What Happened in November?
November started excellently.
The Devils went 4-1-1 through the first six games of the month, though four of those games (3-0-1) went to overtime. Their only bad game was the back-end of a back-to-back on November 2, when they lost 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks. On November 12, things finally started to really look up after the late-October loss of Brett Pesce, with Simon Nemec scoring a hat trick, including an overtime game winner, against the Chicago Blackhawks. This came just two days after he scored a dramatic game-tying goal against the Islanders at home, preserving the Devils’ then season-starting point streak at the Prudential Center.
There were some worrying moments in the Blackhawks game. Right after returning from prior injuries, Zack MacEwen and Cody Glass were hurt. The Devils were not looking forward to filling their third-line center hole with Dawson Mercer again, while MacEwen turned the fourth line from a mess to both a scoring threat and a physical presence.
Then Jack Hughes sliced up his pinky on some broken glass at a steakhouse in Chicago.
Fortunately for Jack, the glass did not cause a season-ending injury, and he should be back sometime between Christmas and right after New Year’s. In the meantime, though, the Devils had to make it work without Hughes or Glass in the lineup for several days, forcing Juho Lammikko into a third-line center role while Dawson Mercer centered the second line. The results were not pretty. After Simon Nemec helped the Devils steal a shootout win over the Washington Capitals, three Devils magically returned from their injuries for their matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. None of Dougie Hamilton, Connor Brown, or Evgenii Dadonov looked quite right off the jump, and the Devils lost three straight, including blow outs by the Lightning and Flyers. Between those games, they were shutout, 1-0, by Florida.
But things turned around when the Devils came back home. With Cody Glass returning to the lineup, they won a very chippy game against the Detroit Red Wings, and then beat the Blues in overtime. On Black Friday, they blew the Buffalo Sabres out, 5-0. Looking to finish the month strong, they completely sleepwalked through the first half of their game against the Flyers last night, turning it on much too late in a 5-3 loss (that included an empty-netter against). In the end, an 8-5-1 month in which the team was dealt a devastating injury blow and had to have Juho Lammikko center a third line for multiple games doesn’t seem that bad. Let’s break down the games a bit more by injury availability:
- With Jack: 4-1-1
- Without Jack: 4-4-0
- With Glass: 6-1-1
- Without Glass: 2-4-0
- With Lammikko at 3C: 1-3-0
- Without Jack, with Glass at 3C: 3-1-0
And by defensive dressings and availability:
- With Cholowski and White: 3-0-1
- With Cholowski and Hamilton: 2-4-0
- With White and Hamilton: 3-1-0
- Total, with White: 6-1-1 (2-1 regulation record)
- Total, with Hamilton: 5-5-0 (3-5 regulation record)
- Total, with Cholowski: 5-4-1 (1-4 regulation record)
By the Numbers
All stats come from Natural Stat Trick, except where mentioned. Stats ranked 20th or worse are colored red, while stats 11th or better are colored green. The closer to 1st or 32nd the stat is, the stronger the shade. All stats are of the morning of November 30, so there are four games that may slightly impact their placement.
5v5 Play: The New Jersey Devils looked like they had work to do in October at even strength. But after several more injuries and lots of lineup shuffling, things largely got worse for the team.
Given the injuries the Devils sustained, it’s not incredibly surprising that the team looked worse in most areas. They played the entire month without Brett Pesce, their best defensive right-handed defenseman, while Jack Hughes was injured midway through. Jack Hughes in particular was doing great in the six November games he played, with a 59.41 CF% and 56.77 xGF% at five-on-five. Among forwards, he was second to only Arseny Gritsyuk in those categories. Farther down the lineup, though, things were atrocious. Connor Brown looked like he may have returned a bit too quickly from his injury, with second-worst mark at a 34.48 CF% and a team-worst 28.86 xGF%. Evgenii Dadonov had similarly bad numbers before going back on the shelf with another (or an aggravated) injury. Among the 14 forwards with over 15 minutes played in November, here were the top six by expected goals percentage:
- Arseny Gritsyuk: 57.85
- Jack Hughes: 56.77
- Jesper Bratt: 55.15
- Ondrej Palat: 52.48
- Stefan Noesen: 49.81
- Nico Hischier: 46.72
And here were the bottom five:
- Connor Brown: 28.86
- Luke Glendening: 35.47
- Evgenii Dadonov: 35.88
- Paul Cotter: 36.27
- Juho Lammikko: 42.72
Given these numbers, it would apparently be in the team’s best interest to move Stefan Noesen off of the fourth line, likely demoting Cotter or Brown to play with Lammikko and Glendening. This season, Stefan Noesen has a 58.75 xGF% when playing on any other line, which is a mark that would have would have put him as the top forward by quality of possession in November.
