Cory Schneider

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Devils lose again, remain winless: 3 takeaways on slow start

By Adam GretzOct 12, 2019, 10:01 PM EDT

The New Jersey Devils were one of the biggest stories of the offseason thanks to some aggressive roster moves by general manager Ray Shero.

Along with the return of a healthy Taylor Hall, the Devils won the NHL’s draft lottery and selected Jack Hughes No. 1 overall to add to a young core that already included the No. 1 overall pick from the 2017 class (Nico Hischier). They surrounded their newly formed core with the big summer acquisitions of P.K. Subban, Nikita Gusev, and Wayne Simmonds.

Expectations immediately skyrocketed and there was a ton of optimism around the team.

That optimism might be starting to quickly disappear.

Following Saturday’s 3-0 loss to the Boston Bruins, the Devils remain winless (0-3-2) through the first five games of the season and you have to wonder how much longer it is going to be until head coach John Hynes’ seat starts to get a little warmer.

What has gone wrong for the Devils so far? Here are three key factors.

1. It has been a slow start for the new faces

Out of all the big offseason acquisitions, Gusev is the only that has found the back of the net through the first five games (he has two goals). Other than that, it has been a giant goose egg for everyone else that was expected to make a difference. Simmonds and Subban have combined for just two assists, while Hughes is going through some early growing pains with zero points and only 10 shots on goal through the first five games.

When it comes to Hughes you had to expect some struggles at times. He is 18 years old and making a massive jump to the NHL. Not everyone is going to step in and immediately be Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, or Connor McDavid. And while Subban is off to a slow start and might be starting to slow down a little, he has enough of a track record and is still good enough that you have to think he is going to shake off this slow start.

Adding to the problems offensively is that Hall, Hischier, and Kyle Palmieri have combined for just two goals so far (both belonging to Palmieri). If you wanted to put a positive spin on this for the Devils it’s that their best players haven’t yet played anything close to their best hockey. They are not going to struggle this much forever.

But as long as they do, goals — and wins — are going to be few and far between.

2. The power play has been awful

Calling it awful might actually be an understatement. After their 0-for-4 performance against Boston on Saturday night the Devils are now 0-for-15 on the season. That is zero goals in 30 minutes of power play time, and it is not like they have been unlucky. Entering play on Sunday their power play unit was one of the worst in the league when it comes to generating shot attempts and getting shots on goal.

3. Goaltending is still an issue

It is not the biggest issue, but it is still an issue and it was the single biggest question mark the team had entering the season. Through five games the Devils have allowed at least three goals in every game, with Saturday’s game in Boston being the first one where they did not allow at least four. While the team in front of them has not been particularly good on any given night, the duo of Cory Schneider and Mackenzie Blackwood has an .863 save percentage after Saturday. No matter what is happening around them, your team has no chance with that sort of production from your goalies.

MORE:
• Your 2019-20 NHL on NBC TV schedule

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

Thoughts on Hart, Flyers blanking new-look Devils

By James O'BrienOct 9, 2019, 10:36 PM EDT

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The New Jersey Devils headed into 2019-20 with a fair amount of hype as a new-look team. Through three games, the additions of P.K. Subban, Jack Hughes, Nikita Gusev, and Wayne Simmonds have resulted in all-too-familiar results.

The Devils ended Wednesday with a 0-2-1 record as the (also new-looking) Philadelphia Flyers blanked them 4-0.

Speaking of fresh faces, Carter Hart indeed looked like a young phenom against the Devils, pitching the first shutout of his NHL career. His 25-save performance will be immortalized by this incredible save during a 5-on-3 penalty kill against 2017-18 Hart winner Taylor Hall:

Hart is the headliner, and with good reason, but let’s ponder a few other storylines from the Flyers’ 4-0 beating of the Devils.

Hughes hasn’t been huge

If you tuned into Wednesday’s game to get an idea of what the top pick of the 2019 NHL Draft is capable of, you might have ended up being disappointed. Honestly, you might have had a hard time even noticing him.

Hughes, 18, remains without a goal or an assist through his first three games. He was very quiet on Wednesday, failing to even register a shot on goal. While Hughes’ ice time was modest (14:34 overall), he was on the ice for 4:12 of power play time. Not great.

