The Devils' 2018-19 home finale on Monday night against the Rangers had nowhere near the juice of past meetings. The announced gathering at the Prudential Center was a couple thousand short of a sellout.
Though both teams came out fighting, literally, neither really had anything to fight over. In fact, this season will mark the first time that the Stanley Cup playoffs will begin with both clubs on the golf course since the Devils moved to New Jersey in 1982-83.
In a rare show of unity during a 2-2 game in the third period, the estimated 60/40 Devils split at the Rock chanted, “We both suck!”
That the Devils scored twice in the final 4:10 to avoid getting swept by their cross-Hudson rivals this season only made a segment of their fans wonder, “Why can’t we lose for Hughes?”
New Jersey is now 29th among the 31 NHL teams with 70 points in 80 games. That gives them an 11.5% chance to win the April 9 lottery, with the jackpot being U.S. National Team Development Program center Jack Hughes. For comparison, the Devils were the league’s fourth-worst team two seasons ago, when they defied their mere 8.5% odds and drafted center Nico Hischier with the first overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft.
The Devils as an organization have embraced the tank since unloading four veteran pieces in February. Injuries have abetted the cause, with 2017-18 Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall’s absence since December 23 the most significant. Hischier went from having Hall on his left flank to skating with career minor leaguer Kenny Agostino on Monday. That’s like if you replaced Paul Newman with Pauly Shore to pair with Robert Redford in “The Sting” after the success of “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.”
As I’ve noted previously, the root of the Devils’ demise from being a perennial contender to a team that has missed the playoffs in six of the past seven seasons has been their shoddy drafting, particularly in the latter years of the Lou Lamoriello regime.
In my NFL writings, I’ve bemoaned the New York Jets’ jinx with their second-round picks in NFL Drafts. The Devils, unfortunately, aren’t far behind when you take a whiff of their second-round selections.
Between 2001-2008, Lamoriello chose 11 players in second rounds who combined to play 122 NHL games, 70 with the Devils. He then selected Eric Gelinas and Jon Merrill in successive years, two defensemen who were eventually ridden out of town after several seasons of awful defensive play. I have my issues with defenseman Damon Severson, but he’s at least an NHL-caliber performer whom the Devils copped in the 2012 second round. Lamoriello also stuck with defense in his last two drafts as Devils Emperor, with Steven Santini (112 NHL games) and Joshua Jacobs (one NHL game) still too young to be written completely off, though the days when they’re labeled as “young players” might soon be numbered.
However, there’s hope that general manager Ray Shero, who succeeded Lamoriello in time for the 2015 draft, has reversed the second-round curse. His first two shots in that round were instrumental in the victory over the Rangers and they both could conceivably become part of the future core:
MacKenzie Blackwood (2015):
Maybe the biggest positive to come out of this lost season, the Devils rookie goalie is now 9-10 playing mostly behind an AHL-level supporting cast since his first call-up in December. If not for one outlier in Calgary where the Devils kept him in the net for nine goals against, Blackwood would be fourth in the league in goals-against average among goalies with at least 1,000 ice-time minutes. As is, his numbers (2.59 GAA, .917 save percentage) tower above both Cory Schneider’s (3.06, .903) and the traded Keith Kinkaid’s (3.36, .891). It’s not just Blackwood’s size (six-foot-four, 225 pounds) that has made him hard to score against, it’s his ability to close holes and make shooters aim outside his frame. If the Devils received this level of goaltending earlier in the season, it might have been written with a different perspective. At least New Jersey will go into next season not so dependent on whether Schneider’s recent uptick in performance will carry over.
Nathan Bastian (2016):
You wouldn’t think a player with just 9:21 of ice time who didn’t factor in any of the Devils’ four goals had much of an impact, but Bastian made his presence felt on almost every one of his 14 shifts. I’m not even talking about his fight in the second period with Rangers defenseman Tony DeAngelo. This is about the Devils wanting to play with a tough, gritty identity. But you need some heavy players with skill to do it effectively. Bastian (six-foot-four, 205 pounds) fits that bill. His wall work has been superb, winning the offensive zone battles that had been so problematic for the Devils all season. He has just one goal in five NHL games after potting 17 in 56 games in Binghamton, but, with offseason skill work, Bastian, 21, can develop the tools that will make him the power winger this team has lacked since Patrick Maroon dissed them last summer by signing with hometown St. Louis in free agency.
Shero has another second-rounder in the pipeline in Jesper Boqvist (2017). The highly-skilled Swedish center is rated as a very good NHL prospect if he fills out. I’m guessing that Shero hopes to sign Boqvist to a professional North American contract in time for next season.
Want more sunny news as this dreary season comes to a close this weekend? After Shero finds out where his first-round ping pong ball lands for the 2019 Draft, he gets to plan for three more second-round picks.