Thankfully, while Dougie Hamilton looked like he was holding himself back a little bit after returning from his injury, he was not as out of it as Brown or Dadonov. Also improving the defense, Colton White held a 49.15 xGF% to Dennis Cholowski’s 41.17 mark, vastly improving the team’s defensive results in those minutes as well. Getting Hamilton and White into the lineup also lifted the team in another area: they helped make it possible to separate the Dillon-Hughes and Cholowski-Hughes pairings. Luke Hughes clearly misses Brett Pesce, as shown by the team giving up a whopping 17 even strength goals against in November’s 14 games with Luke on the ice, though his results began to match his expected numbers more when paired with Simon Nemec. Nemec had a surge down the stretch this month on that pairing until last night, when he played his worst defensive game of the season. It happens.
Power Play Situations: The Devils were great at generating chances, and less great at finishing them.
I will cut the Devils a bit of slack here. Ever since they got off to an insanely hot start on the power play, officials have made a note to make them work twice as hard for power plays. See last night, when Nemec was tagged early for a clearly phantom high stick that should have been an embellishment penalty on Philadelphia. While most crews would go into game management mode, Brenden Dillon was later tagged for an extra unsportsmanlike after trading crosschecks with Sean Couturier, while Couturier got away with a blood-drawing double minor high sticking in the third period on Luke Hughes. The officials quickly made up halfway for that one with a minor penalty call a few seconds after play resumed, but it was a perfect image of the one-sided officiating the Devils have been dealing with since halfway through October.
Teams that spend little time on the power play are going to have a hard time generating goals. To date, the Devils have a stunning 13 power plays below average, according to Hockey Reference. Whether you think it’s the official’s relationship with Sheldon Keefe, or an understanding among officials that the Devils will stomp other teams when given power plays, other teams pretty much have free reign to do whatever they want to the Devils. If the Devils were given power plays at an appropriate rate for the league, I imagine that shooting percentage would have ticked a few percentage points higher.
Penalty Kill Situations: The New Jersey Devils’ penalty kill nearly fell apart in November, but the goaltenders are keeping them afloat.
For reference, The Devils had a sixth-ranked 6.98 xGA/60 on the penalty kill in October. There is only so long you can expect this to go on before the goals against start flooding in, but the ratio of results has not changed at all this season. In both October and November, the Devils have scored 25 percent of the goals while on the penalty kill. But in November, the underlying metrics on the defensive side have fallen apart. But it’s not just because of the loss of Pesce.
First and foremost, Dougie Hamilton missed four games in November, and he only played the fourth-most minutes among defensemen (18:49) on the penalty kill. Yes, you heard right: Dougie Hamilton is the best penalty killer on the New Jersey Devils, minute for minute and pound for pound. In November, he had a defense-leading 6.99 xGA/60 and a 3.19 GA/60. With Dougie on the ice on the penalty kill, the Devils have an insanely high 28.30 xGF%, which is usually an effect only forwards can bring to the team — but Dougie manages to do it. By comparison, the team should venture to completely eliminate Nemec’s penalty kill minutes, as the team gave up 13.85 GA/60 and 18.7 xGA/60 in his 8:40 of PK time in November. Meanwhile, Siegenthaler, Dillon, and Hughes all range from 9.9 (Siegenthaler) to 11.28 (Hughes) xGA/60. The constant force of good? Dougie Hamilton.
