The New Jersey Devils are making things interesting heading into the final month of the season. In the 11 games since coming back from the Olympic Break, the Devils are 7-4, sitting 12 points out of the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with 12 games to play.
New Jersey Devils Head Coach Sheldon Keefe Wants Team to be Relentless
It is an uphill climb for the Devils as they need to win a majority of their games, while getting help from the Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Boston Bruins, and Detroit Red Wings. With some of those teams on their schedule, the Devils are not out of it, but given how New Jersey is playing with so much consistency now, you have to wonder where this was all season.
While many factors contributed to the New Jersey Devils performance after their 12-4-1 start, the lack of consistency and clarity about the style of play they wanted to adopt did them in. It also hurts when their best offensive player, Jack Hughes, missed 18 games and wasn’t himself when he returned. He is 100 percent healthy now, and the Devils are playing with more confidence.
That was the biggest thing coming into the season: playing to a standard each and every night, and many nights the Devils did not live up to that standard. When New Jersey is at its best, it plays a fast, attacking, and relentless style of play that makes it one of the better teams in the National Hockey League. The problem is they haven’t shown it consistently enough, especially during their tough stretch in December and January.
New Jersey Devils Slowly Maturing Under Head Coach Sheldon Keefe
But as President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald said during the post-trade-deadline press conference, he likes the way the team has performed since the Olympic Break and wants his team to play the tenacious style of hockey that made them successful in 2022-23.
Absolutely. And I said this back at my press conference in December, when we play the right way, that fast, tenacious, in-your-face type of hockey, quick transition. We’re good hockey team, and we’ve shown that in spurts over the December, January, months of lack of success, Fitzgerald said. We showed it consistently through October and most of November.
And we’ve seen that post-Olympic break. And when we play like that, we’re not only a good team, we’re a tough team to beat because we’re all connected and we’re all on the same page. We’re getting great, timely saves. Special teams may be hitting at the right moment. So to me, it’s a fun team to watch. I’ve really enjoyed watching the last few games, because it reminded of the start of the year, the first quarter of the year.
Sheldon Keefe: “I Believe I Can Be Part of the Solution“
We know that quick transition and attack off the rush have made the Devils successful over the last couple of seasons. Recently, under Sheldon Keefe, New Jersey is playing similarly to how Team USA does in International play, with their defence leading the offence. Instead of the forwards driving the play, it is the defensemen who drive it until the forwards take over in the offensive zone.
We are constantly working on it in practice, Fitzgerald said following the trade deadline. Quick transition, just on the stick, off the stick, right back up the other end. Doing it in practice helps, but it’s a mindset. But when we do that, and we’ve done this now, if you watch our last three games here (11 games now), particularly when we do that, we can have success, quick strike, offense, and that’s what we are. That’s our identity. We need to do a better job at it, and we’re starting to get back to what we actually do well.
Whether it is Sheldon Keefe empowering his players more or deploying the system differently, the New Jersey Devils are playing a different system. It is night and day. There is a belief in the room and a confidence about their game right now. However, it could all be for naught with the season winding down.
But if the New Jersey Devils had played this way from the start, the Stanley Cup Playoffs wouldn’t be out of the question. Just imagine if they were consistently this good all season.