That said, there are certain metrics that argue Hughes’ work has been better than what initially meets the eye:

Jack Hughes finished tied for 1st among NJD forwards in shot contributions (6), and led the way in shot assists (5), in a little over 10 minutes of 5v5 ice. pic.twitter.com/fjArP9PAaA

— Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell) October 10, 2019

He’s far from the only quiet Devil to start

Taylor Hall ranked as one of the only Devils players who really stood out, firing five SOG. He’s generally been making an impact; while Hall hasn’t scored a goal yet, he has two assists in three games.

The Devils need more from other players, including P.K. Subban. So far, Subban only has an assist through his first three games with New Jersey. That has to be frustrating, especially as he sees Matt Duchene lighting it up with six assists already for Nashville.

Hot seat for John Hynes?

It’s probably too early to be too worried about the job security of the Devils’ head coach.

That said, the Devils have a ton on the line in 2019-20. Not only did they pay significant money to get better with Subban and Gusev, they also need to convince Hall to stick around, or they’d need to either trade Hall for something or watch him walk away for nothing in free agency.

With that in mind, Hynes needs to find answers — and fast. Maybe he should experiment with putting Hall and Hughes together? It might helpful for the Devils to see what Nico Hischier can do without Hall before they pay him, for one thing.

Flyers have a special night

Philly killed that 5-on-3 power play, which was virtually a full two minutes. They ended up blanking the Devils (New Jersey finished 0-for-5) while scoring two power-play goals on Wednesday. If the Flyers can rekindle their power play magic from the not-so-recent past, and get strong goaltending from Hart more often than not, then they can make the leap many expected to see last season.

Cory Schneider was actually having a pretty strong night, but the Flyers wouldn’t relent, and eventually overwhelmed the Devils goalie.

GM Chuck Fletcher’s experiment looks successful very early on, as Philly’s started the season at 2-0-0. The Devils have to envy Philly’s quick start, and they can’t afford to let this bumpy beginning to linger much longer.

MORE:
• Pro Hockey Talk’s Stanley Cup picks.
• Your 2019-20 NHL on NBC TV schedule

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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.

Devils vs. Flyers livestream: How to watch Wednesday Night Hockey

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By Sean LeahyOct 9, 2019, 6:30 PM EDT

Wednesday Night Hockey: Devils searching for first win of season

By Joey AlfieriOct 9, 2019, 10:03 AM EDT

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After failing to make the playoffs last season, the Devils made some significant changes to their roster during the summer. First, they drafted Jack Hughes number one overall. Second, they swung deals with the Nashville Predators and Vegas Golden Knights for P.K. Subban and Nikita Gusev. Third, they signed Wayne Simmonds to a one-year contract. That’s some significant movement.

So, it’s only natural that general manager Ray Shero would be disappointed by his team’s 0-1-1 start. They dropped their home opener, 5-4 in a shootout, to the Winnipeg Jets and they also proceeded to get pounded 7-2 on the road in Buffalo. Giving up 11 goals in the first two games is less than ideal and they need to find a way to fix their issues.

“We’re playing soft and light, and we’re playing like we want to have an easy game,” Devils coach John Hynes said after the loss to the Sabres, per NHL.com. “We can talk about it nine different ways; that’s the reality of where we’re at right now, so we’ve got to fix it.”

Of course, the lack of stability between the pipes is also an issue. Cory Schneider was forced to leave Thursday’s game against Winnipeg because of cramps. Mackenzie Blackwood, who entered the game in relief, gave up two goals on nine shots and then lost in the shootout. Blackwood was forced to play the next night and he gave up seven goals on 36 shots.

It sounds like Schneider will be available for tonight’s clash against the Flyers, but the players in front of him need to make life a little easier for whoever is in their goal.

“Defensively, we haven’t been hard enough in any plays, and we’re allowing teams too much time and space,” forward Travis Zajac said. “We know what we have to do and what’s our identity and what’s expected of us as a team, and we just haven’t been able to get to our identity.”

Hynes had the benefit of not having a game for three full days (Sunday through Tuesday), so his team had time to work on things on the practice rink. They better have found a solution to their issues because their upcoming schedule will be tough, as they’ll play in Philly tonight, at home against the Oilers tomorrow night, in Boston on Saturday and at home against the Panthers on Monday afternoon.

[COVERAGE BEGINS AT 6:30 P.M. ET ON NBCSN]

Tonight, the Devils face a Flyers team that’s making their season-debut in North America. Philadelphia took down the Chicago Blackhawks in Prague last week. They’ll now look to keep the ball rolling against a struggling divisional opponent.

