One Third of the Way Through

I don’t even know what to write right now. Words cannot describe this season, they just can’t.

There are so many clichés, so many quips that are fitting, but I just can’t bring myself to type them.

The only thing keeping the Devils from being the absolute worst team in hockey are the Islanders, and they cannot even beat them when they face one another.

There is rampant speculation through the fan-base that there’s an unholy bias from the league towards the team. Fines and punishments from the summer coupled with a large discrepancy between calls for and against fuel these conspiracy theories.

I, however, refuse to buy into this. It cannot be that elaborate of a scheme orchestrated by Gary Bettman.

To put it simply, the Devils are playing dumb hockey. The team as a whole is making awful decisions, from as high up as the general manager to any one of the players on ice, bad decisions are being made, one after another.

Behind the scenes, the general manager is apparently sitting on his hands while the era of successful, borderline dynasty, comes to a screeching halt a mere three months after being touted as one of the strongest contenders for the Stanley Cup. A man who would never accept anything less than the absolute best effort from his team and players has suddenly taken on an air of complacency with underachievement and poor effort.

The coach, while in his rookie year at the NHL level, has also taken a bull-headed approach to the struggles. As the losses mounted, rather than bring about physical punishments, he decided to attack the problem cerebrally. Film sessions, closed door meetings, and other methods clearly failed to gain the players heart, attention and effort. He also refuses to change up a system which is horrendously failing and is beyond flaw. Staring at the ceiling will only get you so far before one would make adjustments instead of throwing the same garbage out there night after night with the hopes of something turning into gold.

Last on the list are the players. The overly talented bunch who apparently decided they’d rather not play the organized, smart hockey they used to be synonymous with, and instead play the selfish undisciplined brand. Blind passes to no one, electing to pass to a man in triple coverage rather than rip a shot on goal to create a rebound, and complete lack of accountability anywhere is killing the team.

Defenseman are failing miserably on their coverage assignments and are not playing with aggression to demand the respect of opposing forwards and make them think twice about trying to get to the dirty areas. The offense refuses to even tread into high percentage areas for what looks like a fear of being hit. They pull up and opt for the outside, low percentage shots through crowds of two or three defenders. When they do decide to crash the net and actually go on the attack, they can and have shown the ability to score. But those instances have become few and far between.

People will blame devastating injuries taking key cogs out of the machine that used to run with such efficiency, it will irritate the hell out of opposing teams. Now, instead of analysts asking “how are the Devils able to defy the odds year after year” they now finally can say “see, we told you so.”

The culture around this team is hurting badly. Fans are losing hope and patience quickly.

It is time for the team to stop letting the game come to them, playing not to lose, and for once, go out, play all out and take the game away from their competition.

With the worst first-third in franchise history over, will the real New Jersey Devils please step up for the final two frames?

They may not make the playoffs, but if they could make a run to be within contention of the final spot, I think many in the Devil Land would be satisfied that they almost salvaged this season.

Only time will tell, but they need to get off on the right foot tonight versus Detroit.