, and Dawson Mercer, who gets a lot of flak for a player who is at least contributing to the level of his pay grade. Jesper Bratt may lead the team in scoring, but he can’t seem to buy a goal at this point.
I’ve seen a lot of theories floating around, both here and in other Devils spheres: the core players just aren’t good enough to win. There’s a rift within the team since the team allegedly tried to trade for Quinn Hughes and failed. There’s issues because underachieving players refused to waive their contract clauses. There was some falling out at the team dinner where Jack suffered his injury. Regardless of if any of these theories are correct to any degree or not, the failures of this team have led to all this speculation. Now is it the speculation affecting performance, or have the players just given up for one reason or another?
I think the players have given up, but it’s hard to pinpoint exactly who and why. The on ice product is an absolute mess, and there’s not enough injuries even at the moment to justify it, unless you somehow believe that Simon Nemec was the glue holding everything together. (As an aside, I’m big on Nemec and what he can bring to this team, but even I don’t think his absence is the reason the team has gone off the rails.) Players look completely out of sync: passes that should be easy enough to make at much less competitive levels are off target, shots are into the opposing logo, or nowhere near the net. Assignments are missed, dumb penalties are being taken on a nightly basis (except in a game where I think the lack of a call was out of pity) and as soon as the first goal goes in, everyone looks as if any flame within them has been extinguished.
Everyone is underachieving right now, and that includes the guys who are absolutely cooked and probably not NHL level anymore, as well as the ones who are playing but never were NHL level. The core is absolutely not doing enough. The defense is in shambles. The team only has one reliable option in net. And it seems at the same time that the only guys who are being held accountable are low-level, low wage guys like Paul Cotter, who while absolutely underachieving, is not the right this team is in free fall. So what’s wrong; did they give up because the coaching stinks? Are they mad that there seems to be selective accountability? Is it frustration with how the team has been built, and that there isn’t enough actual talent to supplement the core?
The worst part of this season and the most recent slide is that right now there seems to be a whole lot more questions than answer. For a team supposed to be contending, this past decade looks to be a whole lot more like they were pretending to be building towards relevance again. Jared pointed out yesterday just how many current staff members have been here the entire time and I agree with him: it’s time to clear house. Maybe once we do we can see exactly who the problems are. Clearing out office staff could also lead to some players asking to leave, be they problematic in any form or not. Yet nothing happened after one of the worst drubbings this team has ever experienced; what does it take for something to happen? Pittsburgh playing it on repeat again tonight?
Again, with the numerous questions, I can’t say for sure who or what the Devils players have given up on, but I think they have indeed given up. And the absolute worst part is the ones who will suffer the most are us fans. We are the ones who want this group to succeed. Many of us, myself included, have been around and been fans long enough to see all three Stanley Cup victories while craving a fourth. Something has to give. Something has to be fixed. An aggressive retool (at the very least) is needed.
And yet, as again was said yesterday, I too do not trust anyone currently in team management to do it.
The Devils players look to have given up and the current management doesn’t appear to be willing or able to fix it.