I thought it was weird they were doing that. Like maybe trade one of them and don’t risk an implosion cause you’re trusting rookies with nhl mintues without seeing what they can do
Factor in before this season Bahl played about 25 total games. Also, the same for DiSimone. Now figure in the true rookies of Luke, Nemec, and Hatakka. At one stretch NJ essentially started 5 rookie defenceman .....& Smith. Totally unacceptable. Tom Fitzgerald punted and tanked the season. He also BLEW the entire Yegor/Toffoli situation. NJ has to fire Tom Fitzgerald 🔥
So much for that studying right. Also Fitzy cant be Gm, i truely believe his ego got in the way, He had so much time to fix the mistakes but refused. Like his offseason this year is fireable cause. But ppl will defend him no matter what. But our ownership is soft and wont tell fitzy your no long Gm, i bet Kate madigan would be better if she was in the position this year, but now Fitzy is President he get to control everything. Plus noone know what a "right coach" is for NJ. Remember when Vegas "declined" that one year, but bounced back the next guess this dude just picks and choose when to yap for attention
@@yoholmes273 It often takes years for d-man to play in the NHL they should have let them play in the minors and get their feet wet not throw them in there to get humiliated.
@scottstenlund433New York has good veteran depth defensemen to go in for injured, elite offense to make up for any holes, and two really good goalies, so it does.
Tom Fitzgerald sucks, punted, & tanked the entire season. Lindy Ruffs' entire tenure in NJ, the goaltending was a dumpster fire of a below .900 average save percentage. That's all on Tom Fitzgerald. He should be fired 🔥
coming from a fan of the devils, i don't know what's more impressive. the fact that the devils have somehow beat some of the best teams in the league (dallas, toronto, winnipeg) by 3 or more points, or the fact that they've lost to teams who are statistically doing worse than them (arizona, ottawa, buffalo)
NJ has no cojones. That is what it says. They can win skill contests but can never outgrit a team nor man up when it matters. No cojones comes from the top down.
NJ was my favorite team growing up. With players like Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, Niedermayer and MacLean they were a powerhouse. Now they are going through dark ages.
@@fogalicious2644typical Devils fan taking unprompted shots at rivals because they have nothing better to do. You deserve all the misery your overrated team has earned
Injuries. Roster turnover, rookies for vets. Below average goaltending. A full year of film for teams to adjust to Lindy's system. Fitz being too slow to make changes. They're in a good spot for next year, the direction is clear and the future is still bright.
@@jerseygunz right, and I get that they had a deal for Markstrom that Flames ownership nixed. I also get that Jake Allen had a NTC he wouldn't waive beforehand. Fine, but what's stopping us from getting Kahkonen in January for Vitek and a 6th? That's mainly my point - he ultimately waited too long to address the most obvious weakness of the team for months, without any upgrade whatsoever. That's what stops me from giving Fitz a total pass this year. But I do hear your point, you need two to tango. I just don't know if I fully buy that personally. Cheers.
two underrated reasons for our failures this year is dougie hamilton being injured and mcleod and foote leaving. wver since dougie got injured (mid november) our pp has been a leavue worst. as for mcleod and foote, foote wasnt really a biiiig loss but mcleod def was. a guy who is (or was) beloved by ALL his teammates and was the leagues best faceoff man, along with having a career year turning out to possibly being a rapist definitely affected the team mentally. it also completely tanked our forward depth too
Guess what? You guys deserve every bit of it from beating the Rangers last year you can thank us because we returned the favor to you guys this year and now you’re not making the playoffs and guess what? One more thing I’m going to say is the Rangers are winning the cup not only have you guys got dismantled by us in the regular season but we have caused you to miss the playoffs and now you guys will have to see us celebrate and hoist the Stanley Cup by the end of it all
I was honestly shocked so many experts were picking them for the cup this year and not it just saying that as a bitter Rangers fan. Over the summer it was obvious they would have a problem in goal. Vanecek was totally exposed in the playoffs and the Schmid being the savior narrative got lit up against the Canes. His success was more due to the Rangers epic choke job and stubborn refusal to adjust as the series went on than to him being ready for prime time (I believe he was around .500 in the regular season before playing NYR in the playoffs). Anyway I’m terrified for the day they figure out their defense and goaltending.