There has also been regression from some forwards. Luke Glendening (15.12) and Connor Brown (18.08) had the worst xGA/60 marks among the forwards by a wide margin, eclipsing Nico Hischier’s 9.1 xGA/60. The difference between the former two and the Captain, though, is that Nico has combined with Dawson Mercer to play an aggressive, at times offensive style, while Brown and Glendening have yet to create a shorthanded scoring chance.
Just as the team can improve their process and results by playing Hamilton more over players like Nemec and Hughes on the penalty kill (possibly replacing the other entirely with Colton White, as well), forwards who might be able to improve the kill with more usage include Ondrej Palat, Stefan Noesen, and Cody Glass. Palat ran a 6.48 xGA/60 in his six minutes and change of usage in November, with the Devils holding opponents scoreless. Importantly, Palat also had an impact on the frequency of point shots, reducing the CA/60 to a much better 86.17 in his minutes. Meanwhile, Stefan Noesen saw exactly zero shot attempts against in over two penalty killing minutes. This is a small sample, but the Devils have allowed zero goals against in around 41 penalty killing minutes by Noesen since he rejoined the club last season — and the team does not allow high-danger shots with him on the ice. By combining Noesen with Palat or Glass, who has seen pitifully low penalty killing usage with the Devils (zero goals against in 14 minutes since last year), the team might be able to get more out of their third-line range of players.
Goaltending: It was an improved month for Markstrom, with more excellence from Allen.
While Jacob Markstrom continued to struggle with high-danger shots, the Devils actually got well above league average goaltending in the month of November. A lot of the disparity here actually comes down to the penalty kill. Jake Allen stopped all 16 shots he faced on the penalty kill, while Jacob Markstrom gave up six goals on 41 shots (.854), including four goals on 14 high-danger shots (.714). But can you blame Markstrom? The penalty kill was much worse in November than in October, leading to Markstrom having 0.62 goals saved above expected on the kill throughout the month. Allen, by comparison, only faced 3.38 expected goals against on the penalty kill (-1.63 per 60, compared to Markstrom), indicating a significantly better team performance in front of him.
In the end, though, Allen saved an entire goal against above expected per every 60 minutes played, in all situations, as Allen improved his high-danger save percentage from .729 to .905 from October to November. Throughout the league, only the top 10 goalies by all situations save percentage managed a goal saved above expected per 60 minutes played in the month of November. On the positive side of things for Markstrom, he massively improved his medium-danger save percentage from an incredibly poor .848 to an elite .946, while his low-danger save percentage went from an unplayable .833 to a dead-average .950.
Moving forward, these trends should encourage Sheldon Keefe to move forward with a pretty even split of games, perhaps with Allen continuing to get a bit of an edge in starts. To date, Allen still has an extra two starts on Markstrom across the entire season, as he is on track for an even 41 starts for the season.
Devil of the Month
In the month of November, the team’s success was largely driven by four players: Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Simon Nemec, and Jake Allen. In the cases of Simon Nemec and Jake Allen, they had some excellent individual performances. Jake Allen stole two games from Pittsburgh and Washington early in the month, allowing three goals in total in those games despite both going to shootouts. Later on, he did his best to keep the Devils in against Florida, but the offense had a hapless bottom six at that point of time, leading to a 1-0 shutout. Then, Allen had a bit of a stinker against Philly before shutting out the Sabres. In total, I would credit Allen for helping the team steal two standings points throughout the month, though he could have helped them steal up to four if the offense held up their end.
Nemec is a wild card. His defense still needs a lot of work, as shown by last night’s performance against the Flyers. However, he scored six goals in November, plus a shootout goal. They were all incredibly impactful:
- Game-tying goal with under 5 seconds left, vs. Islanders on 11/10 (OTL)
- Hat-trick, including game-tying game-winning goals at Blackhawks on 11/12 (OTW)
- Game-winning shootout goal, vs. Capitals on 11/15 (SOW)
- Game-winning goal, vs. Blues on 11/26 (OTW)
- Game-tying goal (1-1), vs. Flyers on 11/30 (5-3 L, 5 GA for Nemec)
In total, Nemec’s goal scoring added five standings points for the Devils, while his game against the Flyers yesterday may have helped prevent them from getting two more. Still, how many hat tricks do you see defensemen score?
