The New Jersey Devils season is slipping away quickly after a 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers Thursday night. Even though they are within striking distance of a playoff spot, something is not clicking for the Devils, especially in the defensive zone.
Even though the Devils went undefeated in the preseason, which nobody takes too much stock, New Jersey was not going to surprise anyone this season. The Devils were the ones being hunted instead of the hunters. And the players needed to be up for every game.
Just because you won in the preseason does not mean this team was perfect and ready to go in the regular season. Again, the record does not mean much, but there were little details of the game that carried over into the regular season. Lindy Ruff mentioned that after the game on Thursday night,
“You have a lead going into the third period, the compete level, the battle level, the attention to detail, Lindy Ruff said. “We coughed up the puck on three or four goals. Got out number at net front on a couple of goals. Just details. We got to work. We got our ass kicked.”
As mentioned in the latest edition of Chalk Talk, the Devils have a problem with coverage in their defensive zone—five of the six Edmonton goals game on defensive zone lapses. Two of those goals came off turnovers. That is not a recipe for success.
Not to pick on John Marino again, but on the second Edmonton Oilers goal scored by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Mattias Ekholm took a shot from the point and Nugent-Hopkins was standing in front of Devils goalie Akira Schmid and had an easy tap-in to make it 2-0 Oilers.
Go back to the first goal scored by Ryan McLeod. Three players, Luke Hughes, Brendan Smith, and Jack Hughes, go to the puck. This leaves Sam Gagner wide open to make a pass to McLeod to make it 1-0 Oilers 24 seconds into the game. Not one player put their stick in the lane or even tried to move Gagner off the puck.
You can live with the mistakes Simon Nemec and Luke Hughes make. Both guys are rookies. However, both need to tone down their aggressiveness. It is the rest of the defense that is the issue. And everyone points to goaltending, but defense and goaltending go hand in hand. And since the regular season started, the Devils are trying to outscore the problems they have on defense.
Defense still wins in this league. You have to take care of your zone first. And the Devils have yet to do that. Head coach Lindy Ruff stated after a loss to the San Jose Sharks, the players were “cheating” and “disrespecting” the game. You don’t like to hear your head coach say that. However, those little details can affect the rest of the game. It showed against the Oilers.
“Just details. 50/50 battles. Details. You’ll look at when you’re breaking out and you turn the puck over you’re not in good defensive position, Lindy Ruff continued. “We look at three of the goals. You know, the puck is going to be ours so we’re heading on the offense and we turn it over. That’s one area. The commitment to being in shot lanes. Free shots from the point where we’re not blocking shots.”
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It all starts with not getting the puck out of the zone. That goes back to the preseason. Either the Devils are trying to be too fancy or cute at the blueline or the players are being too soft with the puck. Instead of using the boards, they are just pushing the puck out of the zone, which ultimately leads to the opposing team keeping the puck in the zone.
During a preseason game against the Rangers, Jesper Bratt had a chance to get the puck out of the zone and he did not. This led to the Rangers tying the game. And those types of plays have carried over into the regular season.
Go back to the Flyers game on Tuesday night. Jack Hughes had by far his worst game with several turnovers, including one in overtime that led to the game-winning goal. That can’t happen if this team wants to make a run to make the playoffs. We know head coach Lindy Ruff gives Hughes free rein to do what he wants, but those giveaways this season have been costly.
Especially the turnovers in the defensive zone. You saw it last year in the playoffs with Toronto against Florida. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner tried to be too cute at their blueline and the team paid for it. The turnovers led to goals. Similarly, the Devils had those problems against Carolina as well.
And it is just not at five on five, either. The Devils not getting the puck out of the zone has hurt their penalty kill as well. The simple little plays where you think the puck is getting out it is not. This allows the opposing team’s power play to hold the zone and it ultimately leads to a power play goal.
So, while everyone wants to point to goaltending, defensively, the New Jersey Devils have to be better. New Jersey is a team that takes pride in playing good defensive hockey. Look at what the Oilers did with three goals in 69 seconds to begin the third period. They stuck to their plan and pressured the Devils into turnovers in their own zone.
Edmonton was down 3-2 entering the third, and just like that, it was 5-3 Edmonton. Again, it starts in the Devils’ defensive zone. On the tying goal by Connor McDavid, nobody picks up McDavid in front for an easy goal.
What drives coaches nuts is turnovers, like the one that resulted in the game-winning goal by Leon Draisaitl. Kevin Bahl coughs up the puck to Draisaitl after the Devils win a board battle. Instead of making the smart play of shooting the puck around the net and up the opposite boards, he goes back the same way.
Then, on Ryan McLeod‘s second of the night. A simple dump-in leads to a turnover by Luke Hughes. The puck goes onto McLeod’s stick for a goal.
And what it comes down to is what Lindy Ruff said at the beginning of the season after a similar loss against Washington, where the New Jersey Devils blew a lead to begin the third period: the Devils will make it hard on themselves if they continue to play this poor defensively.