I'm a Rangers fan and I hate the Devil's. But I'll say this, you wanna better team next year? Get 2 veteran D-men and someone that can protect Hughes on his line. And they also need second line scoring. Most importantly, get a good goalie. LGR!!!! 💯💯💯
It's not just 1 problem that has gone wrong with the Devils this season. It's been many things that have all swelled up and into a perfect storm of bad over the garden state this season. So much hope going into this season and as a Season Ticket Holder, Opening Night was so great, and High Hopes were plenty for what should have been another great season of Devils hockey. 1. Bad Coaching 2. No Defense and Terrible Goaltending 3. Injuries and the Off-Ice Issues Those 3 reasons like you mentioned are why we have struggled but this core is still wicked young guys that aren't even in the primes of their carrer's yet. Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec will only get better and lead the defensive core in the future. And Just that goaltender away will help out in the net. Hopefully, Tom Fitzgerald and the front office will nail the Coaching hire and get that big goaltender he's promised because if not the fanbase will not be happy. The main lesson we can take away from this season is that nothing is ever for granted in this league sure we had success last season but that's long gone by now and you aren't just handed a playoff spot based off skill and talent. You still gotta play the games and earn your spot. I still think this team is fine for the future and I hope so as a season ticket holder but they have some work to do in the summer. Great video btw really enjoyed it keep up the good work
I agree with you. I just have this feeling Fitzy takes a "wait and see" approach to the goaltending issue and chooses to keep the Allen/Kahkonen tandem
This is growing pains! Last year they came into their own and now no one takes them for granted, plus lots of injuries and bad bad goaltending. It’s very normal to regress like this when your very young.
Hughes is really good but he’s like that skinny player on the only Nintendo hockey game. You know the one you just tap and they lose the puck? That’s Hughes!
Is he the one that was heard telling an established 1st liner (Arvidsson) "people pay money to watch me play, not you"? That's the other issue, snot nosed punks that think the league should just roll over for them.
@@stanschmenge1965he didn't say "not you" and you've omitted the first part of what he said which is "you could have injured someone" meaning people pay to watch jack play and not to see arvidsson injure people
Watches too many average size guys just toss Hughes with one arm. If they don't surround him with some bigger guys I don't know if they could ever make a decent push at the cup
@@HankingMySchrader you guys have been more disappointing over the years... couldn't even get one of the best goalies of all time a cup, hell you only won in '94 because the other team choked harder and you had prime Richter and and damn good messier who clutched up for you
@@CheeseGrater69 funny how you mention 94 where we sent y’all home in 7 😂. We at least made the playoffs over the years, y’all legit have 1 playoff series win in the past decade and that also would’ve been your only playoff appearance in the past decade had the panthers had 1 more ot loss instead of regulation in 2018. Broduer carried the devils franchise and last year was a fluke
I hope they enjoyed the series win last year, after all they threw a parade in the streets of Newark singing our goal song after they won, cause now we’ve outscored them 13-5 in our 3 games against them this year. Cant wait for Wednesday when we seal the deal.
Same what happens to the Sens accept for playoffs. I thought Devils of old and one of the cup contenders. Not winning yet, but keep knocking on the door.
I was only listening to the list of things that were wrong and as a sabres fan, you could change the title to "what happened to the sabres" and it would be the same exact issues.
Eventhough im Nowhere near a devils fan. But the main issue with NJD this season is mostly due to Horrible Goaltending. Bad defending and Injuries. Not to mention Losing to teams that they should beat like Anaheim who alongside SJ are the top two worst teams in the league. also losing to The Sharks. Speaking of SJ. Ottawa. Buffalo and teams that they shouldn't be beating. Winnipeg Dallas Preds Colorado. Nucks. Marchy and the Bruins. Vegas and the Maple Leafs Eventhough to be fair. Toronto was Massively Outperforming The Devils it was the Leafs defense that was just off that game. Trading two Crucial Defenders and hamilton getting hurt was also a Huge Blow
In my opinion, they changed too much in the offseason, particularly on the Blue Line. I wasn't a fan of letting Ryan Graves go to Pittsburgh for nothing and I wasn't a fan of trading Yegor Sharangovich to Calgary for Tyler Tofolli, especially since it didn't work out in the end. Also, losing your Special Teams coach to Nashville defidently hurt their overall play.