Nico Hischier was having a rough season until Jack Hughes got hurt. By the time Hughes was announced out with a hand injury, he only had three goals and nine assists in 17 games. Since then, Hischier has six goals and five assists in eight games. In the Devils’ four wins in that span, Nico has three goals and three assists. After the team looked like they were having trouble fighting without Jack, Nico had a two-goal, three-point night in a loss against the Flyers. Then, when the Devils returned home, Hischier set-up the opening goal against Detroit and then re-took the lead in the first period for them after DeBrincat tied it. The Devils never coughed up that second lead, and Hischier ended up trying to fight Dylan Larkin after Detroit acted very dumb following the final horn. Then, he factored into all three goals against the Blues with a goal and two primary assists. With the last win of the month, Hischier had the icebreaking goal in the first period against Buffalo (then an important goal, as Buffalo didn’t fall out of it until the third). Nico really shone after Jack got hurt, preventing the Devils from falling apart on offense, helping to swing at least four standings points the Devils’ way in the second half of November.
Timo Meier has largely rode shotgun for Hischier this season, and he had two goals and three assists in the team’s latest (and crucial) three-game winning streak. He has done a great job of setting the tone for the Devils, upping their physicality on the forecheck and getting under the opponents’ skins. He was crucial in the win over St. Louis with a goal and primary assist in regulation, as the Devils would not have reached overtime without him. From the November 22 loss to the Flyers to the November 26 win over the Blues, Timo had the first goal of the game each night, while he set up Nico Hischier’s icebreaking goal on November 28 in Buffalo. Timo largely sets the tone for the Devils, and we cannot overlook that.
In the end, I think I have to give the All About the Jersey Devil of the Month for November 2025 to Nico Hischier. Yes, Allen was phenomenal, but I cannot give the award to a goalie who played fewer than half of the games and only had three of the eight wins (even if he deserved one or two more). Yes, Nemec may have had the clutchest month in recent hockey memory, but he was too inconsistent on the ice and still has a lot of work to do, defensively. Timo Meier was the tone-setter, and the rest of the team would do well to pick up some of his edge in their minutes. But Nico Hischier stopped the ship from going down after Jack Hughes got hurt, and that’s what you need from your team Captain.
Nico led the team in goals and primary points. He took 275 of the team’s 744 faceoffs. He led the forwards with 14 shots blocked. He tied Timo Meier for the team lead in high danger chances with 28. He had the strongest iCF to iHDCF ratio on the team at 5:2 (70 to 28), indicating that he never wastes possession with bad shots. And how could he? Without Jack Hughes in the lineup, offensive generation is falling squarely on Nico’s shoulders. And more than he has since the first couple weeks of the season, Nico Hischier looks like an elite two-way center again. He’s keeping them a playoff team while they wait for Jack and Pesce to return.
Concluding Remarks and Your Thoughts
The Devils had 28 potential points in November, and they took 17 for a .607 points percentage. This is a step down from their October mark, but it is by no means “bad.” Across a whole season, it would be a 99.57 points pace, which is generally good for a playoff spot. As of this writing, the Devils are tied for fourth in the league by total points and fifth by points percentage. With 33 standings points, they are first in the Metropolitan Division and second in the Eastern Conference with an extra game played over Carolina at the moment, but the Hurricanes will match them in games played this evening. They are tied for third in the league in regulation and overtime wins.
Could they be better? Yes. Would I expect them to continue being this good with these underlying metrics? No. But they were missing Jack Hughes for the majority of the month and Brett Pesce for the entire month and skated out the other side with a winning record in November. I will take that every time, as frustrating as individual games might be.
But what did you think of the Devils in November? Did you enjoy watching them? Did you think they were better or worse than expected, given the situations? What do you think they need to do to have a successful December? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.