The Flyers will go head-to-head against a familiar face, as they’ll welcome Wayne Simmonds back to Philadelphia for the first time since they traded him to Nashville last season.

“Hopefully I get some cheers. I was pretty deep-rooted in that community,” Simmonds told NJ.com. “I spent eight years there and had a great time. I enjoyed Philadelphia thoroughly. So I was proud to be a part of that franchise and don’t regret anything I did in a Flyers uniform.”

Cheers would be nice, a goal would be sweet, but a win would probably be best for Simmonds and the Devils.

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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.

NHL Fantasy Hockey: Olofsson, Haula highlight this week’s best adds

By Ryan DadounOct 7, 2019, 10:00 AM EDT

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Welcome to the first Adds/Drops column of the 2019-20 NHL season that actually features me recommending players for you to add/drop in fantasy leagues. The first two columns were preseason previews, but now that the games count, every Monday I’m going to be recommending 10 players who you might want to consider adding and five who you might want to part ways with.

As always, whether you should add/drop any of these players will depend entirely on your situation. You’ll want to evaluate your team needs and what your options are, but this column can help highlight who to look at if you want to make a change.

Players Worth Adding

Trevor Moore, Maple Leafs – LW/RW: Moore got his first taste of the NHL last season, scoring two goals and eight points in 25 games. That might not sound impressive, but keep in mind he was only averaging 9:06 minutes per game. This season he’s playing a significantly bigger role and has capitalized on that early on with two goals and three points in three games. He’s not one of the Leafs’ main offensive threats, but he does highlight their depth and is worth taking a chance on.

Oscar Klefbom, Oilers – D: Klefbom typically does decently offensively, but not quite enough to make him worth much consideration in standard leagues. I’m encouraged by how much the Oilers are leaning on him early on though. He averaged 25:27 minutes over his first two contests and is on the top power-play. He’s registered three assists, including two on the power-play, over those first two games. Obviously he’s not going to keep up that pace, but if you’re hurting for defensive help then he might chip in often enough to be a good fill-in.

Pavel Buchnevich, Rangers – RW: The Rangers have an impressive top line duo in Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, which has already gotten off to a stunning start. Buchnevich is a significantly less exciting player, but his presence on that line does make him noteworthy. So far he has two assists in two games while averaging 17:27 minutes, up from his career-high of 15:10 minutes in 2018-19. As long as he’s with Panarin and Zibanejad, Buchnevich will likely be worth owning in most standard leagues.

[Ready for the season? Get the Rotoworld Draft Guide]

Victor Olofsson, Sabres – LW/RW: When people were talking about rookies going into this season, the focus was often on Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko. So far though, Moore and Olofsson are tied for the scoring title. Moore was mentioned above, but Olofsson has even more potential in 2019-20. Olofsson averaged 18:20 minutes per game over his first two contests of 2019-20, which is a crazy amount for a rookie forward to get early on. To put that in perspective, Hughes has averaged 14:48 minutes and Kakko has averaged 14:43 so far. Among other things, Olofsson is playing on the top power-play unit and has scored twice as a result. In short, he’s a great rookie to gamble on.

Zack Kassian, Oilers – RW: Kassian isn’t someone you’re going to want to pick up long-term. He’s been around for a while now and though he does combine grit and skill, he leans far more towards the prior than the latter. The reason why he’s worthy of being on standard fantasy league teams right now is because he’s playing on the second line with Leon Draisaitl. Kassian has a goal and two assists in two games and all of those points have involved Draisaitl. If that line breaks up, then Kassian’s fantasy value could very well plummet, so this is a situation you’ll want to monitor closely.

James Neal, Oilers – LW/RW: Neal had just seven goals and 19 points in 63 games last season with Calgary, but the trade to Edmonton should do him a lot of good. It’s a fresh opportunity and a role he’s more familiar with. With the Flames, Neal fell into a supporting role, averaging 14:57 minutes while he’s averaged 16:50 minutes in two contests with Edmonton. Neal has already scored two goals with the Oilers, which already matches his goal total for the entirety of October 2018.

Sammy Blais, Blues – LW/RW: Blais is one of the players I highlighted during my preseason preview because of how well he had been doing in the exhibition games. He’s carried that momentum into the regular season with two goals and three points in his first two games. Like Moore, Blais’ playing time was very limited in 2018-19, but he’s playing a bigger role this season and is capitalizing on that.