The future is bright, timo is starting to heat up to honestly better than we thought he would be, Hughes will be one of the best in the league next year, our young D is starting to develop, we'll go big game hunting this off season for a goalie, etc. I'm not too worried about the future, we've got a great young core
Good summation but injuries were a way bigger deal, we were putting out half of Utica for a while there. That just made all the other problems worse. They def should have gotten rid of Lindy sooner but what are you going to do. Quite frankly while I’m not glad it happened, I think the boys were a little high on their own supply and needed to be taken down a peg and will come out of this season better for it, the future is still bright! LGD😈
This is not rocket science. The Devils defense corps lost Dougie Hamilton for the season early on among many other injuries to their D men and didn't and/or couldn't replace them. It takes three years to make an NHL Defenseman and for all of the offensive potential in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec both of those guys weren't able to play defense at even close to a NHL level. Compounding this problem the Devils went into the season without a proven NHL veteran goalie too. Vanacek was irratic at best and was eventually moved to another franchise. Backup Akira Schmid needed more work at Utica before being given the full time goaltender job. The addition of very young German goaltender Nico Daws was very promising but neither Schmid nor Daws was the answer in 2023. Eventually towards the end of the season the Devils acquired Stanley Cup winning goalie Jake Allen from Montreal. A veteran goalie that Devils GM TRom Fitzgerald could have acquired months earlier for the same price before the season collapsed in on itself and Lindy Ruff was fired (not for anything he did or didn't do BTW). price but did nothing. If I'd have to blame something or somebody for what what happened to the Devils this year. First and foremost I'd have to say injuries while secondarily the Devils front office was awful in doing nothing to improve the situation untill way after it was too late. Calgary was shopping multiple D-men and their Goalie for months and Fitzgerald did nothing ecept to "fire Lindy".
As others have mentioned, injuries to 2 top D-Men which also exposed their below average goaltending. Plus tuning out their coach. Also, the incentive of winning the Cup would only result in a parade that would just do a couple of laps around their arena parking lot. That does not compare to the ticker tape parade thru Times Square that the Rangers would get across the river from them.
Personally, I feel like I was the only sane hockey fan in the world last year. They had no goalie, and like everyone on that team last year had a career year. It was never gonna stick
Errr…..injured 1&2 dman, the most important position in the nhl. Oh and Hughes injured 20 games and Hischier injured for 8 and Meier injured and your best face off man is gone for good. Your D core is the youngest in the league. Yeah blame the coach. Do you guys even watch hockey?
Hamilton lost for the season leading to two rookie defensemen taking on more minutes then they should. Vitek regressed. Daws and Schmid regressed. Lindy kept Timo on his off side for the whole season. McLeod getting arrested. There were a lot of moving parts this season that didn't help. Personally I wished we didn't extend Ruff but instead promoted Brunette to HC. Made moves too little too late at the deadline. Oh well, got a ton of experience for players who needed it and now they played through adversity. Hopefully this motivates them next season and they have a breakout year.
Very simple. Injuries and more injuries, goalies declined, losing Michael McLeod who was having a career year before the suspension and slotted in 2 rookies on the blue line over vets in free agency that weren’t meant to be as relied upon that much thanks to the injuries. This is not on fitz, as he fixed all these issues this offseason and it all comes down to staying healthy. Emotional fans need to let last year go and rebound on a lost year mainly due to injuries
The inability to change things before it got worse killed the Devils this season. Goalie play was a killer. We kept sending Vita out there and he kept failing. That should have stopped many months ago. Injuries to key players and the inability to make it work without them hurt too. I really hope Jack can get through a full season with his production someday. Damn, it wasn't until I heard it, but wow losses to non playoff teams have been really bad. 🤦♂️
Of course there is gonna be decline of play when a 19 now 20 year old and another 20 year old are playing just about all season long, 20 mins per game on the backend. That obviously isn't the only reason but it's a big one.
I'm going to say that NOT many experts said they'd win the Cup. That they'd contend, yes. But I'd not heard Devil's to win Cup at the start of the season.
I like how the coach "wasn't able to turn it around" which is a cop out statement if I've ever heard one. Coach was conducting the orchestra, those Bums with were just ALL outta tune on the ice.
We need guys willing to bleed for the team on defense and a young goalie with no ceiling and one forward with size and skill. That’s what’s needed but good news is it’s very doable!
Two key things: The defense frankly stunk all season. Missing Dougie was a gaping whole after also departing with Severson and Graves. Luke looked like a rookie more times than you'd like, he likely could have benefitted from some AHL time. ..... And of course, the keepers. Upgrading to even middle of the pack goalies had made a huge improvement. We needed the change way earlier in the year.
To their credit the Devils had a deal in place and ready to go for goalie Jakob Markstrom from Calgary but **management** interfered and vetoed the trade ! Also losing 74 point d-man Dougie Hamilton early in the season and for the rest of the season didn't help either !
