Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Winless Devils working to get ‘foundation in place’

Peter Deboer

Head coach Peter DeBoer works the bench against the New York Islanders during a preseason game at the Barclays Center on September 21, 2013 in Brooklyn borough of New York City.The game is the first professional hockey match to be held in the arena that is slated to be the new home for the Islanders at the start of the 2015-2016 season. (September 20, 2013 - Source: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America)

The New Jersey Devils have never gone more than five games before collecting their first win of an NHL season. That streak will be on the line Friday when they face the Calgary Flames.

That being said, New Jersey hasn’t been disastrous. They’ve had trouble holding a lead, but they’ve stayed in games and pushed their last three defeats beyond the 60-minute mark. Going into tonight’s action, those three points have put them in the middle of the Metropolitan standings despite the fact that they’re the only winless team in that division.

With that in mind, New Jersey Devils coach Pete DeBoer feels that they’re close to turning things around, but he thinks their inability to stave off comeback attempts highlights their identity problems.

“We’re still getting that foundation in place,” DeBoer said, according to the Bergen Record.

The Devils aren’t young, but they do have a lot of players new to the organization. They went out and signed forwards like Jaromir Jagr and Ryane Clowe as a result of losing Ilya Kovalchuk and David Clarkson. New Jersey has lost three of their top five points leaders from 2011-12.

If they can’t beat the Flames, then their next opportunity to turn things around will be on Sunday in Winnipeg.

Follow @RyanDadoun