Devils' promising year going down in flames

The New Jersey Devils fell to the Los Angeles Kings at the Crypto Arena, possibly leaving behind any chances for the 2023-24 playoffs. It has been a season of inconsistency, injuries, bad goaltending, and sloppy play that came to a head Sunday afternoon. The Devils collapsed again due to mistakes in all three zones and failed to adjust their game to the opposition. Head Coach Lindy Ruff, who remains on the hot seat with both the media and fans, had no answers and no responses as the game spiraled out of control and, with it, a deeper hole to dig out of this season.

The Devils scored the first goal in a rare occurrence in a season where they have the record for the most first goals given up. A bad bounce off the boards allowed Timo Meier to take a pass from Nico Hischier and put the Devils in the lead 15 seconds into the game. Unfortunately, that would be the end of the Devils' offense for the rest of the game. The Devils again found no answer to the modern trap of alternating 3-1-1 and 2-2-1 defensive systems the LA Kings rolled out. The NHL solved the Devils' transition system early in the season, and the coaching staff has made little adjustments to counter it.

The Kings' Phillip Danault would put up a hat trick in the Kings' 5-1 beating of the Devils, with Chatham, N.J. native Alex Laferriere and Swiss native Kevin Fiala adding to the score.

It would be one thing to break this down into a single game, but the writing has been on the wall for New Jersey all season. Injuries played a huge role in the poor start to the season, but issues arose when coach Lindy Ruff played the same systems with less elite talent. Instead of adjusting the system, he played the same style without the same results. The team did lose prime talent in Damon Severson and Ryan Graves, as well as two-way forward Tomas Tatar, who played a role in the adjustments.

The team is now healthy, missing only Dougie Hamilton at the backend. Yes, a key player, but not one that would change the entire direction of the team. The team has consistently needed help with clearing the defensive zone. One or two games are on the players, but the season as a whole is on the coaching staff. Failure to clear the puck, costly turnovers in their defensive zone, and just sloppy play clearing rebounds net front have led to far too many goals against them. The lack of physical play in the defensive zone has allowed opponents to knock the Devils off the puck, resulting in opposing teams having shots on goal.

All this has exposed an already fragile goaltending. It was the main issue all last season and showed even more this season, especially with the sputtering offense. Nico Daws and Akira Schmid are young goaltenders in a league where most goaltenders don't hit their primes until they are 25 – 27, but the two rookies have been thrown to the wolves, and their inexperience has shown. The coaching staff has run Daws, coming off hip surgery in the offseason, to the ground instead of rotating goaltending.

This team's high skill and IQ have been better than most teams in the NHL, but the instinct to pass and overshoot has been a glaring issue. Too often, the team has passed the puck into traffic or held on to it too long. Ruff commented on this four games ago in a post-game interview, but the issue remains.

Consistent lines/ poor line combinations have also been a huge issue. Rarely has it felt that the Devils have gone into more than one or two games with the same line. Defensive pairings change game-to-game and sometimes have a seventh D-man to add to the mix. The lines are constantly in flux, and players who have stepped up have been sentenced to less ice time, while others with less success have seen their time increase. Chemistry is natural in hockey, and it is more complicated to develop if you rarely know who your linemates are game-to-game.

The Devils are lacking the physicality that other teams have. This issue is surprising since they brought in winger Meier to be a power forward, and his role is more of a speed player now. The Devils often get pushed around, hard checks, cheap shots, and need more physicality in their game. It is rare for the Devils to out-hit a team in a game. What's even more rare is that New Jersey leads the league in blocked shots this year.

In most of their losses, the Devils haven't been the better team on the ice in any of the three zones. The Kings' loss had a different feel. The Devils made too many glaring mistakes that the Kings pounced on. The Devils didn't adjust their game to a slower defense, beating them by positioning. The Devils coaching staff didn't even look fired up on the bench.

Individually, there will be some great moments for players to look back on. The main issue is that hockey is a team sport. The superstars of the league don't win cups on their own. Connor McDavid and Austin Matthews would trade Cups yearly if that were the case. Hockey is all about team chemistry, and that starts with coaching. It's time for Fitzgerald to pull the trigger and bring in a new voice to lead Jersey's team.

This season all falls on Lindy. Multiple injuries and shaky goaltending have played a large part in this season's demise. That said, great coaches rally their team in moments of adversity. When everything is going well, good coaches are born. When everything seems to be falling apart, legendary coaches are born.