Neal Pionk, Jets – D: Over the summer, Winnipeg lost defensemen Jacob Trouba, Tyler Myers, and Ben Chiarot and to add to all that, Dustin Byfuglien isn’t playing because he’s considering retirement. That’s a huge hole in their defense, but they did add one notable defenseman over the summer in Pionk. He came over in the Trouba trade and the Jets have been leaning on him hard, giving him an average of 24:42 minutes over three games, which has contributed to him scoring a goal and an assist. He had a modest (at least by fantasy standards) 26 points in 2018-19, but his expanded role with the Jets coupled with his natural development make him an interesting defenseman this season.

[For more fantasy sports analysis, check out Rotoworld.]

Erik Haula, Hurricanes – C/LW: Haula broke out in 2017-18 with 29 goals and 55 points in 76 games, but was limited to just 15 contests last season due to injury. It seems many have soured on him in the meantime given that he’s only owned in 15% of Yahoo leagues, but he’s been showing what he can do when healthy. Now with the Hurricanes, he’s scored a goal in each of their first three games while averaging 18:08 minutes.

Alex Galchenyuk, Penguins – C/LW: Galchenyuk had just 19 goals and 41 points in 72 games last season, but he didn’t have much to play off offensively in Arizona. Now that he’s with Pittsburgh, it’s a very different situation. Galchenyuk has seen ice time on the second line with the likes of Evgeni Malkin and if he continues to play with either Malkin or Sidney Crosby, he should improve on those 2018-19 numbers. So far he has two assists in two games.

Players You May Want To Drop

Gustav Nyquist, Blue Jackets – LW/RW: Nyquist is actually off to an okay start with a goal in two games, but I’m discouraged that he’s averaged just 14:13 minutes so far. After the summer the Blue Jackets had, their offensive group isn’t particularly scary, but the plausible silver lining there for Nyquist was that he might be getting a significant role. So far that doesn’t seem to be the case, so I wonder if he will really have much fantasy value.

Eric Staal, Wild – C: Staal has no points, one shot, and a minus-five rating in two games, but as is the case with Nyquist, my bigger concern has been his playing time. He has averaged just 13:02 minutes so far, which is a huge dive from his 18:08 minutes in 2018-19. To put this in perspective, he logged 15:23 minutes or over in 75 of 81 games last season and never got under 13:44 minute in a single contest. So in other words, each of his first two games of 2019-20 have been lower than any of his games in 2018-19. If Staal’s not going to get top minutes anymore then obviously his value will drop accordingly. For what it’s worth though, Bruce Boudreau did offer something of a defense.

Boudreau on Staal: "Sometimes it takes older guys a little bit longer. But I’m not worried about Eric in the long run. I think he’s going to get his goals and he’s going to get his points. It’s just when you don’t win you’d like them to be now.”

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) October 6, 2019

Read into that as you will, but at the very least you’ll want to monitor this situation closely if you have Staal.

Mackenzie Blackwood, Devils – G: Taking Blackwood was a risk to begin with. He doesn’t have much NHL experience and he’ll be competing with Cory Schneider, so it was always a long shot that he would be a favorable option. So far though he’s been particularly rough, posting a 6.58 GAA and .800 save percentage in two games. Obviously it’s still early and he can bounce back, but in a lot of cases, there should be better options available on the free agent market.

Pierre-Luc Dubois, Blue Jackets – C: Dubois had 27 goals and 61 points in 82 games last season, but he was commonly paired with Panarin. Now that Panarin is in New York, Dubois has lost a valuable linemate and the Blue Jackets didn’t place him with anyone who plays even close to that level. It’s still early of course, but so far Dubois has been limited to no points and one shot in two games. Given how deep centers are to begin with, if you’re going to hold on to a player who is eligible for no other position, you really want them to bring a lot to the table, so even a mild decline on his part would be a significant problem for fantasy owners.

Mats Zuccarello, Wild – RW: Zuccarello did well when he was with the Rangers last season, scoring 11 goals and 37 points in 46 games, but it helped that he was averaging 20:01 minutes. Now with Minnesota, he’s gotten just 14:45 minutes per game so far and hasn’t recorded a point. Of course, the points will come eventually, but if the Wild intend to playing him in more of a supporting role, then it’s unlikely that he’ll be as significant an offensive producer as he has been in the past. Keep in mind that when he recorded between 53-61 points in each of three seasons from 2015-16 through 2017-18, he was logging well over 18 minutes per contest.

If you’re looking for more fantasy hockey information, Rotoworld has got you covered, including Michael Finewax’s “The Week Ahead” column.

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