The Devils Good Start Certainly Feels Different This Year

The Devils are 2-0-0 to start the 2024-25 season. They also got off to a good start last year as well. Here’s why things are different this time around.

For all of the predictions and discussion in regards to the New Jersey Devils and the 2024-25 season, they managed to pass their first test of the new campaign in convincing fashion.

They played two games in Prague against the Buffalo Sabres, another team with playoff aspirations this season if everything goes right for them. And they won both of those games convincingly. 4-1 on Friday. 3-1 on Saturday.

In order for the Devils to get where they want to go this season, getting off to a good start is paramount. And unlike one season ago when the Devils got off to a 6-2-1 start, it should be sustainable this time around.

Why do I bring up that particular, cherry-picked, window of games? For a few reasons. Obviously, the 6-2-1 record was good even if there were underlying issues under the hood, with some of those flaws turning out to be season-defining weaknesses. But arguably, nothing was more season-defining in a negative manner than what happened in the next game when Jack Hughes crashed into the boards and suffered the shoulder injury that ultimately derailed both his and the Devils respective seasons.

This article isn’t about Jack Hughes specifically though, as it’s about the Devils style of play. It’s about them managing expectations and being accountable, which is something we didn’t see a year ago despite a solid start.

We didn’t know last year that the team’s propensity to not start on time that we saw the first few games was a harbinger of things to come. The team won in spite of poor goaltending early in the season, thanks in part to a scalding white-hot power play. We didn’t know at the time that Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid would never rebound. We didn’t know that the team’s .885 goaltending through the first 9 games was only slightly worse than the .896 the Devils would wind up posting over 82 games. Goaltending might have technically improved, but any improvement like Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen coming in was too little, too late by the time those moves happened. And while we knew that a power play clicking at 44.7% through 9 games wasn’t sustainable, we didn’t know they’d go so far to the other extreme in terms of ineffectiveness towards the middle portion of the season. The team was 6-2-1, but their flaws were masked by a hot offense that cooled off to an extent once Hughes (as well as other key players like Dougie Hamilton and Timo Meier) got hurt.

The goaltending was an issue all year. The defense was an issue all year. The team being unprepared, not starting on time, and not being ready to play was an issue all year. The depth, or lack thereof, got exposed as injuries piled up.

Granted, we are talking about small sample sizes here, and two games in Prague against a Sabres team that might not be all that good when its all said and done is a far smaller sample size than nine games last October against a variety of opponents. The Devils will face stiffer tests in the near future, starting with the home opener tomorrow night against Sheldon Keefe’s old club in the Toronto Maple Leafs.

That said, I don’t know how one can watch last year’s team and this year’s and see a stark contrast in how they play. And I much prefer the 2024-25 edition now that we’re two games in.

My biggest gripe with last year’s team was how soft they were and how they were too easy to play against. So it goes without saying that my favorite moment from this weekend in Prague was Brenden Dillon’s hit on JJ Peterka (side note: here’s wishing JJ Peterka a speedy recovery).

Second half of a back-to-back. Devils already have one win over Buffalo in their back pocket. The legs might not be quite there yet in the early portion of the season. Ondrej Palat is out of the lineup due to the birth of his second child. Dinner reservations are all set for the night with a long flight home looming. It would’ve been really easy for the Devils to have taken their foot off the gas, coast through the game, let the result be whatever it would be, and get ready to ramp up for the regular grind of the season this week.

Brenden Dillon didn’t get that memo as his big hit set the tone for what this team should be this season. Big. Nasty. No free rides for anyone. Toeing the proverbial line and perhaps even crossing it, as there was plenty of debate about that hit afterwards. Me? I loved it. On a somewhat related note, I LOVED that he was the choice to wear an ‘A’ with Palat out.

More importantly, the New Jersey Devils didn’t get that memo, and they left no doubt by the end of the two-game series who the better team was.

The reason why this year feels different is because of the defensive structure that is now in place. It feels different because the positioning is better, because they’re getting sticks in lanes, and because there’s a willingness to block shots. It feels different because of their willingness to forecheck and engage physically without just gooning it up. It feels different because they can utilize that forecheck to create goals such as the one Stefan Noesen scored in the first game. It feels different because they can get to the front of the net and make things happen. It’s not that “pond hockey” has completely been eliminated from the equation. You’ll probably always get that to some extent when you have the combination of speed and skill that the Devils have in their Top Six. But the Devils are playing a brand of hockey that is certainly successful over the course of an 82 game season and could be successful in the playoffs. Tom Fitzgerald needed to revamp his blueline and bottom six this offseason to make the Devils tougher to play against and he did that with the acquisitions he made.

And if all else fails, or if a team is outworking them or has more talent, or they’re getting unlucky and what they’re doing isn’t working, they have one final trump card in their back pocket.

This year feels different because they should be able to get a save.

Goaltending is the last line of defense and we have seen time and again teams playing above who and what they are because they have an elite option at the position. That ability to steal games and steal points when everything else just isn’t clicking on any given night is what separates good teams from great teams.

Again, we’re talking about small sample sizes here. Jacob Markstrom has played one game as a New Jersey Devil. Jake Allen has played one game this season for the Devils. But both players have a track record of success in this league, particularly when playing on teams like the Devils where they should be 8 or 9 deep in terms of quality defensemen and they play with some semblance of defensive structure. Both should be capable of clearing the low bar of “what if the Devils had league average goaltending” that Devils fans have been clamouring for for years. Heck, they might have the upside to be better than that. I’m not saying that Markstrom and Allen are the Ullmark/Swayman duo that was so dominant for the Bruins the last few years but they are NHL-caliber goaltenders who are capable of playing well. Having goaltenders who can make not only the routine saves, but the high-danger saves as well is huge. Having goaltenders who aren’t giving up big, juicy, rebounds like the goaltenders they’ve had the last few years is huge.

The Devils aren’t just passing the eye test though. They’ve passed the fancy stats test the first couple games as well. 5.55 xG vs. 2.04 for Buffalo Saturday will certainly play. And when the xG battle is a little closer like it was on Friday, that’s where having a franchise goaltender to win the game for you makes all the difference. This isn’t anything new for Sheldon Keefe who has consistently been behind the bench for Top 10 teams in terms of xGF% during his time in Toronto. Markstrom and Allen being 2.5 and 1.0 goals saved above expected, respectively, will also play.

There are 80 regular season games remaining this season and there will certainly be plenty of ebbs and flows along the way. Every halfway decent team goes on hot runs at some point, and with those runs comes the other end of the spectrum where they can not buy a goal. But with the additions the Devils have made to their blueline and goaltending, combined with the changes they’ve made to their approach, the Devils are talented enough where they should have a chance to win a hockey game on any given night. Obviously, they won’t. Nobody does. But when you have the versatility to win in a variety of different manners, you don’t necessarily have to have your best stuff or play a perfect game just to have a chance to win.