Devils Special Team's Strengths and Weaknesses

Ice Hockey, New Jersey Devils, Professional

August 27, 2023

Any hockey fan knows special teams are the key to having a successful team. If you can not convert on the power play or kill a penalty, odds are your team will not be making it very far.

The Devils have struggled on having a consistently good power play for a few seasons now, while their penalty kill has been one of the better ones in the entire league. The Devils seemed to lose a lot of their momentum when going onto a power play and could not generate any sort of offense. No beating around the bush, if the Devils want to be successful, the power play unit has got to get better. Going into this season, we expect the power play to be much better considering their powerhouse of a top six.

Although our first unit does not connect very well, each player is very skilled in their own ways.

Dougie Hamilton has his blast from the blue line. Jack Hughes’ combination of speed, creativity, hockey IQ and underrated shot makes him a tough payer to defend. Nico Hischier has a big frame, along with face off abilities and grittiness behind and in front of the goal. Those are our top three who will definitely be on the power play unit.

Since the Devils acquired Timo Meier, it is hard to tell what his true position will be on the power play. He should be used on dot so he can put his shot to use, but for his first few games with the Devils he played in front of the net, blocking the goalies vision, but seemed to struggle there. If he ends up playing where he can use his shot, which I think he should, it would not surprise me if Jesper Bratt got moved to the second unit.

So, if Meier plays on the half wall, that would leave someone like Nathan Bastian who could come in and be in front of the net. We have seen Bastian in this position before and since he has a big frame, he has excelled in it. I believe these five players would be the best option to start the season off. Since the Devils have stars all throughout the top six, they can rotate the players if needed if the power play doesn’t seem to connect.

The power play needs to connect passes more, move into space to get open for the pass and move together as a unit. Most times when the Devils lose the puck during the power play, it is because our players are not moving the puck fast enough, causing the other team to collapse on the player who has it. Our players also seem to be very stagnant when on the power play, making it hard to get passes off.

As for the penalty kill, I do not believe there are real changes that need to be made. The PK does a very good job of getting into the lanes and blocking the shots. We get our best face off guys out there like Michael McLeod to win back possession and then do not hesitate to get the puck out of the zone. I believe if we continue to play the same way we do now, there is no reason our PK should not be the same or better since our players are getting older and smarter.

One of our weaknesses on the PK at times is the goalie. The goalie needs to be your best penalty killer and because our goalies are inconsistent at times, there were games where the goalie was letting up easy goals after the penalty killers worked hard to try and keep it out.

Our special teams have so much potential to be some of the best in the league with the amount of depth we have on our roster. There is no reason for our power play to be one of the worst in the league. With a few new coaches coming in, it will be interesting to see what changes will be made to the power play.