3 Devils New Year’s Resolutions To Get Back on Track

Coming out of the holiday break, the New Jersey Devils have stumbled out of the gate. After their loss in Los Angeles on Wednesday night, the Devils’ three-game winning streak has quickly transitioned into a three-game losing streak.

Jack Hughes and Co. were hot going into the holiday break. Since returning, they’re 1-3-0, and even in their lone victory, it took them some time to get their legs going.

Head coach Sheldon Keefe knows the Devils aren’t playing to their full potential right now.

“Well, we haven’t found our game here,” Keefe said after Tuesday night’s loss to the Anaheim Ducks. “Since coming back, we were playing very, very well going into the break. We haven’t accustomed to coming back, we just haven’t found our game… So we got to find in a hurry.”

READ MORE: Sheldon Keefe Rips Devils’ Effort vs. Ducks, ‘It Was Disgraceful’

So what can the Devils do to get out of their funk?

Goal Support For Jake Allen

One of the most pressing, and perhaps unreported, issues for the Devils right now is their lack of support for Jake Allen when he’s in net.

No.1 goaltender, Jacob Markstrom, collected all eight Devils wins in the month of December, leaving Allen with an 0-4-0 record during the holiday season.

Allen is now 0-5-0 in his last five starts. His last victory came well over a month ago now on Nov. 23rd, just before Thanksgiving against the Washington Capitals.

Washington got their revenge, ringing him up for six goals just a week later. However, in the following four losses, Allen received little to no goal support.

So whereas he may have given up 12 goals over four starts, the Devils only scored four goals in that same span. In fact, the Devils were shutout twice, once to Scott Wedgewood and the Colorado Avalanche, and the other on Wednesday to the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.

A goal a game isn’t going to cut it for Allen, let alone for a victory. Allen has been strong more often than he hasn’t, and requires the goal support for a much-deserved win for the first time in over a month.

DEPTH SCORING!!!

How much longer will general manager Tom Fitzgerald wait to address the issue with depth scoring?

Before the holiday, he was vocal about the fact that the Devils’ scoring issues outside of his top-six hindering their ability to claim victories on tough nights.

“There are certain guys here that are buzzing offensively. When our power play doesn’t score or one of our top two lines don’t score, I think we need more from other people, quite honestly, contributing wise, without naming any names,” Fitzgerald explained.

Well, since those comments were made, not much has changed.

Paul Cotter finally snapped his 18-game goal drought. However, has provided just two points in his last 17 games. Erik Haula has no points in that same span.

Tomas Tatar has been a healthy scratch on numerous occasions lately. He has no points in his last 12 games. And the rest of the Devils’ fourth line has provided little to nothing on the scoresheet, including Nathan Bastian, who has no points in his last 11 games.

Good teams, successful teams, require depth scoring. The Devils sit firmly in playoff position, however, in order to win in the postseason, any team requires contributions throughout the lineup.

Keefe has tried to blend his lines by mixing his elite’s in with some of the depth. It hasn’t quite worked out, and they’re running out of options to get the depth going.

Nix the Shutouts

This one should go hand-in-hand with the former point, but no team in the NHL has been shut out more than the Devils.

There’s the Chicago Blackhawks, the San Jose Sharks, the Montreal Canadiens, the toiling New York Rangers. All teams who are not in playoff position and plummeting.

Yet, it’s the Devils who lead the NHL in being shut out six times?

That’s certainly one of their biggest issues that needs to be rectified in 2025.

When the Devils are on, they’re really on. Despite the six shutouts, they still rank 10th overall in the NHL scoring 3.22 goals per game.

However, that just exemplifies how bad they can be in their losses. The Devils pour it on in their victories. In their losses, they really struggle to find goals. When Jack Hughes and the rest of the Devils elites aren’t going, the goals aren’t falling.

That’s a recipe for disaster for a team with aspirations to not just make the playoffs, but to also contend.

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