Fitzy's offseason decision to re-sign Ruff instead of making Andrew Brunette head coach was huge. It's obvious that Brunette's coaching was a big part of last season's success. Ruff mishandled Timo Meier and Alexander Holtz, among others and could never figure out either his line or defense pairings. Fitzy's mishandling of the goaltender situation and his decision to rely on young defensemen also proved disastrous. So, step one in the offseason is to fire Fitz, whose judgment is terrible. Second, get a tough coach such as Berube or Brindamour. Then, give the new GM permission to trade ANYBODY, including the Hughes brothers. Make the team tougher and more like the Canes, Panthers, Golden Knights, Lightning, and Predators. Keep Jake Allen as your #2 goalie and sign (or trade for) a real #1 goaltender such as Saros or Ullmark. But the #1 key to this offseason is to fire Fitzgerald. If you don't do that, you're just not serious about winning.
As a NJ diehard, let me break it down for you real quick. The offseason GM Tom Fitzgerald allowed several veteran defenceman to leave and replaced said veterans with children & first time full timers. GM Tom Fitzgerald failed (again) to upgrade the disaster that was the Goaltending position. Lindy Ruff his entire tenure with NJ, the goaltending save percentage was below .900. Another Tom Fitzgerald disaster. Tom Fitzgerald in the offseason trade Yegor for Toffoli in a seemingly win now move. Then Tom Fitzgerald trades Toffoli at the deadline for peanuts leaving NJ without a tremendous young player nor a proven veteran. Another Tom Fitzgerald disaster. Couple with the fact Jack Hughes was hurt all season long ( again ). Part due to the fact Gm Tom Fitzgerald refuses to sign legitimate veteran power forwards who can protect NJs pipsqueak stars in Hughes & Hischer ie like Foligno's role with Bedard in Chicago. NJs bottom six...stinks and for the most part all season hadnt done much of anything. Nj all season long needed to upgrade the goaltending while also bringing in a legit force defenceman who can bring the body. Tom Fitzgerald fired Lindy too late to matter & traded for a few old goaltenders from the scrap heap, again too late. GM Tom Fitzgerald punted and tanked the season. It is as simple as that. NJ is a team that drips with talent. However, they are small and soft as silk. As they have been under Gm Tom Fitzgeralds entire tenure. NJ has a serious grit, toughness, and mental toughness problem....and it comes from the top down. When management levies no demand for success coupled with no accountability , then of course the team will not be a legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. Tom Fitzgerald needs to be fired. 🔥 However, NJs lame-o ownership group of Harris / Blitzer will not do it.
It’s weird because the NY giants pretty much fell of the same way last year ,got into the playoffs which was big because they never get in ,Won a playoff game,got destroyed the next playoff game/sereis,has high expectations for next year,fail everyone and suck/ don’t make the playoffs next year.that must suck for New Jersey
100% offense and 0% defense. That's what happened. Other Devils fans attacked me with "it's not he 90s anymore!" but you'll never win a cup without defense.
All due respect, the caps are going to the playoffs so saying you lost twice to them isn’t too bad. Yeah they having an aging core, but the coach can tinker with lines to win games. Are they contenders? Hell no, but they do enough to scrape byZ
Stop making excuses with the injuries. Debs have lost to a lot of bad teams this year. Last year was more of a fluke. Teams figured out how to stop them especially on the PP. They are a turnover machine too. 10th year out of last 12 missing the playoffs! Fore!!!
L take Explaining why they were shit this year is not an excuse! We all accepted it but the reason this season was done was due to their best players being injured. Thats the reality
What happened?? They didn't lose enough games. They have more wins than the Islanders who grabbed a #3 seed. Great system awarding points for losing in OT.
From bad goaltending, mediocre defense, atrocious coaching, constant key players getting hurt, etc. This Devils season was disastrous all around Praying the 2024-2025 to be a big rebound 🙏
I remember them bragging about how much younger they are then the rangers and will dominate this year 😂😂 It’s the rangers that is that powerhouse team. LGR
Making Ruff the scapegoat is a mistake. The move away from him has not changed the outcome. Perhaps “I’m a superstar” Hughes should be looked at as representative of team attitude.
