Devils’ season from hell is a hard one to explain
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Maybe ownership and management perceive this as a Gap Year for the Devils, when the players go off on their own pursuits after having put so much work the previous year into not only making the playoffs but winning the first round Battle of the Hudson.
Maybe that is why there has been no material improvement at all to the roster of one of the most disappointing teams in the league, which has been fiddling along below the cut line just about all year.
The goaltending issue that has been allowed to fester has swallowed much of the team’s morale, and it is kind of a surprise that Martin Brodeur, as executive vice president of hockey operations, has, in part, presided over this chaos in the crease.
The Devils rank 32nd, last overall, in save percentage and 30th overall at five-on-five. That goes a long way in explaining the team’s plight — fifth in the wild-card chase — but not entirely, since the Lightning, Avalanche and Hurricanes all have save percentages ranked in the NHL’s bottom five and have not been knee-capped by it.
Yes, Jack Hughes has been sidelined twice for a sum of 16 contests, Nico Hischier missed 11 and Dougie Hamilton went down for the season after 20 games. Michael McLeod, who gained an increasingly prominent role as the season evolved, is done as he faces two counts relating to sexual assault in London.
But that is not a good enough explanation for why the Devils have lost home games to non-playoff teams from Anaheim, San Jose, Calgary, Washington (twice), Montreal, Columbus and Arizona (shootout). The team has won fewer than half its games at the Rock, going 11-12-2. That speaks to a lack of preparation.
Yet, there have been no moves as apply to personnel on the staff or in uniform. Unless, that is, you want to count general manager Tom Fitzgerald’s contract extension. Loyalty to head coach Lindy Ruff has curiously remained steadfast.
And now, as we are approaching the March 8 deadline, do you remember who was perceived as the prize of the 2023 trade season?
Why, it was Timo Meier, the multi-faceted, goal-scoring winger who at age 26 went from San Jose to New Jersey for a package that included two first-rounders. Meier, a pending restricted free agent, signed an eight-year, $70.4 million extension (AAV of $8.8M) with New Jersey after a mixed-bag performance down the stretch and in the playoffs.
But this year? Meier — who has missed 13 games with varying ailments — is an astonishing minus-25 while posting 19 points (9-10) in 36 games. Plus-minus may not be all the rage these days, but when it’s in the ballpark of the wind-chill factor of the Ice Bowl in Green Bay, it catches your notice.
Meier has been on for 16 goals for and 35 against in 501:54 of five-on-five for a 31.37 goals-for percentage even as the Devils have allowed only three goals more than they’ve scored at full strength. His is the third-worst rating in the league behind only Chicago’s Lukas Reichel (23.26 percent) and San Jose’s Filip Zadina (28.30) among players with at least 500 minutes, per NaturalStatTrick. His expected goals share is a ghastly 26.4 percent as he’s bounced from wing to wing and from line to line.
The Swiss’ numbers seem almost impossible for a player of his caliber. They represent a lost year. A Gap Year for Meier. Gap Years all around.
It is not quite equivalent to the Penguins winning a game in the midst of their 1984 shameless tank for Mario Lemieux, but the Philadelphia hierarchy must have winced more than a little bit upon the team’s victory over the Jets on Thursday two nights after defeating the Panthers.
For while a bubble team recording victories over two teams in the league’s top eight within 48 hours might normally send the message to the hierarchy that it should be buying at the deadline, that’s not the path that should be pursued even if the club went into the weekend holding third place in the Metro.
The Flyers have been the most impressive team of the East’s expansive mushy middle under head coach John Tortorella but there is no need to jump the line here and sacrifice the future for immediate — and momentary — gratification of perhaps a couple of home playoff games now by hanging onto assets instead of moving them at the deadline.
Maybe it would be different if Carter Hart were not under arrest for sexual assault. But he is and it is not. This is not the time for the Flyers, whose credibility as a franchise has returned under the presidency of Keith Jones. There is no quick fix available to turn this team into a legitimate championship threat. They need to sell at the deadline.
These kinds of wins, though, make selling a more difficult concept to sell, and most certainly in the room.
It was kind of eerie at the Garden last Monday night watching the Rangers play an opponent with Parise and Drouin in the lineup even if it was Zach and Jonathan for the Avalanche and not J.P. and Jude for the Islanders, wasn’t it, old-timers?
Maybe that’s why Kaapo Kakko started reminding me of Bill Fairbairn.
I know I’m supposed to be impressed by Ryan Johansen, but I must confess that I almost never have been while watching the center play over his 13-year-career. Must be me.
On the other hand, Sam Montembeault is pretty, pretty — you know the drill — good just about every time I’ve seen him in net for Montreal so I wonder if I’m missing the grander plan under which the 27-year-old has been sheltered by the Habs as one-third of a season-long three goalie rotation.
Finally, did you hear that the NHL has added to the Blackhawks’ punishment for the organization’s misbehavior as applies to the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandal by awarding Chicago the 2025 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field?
This action, following the 2023 lottery victory that granted the team first-overall draft pick Connor Bedard, should close the book on the disciplinary portion of the program.
And you thought the league wasn’t taking this seriously.
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