The New Jersey Devils have a long way to go before they can genuinely be considered Stanley Cup contenders. Saturday night’s 6-3 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers is another example of how far this group still has to go to be viewed as a contender, not a pretender.
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However, as Sheldon Keefe told the media following the game, maybe this is who the New Jersey Devils are: a consistently inconsistent team.
I mean, it’s reminiscent of Colorado. Different times that’s that’s been us and until it’s not us, that’s who we are. You say it’s uncharacteristic? Is it uncharacteristic? I would say that it is exactly who we are at this point in time, is inconsistent. There’s stretches over this last 10 games where we’ve been, right there, amongst the best defensive teams in the league, when you look at it statistically and what we’ve given up in terms of chances, and there are games we are the worst. So when you are inconsistent like that, you’re fighting an uphill battle every night. You’re not quite sure what you’ve got.
It appeared things were different this season, at least at the start anyway. The players had a different mindset and showed this incredible ability to find other ways to win hockey games. It didn’t matter who was in the lineup or not. The players were able to adjust, understand their assignments, and execute them to perfection.
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Saturday night’s game was a familiar picture from last season without Jack Hughes in the lineup. It dates back even further, to seasons gone by, when players let little things affect their game, which allowed things to snowball quickly. One goal turns into two or three goals for the opposition. That is precisely what happened in Philadelphia.
“How we manage the first two shifts after we score,” Sheldon Keefe told the media post-game. “I mean, our power play goes out, works their ass off, scores a big goal to get us on the board. The next two shifts after that really let us down and gets them in the game, gets the crowd going, and then we just kind of unravel from there. Turnover and then we don’t take care of each other, to give up a breakaway. And then we miss an assignment that we had talked about on the face-off play we talked about before the game. We missed the assignment. It’s three one. So, how do you manage that? That is the game.”
As Keefe mentioned, the Devils’ power play gets them on the board, but it is the three goals in 26 seconds by Philadelphia turning a 1-1 hockey game into a 4-1 lead for the Flyers that does the Devils in. Now, not all of this falls on goaltender Jake Allen. As with Jacob Markstrom, the system in front of the goalies let them down. Turnovers led to goals, and the Devils found themselves playing catch-up once again. That is not a recipe for success.
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Sheldon Keefe saw this coming during the eight-game winning streak. The bounces were going the Devils way to keep that winning streak alive, but the Devils weren’t playing a complete 60-minute game. The effort was there, and that is how they won. But the effort and compete haven’t been there night in and night out.
That is a standard the New Jersey Devils are trying to hold themselves to.
“I think when we get scored on, we stop competing for a bit, that’s just underneath our standard,” Nico Hischier told the media following the game. “Competing should be a non-negotiable and part of our identity and you don’t need to have skill to compete. And we lost that and they made us and it cost us the game.”
That has been the talk for the past couple of off-seasons and regular seasons: the organization wants to be a tough team to play against. Saturday night, there was none of that. The Devils looked disinterested during massive stretches of the game as they waited for the final horn to sound. Again, Keefe was searching for guys who wanted to be out there and play.
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While New Jersey is missing Jack Hughes and Brett Pesce, that is no excuse not to compete and battle. Every good team is dealing with injuries, especially this season. But the New Jersey Devils are still showing the immaturity of a young team, rather than the maturity many thought they had at the beginning of the season.
Again, the Devils are not going to play their best game every night, but the fight of the matter is good teams don’t stop competing. They did and lost what made them a good hockey team to start the season.
“It comes down to working hard, competing, and then the bounces are going to go your way,” Timo Meier said post-game. “I thought, especially in that stretch, we weren’t competing. They were winning more battles. And that’s that, at the end of the day, when it comes down to how competitive we can be.”
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This is a huge stretch for the New Jersey Devils coming up. It is time to hunker down and show what they are truly made of. It is a big year for the club. Sheldon Keefe has high standards, and the players know what to expect.
But if the players play like they did Saturday night, you can expect more losses along the way. The results are based on how you play. And if the New Jersey Devils aren’t going to play the right way, they won’t have success and will struggle to find wins.