Given that I am Swiss, I made the effort to go a bit deeper into the issue since they have 4 Swiss players on their roster. I have to disagree on most of your analysis. The team is one of the youngest in the whole league. Without Dougie Hamilton the team is still something below 25 years old. Their current 1&2 defenders are both 20 years old! The team has lost over 120 man games due to injury because of Hamilton, Meier, Hischier, Jack Hughes and Siegenthaler alone. The team has lost over 40 goals and 61 assists because of their injuries. Dougie Hamilton missed 53 games and if one applies the same per game stats as last year, the team lost 14.3 goals and 33 assists just because of him. McLeod has missed 28 games and the team has lost 6.1 goals and 6.0 assists because of losing him. Meier has missed 13 games and therefor 6.6 goals and 4.3 assists. Hischier has missed 11 games and therefore 4.2 goals and 6.6 assists. Hughes missed 16 games and therefore 8.8 goals and 11.52 assists. Siegenthaler is not a scoring machine but a very solid stay at home defender. Mc Leod and Hischier are two of the top face-off players McLeod 58.3% and Hischier 56.7%. McLeod is a rare right hand shot center. Meier came back from the injury early because of the situation the team was in. He played with some level of pain for about 12 games. The same for Jack Hughes - it took him about 10 games to be somewhat on a normal level. Because of the constantly changing roster, also the production of the other players went down the drain. Without Hischier or Hughes Bratt won't simply be as productive as with them - just as any other player would. This means they most likely would have between 8 to 10 points more had they not had the injuries. Given that especially goalies depend on their mental strength a weak defense does not help and they will not play their best. The goalies did NOT fail - the team failed the goalies (because of the injuries). The same goes for the young defenders. The situation simply asked too much from them Fitzi could not have anticipated this! Defenders like Hamilton don't grow on trees and a manager cannot replace them within weeks - unless you want to give up too much... Meier looks lost? The guy just scored 10 goals in about 11 games! So, what happened was nothing else than a rotten bad luck season because of injuries.
Karma for beating Rangers last season lol! But in reality though biggest reason is loss of Dougie Hamilton. You don't replace a guy like that, yes Rangers lost Fox for a month, but if it would have been longer then that we'd be toast too.
I can sum up the season in 3 words goaltending goaltending goaltending.... Gm waited way to long to get Allen a month sooner and they would be right in the mix .
They also played a style that doesn’t equal playoff success so regardless they weren’t winning anything. At least they solved one of their problems by firing Lindy Ruff. Now they have to find themselves a competent coach if they want to get into the playoffs or admit last season they overachieved and continue to build and make changes to the roster before they go all in for a cup….
Yeah pretty obvious goaltending and our defense sucks. Allen has only been here for a little bit his still been better then any goalie we have had this year
Lacklustre goaltending and injuries to Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Nico Hischier. Basically, the entire team except Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, and their trade deadline acquisition goaltenders sucked
Wow I didn’t even catch that… nice look, I meant it as they were a power play dominant team, as in they had bad even amount of strength goals but their power play was top of the league. Hope that helps, terrible wording from me.
It won’t be as easy as it seems. A lot of their problems are caused by injuries and their GM hesitating to upgrade in goal. Moving forward, there is no guarantee they will be injury free and are Allen and Kahkkonen long term solutions in net? They don’t have a ton of cap space to straighten out their roster either.
Injuries and the young D. Still such a bright future, and technically they aren’t out of the race yet. (Unless your seeing this after tonights game against Buffalo which they will probably lose)
As a rangers fan, watching the team who’s fans chanted our goal song when they beat us in round 1 (their first playoff win in a decade) fail so spectacularly like this is so satisfying. I hope they enjoyed that series win, cause this year we’ve outscored them 13-5 in our 3 wins against them this season. “People pay to watch me play” was the final nail in their coffin.
You forgot to mention the fact that we traded several other key defensemen and filled them with rookies. Talented, promising rookies, but rookies.
Yea...
I thought it was weird they were doing that. Like maybe trade one of them and don’t risk an implosion cause you’re trusting rookies with nhl mintues without seeing what they can do
Factor in before this season Bahl played about 25 total games.
Also, the same for DiSimone.
Now figure in the true rookies of Luke, Nemec, and Hatakka.
At one stretch NJ essentially started 5 rookie defenceman .....& Smith.
Totally unacceptable.
Tom Fitzgerald punted and tanked the season.
He also BLEW the entire Yegor/Toffoli situation.
NJ has to fire Tom Fitzgerald 🔥
So much for that studying right. Also Fitzy cant be Gm, i truely believe his ego got in the way, He had so much time to fix the mistakes but refused. Like his offseason this year is fireable cause. But ppl will defend him no matter what. But our ownership is soft and wont tell fitzy your no long Gm, i bet Kate madigan would be better if she was in the position this year, but now Fitzy is President he get to control everything. Plus noone know what a "right coach" is for NJ. Remember when Vegas "declined" that one year, but bounced back the next guess this dude just picks and choose when to yap for attention
@@yoholmes273 It often takes years for d-man to play in the NHL they should have let them play in the minors and get their feet wet not throw them in there to get humiliated.
Their starting 2 defensemen got long term injuries and could no longer cover for below average goaltending with a young defensive group. The end.
@scottstenlund433Shesterkin. lol
@scottstenlund433New York has good veteran depth defensemen to go in for injured, elite offense to make up for any holes, and two really good goalies, so it does.
Tom Fitzgerald sucks, punted, & tanked the entire season.
Lindy Ruffs' entire tenure in NJ, the goaltending was a dumpster fire of a below .900 average save percentage.
That's all on Tom Fitzgerald. He should be fired 🔥
Are you really saying the Igor is as bad as vanackec@scottstenlund433
its not just that
coming from a fan of the devils, i don't know what's more impressive. the fact that the devils have somehow beat some of the best teams in the league (dallas, toronto, winnipeg) by 3 or more points, or the fact that they've lost to teams who are statistically doing worse than them (arizona, ottawa, buffalo)
NJ has no cojones. That is what it says.
They can win skill contests but can never outgrit a team nor man up when it matters.
No cojones comes from the top down.
Welcome to hockey. Where no game is a guaranteed win and any team can beat any other team any given night.
Literally why we play 7 game series
The loss of spirited players like Wood and Tatar impacted the team's chemistry. The new players brought in did not provided the same energy.
NJ was my favorite team growing up. With players like Brodeur, Stevens, Elias, Niedermayer and MacLean they were a powerhouse. Now they are going through dark ages.
We must be the same age. Those were great times. I went to so many games.
Brutal Season for sure. But they have a really bright future ahead of them. With Ruff gone hopefully the front office will spring on a worthwile coach
Green is staying. Future is bright
Ranger fans eat their pizza with a fork.
You had that worthwhile coach....he's leading Nashville into the playoffs...Andrew Brunette
@@sst6601Look at Greens record....he's not the answer. Garrard Gallant is available.
@@fogalicious2644typical Devils fan taking unprompted shots at rivals because they have nothing better to do. You deserve all the misery your overrated team has earned
Injuries. Roster turnover, rookies for vets. Below average goaltending. A full year of film for teams to adjust to Lindy's system. Fitz being too slow to make changes.
They're in a good spot for next year, the direction is clear and the future is still bright.
To be fair, while they probably should have got rid of ruff sooner, fitz did say he was trying for a goalie all year and couldn’t get any takers
@@jerseygunz right, and I get that they had a deal for Markstrom that Flames ownership nixed. I also get that Jake Allen had a NTC he wouldn't waive beforehand. Fine, but what's stopping us from getting Kahkonen in January for Vitek and a 6th? That's mainly my point - he ultimately waited too long to address the most obvious weakness of the team for months, without any upgrade whatsoever. That's what stops me from giving Fitz a total pass this year. But I do hear your point, you need two to tango. I just don't know if I fully buy that personally. Cheers.
@@jma.87 I was at the game where we made Kahk look like Roy and was begging for them to kidnap him after the game haha
@@jerseygunz 😅I was thinking the same thing. Hopefully they get that #1 this summer.
😂
two underrated reasons for our failures this year is dougie hamilton being injured and mcleod and foote leaving. wver since dougie got injured (mid november) our pp has been a leavue worst. as for mcleod and foote, foote wasnt really a biiiig loss but mcleod def was. a guy who is (or was) beloved by ALL his teammates and was the leagues best faceoff man, along with having a career year turning out to possibly being a rapist definitely affected the team mentally. it also completely tanked our forward depth too
This season has been painful
It sure has
This season has been beautiful! FIXED!
Let’s go RANGERS
@@GeoKaps100leave the chat now
Guess what? You guys deserve every bit of it from beating the Rangers last year you can thank us because we returned the favor to you guys this year and now you’re not making the playoffs and guess what? One more thing I’m going to say is the Rangers are winning the cup not only have you guys got dismantled by us in the regular season but we have caused you to miss the playoffs and now you guys will have to see us celebrate and hoist the Stanley Cup by the end of it all
I was honestly shocked so many experts were picking them for the cup this year and not it just saying that as a bitter Rangers fan.
Over the summer it was obvious they would have a problem in goal. Vanecek was totally exposed in the playoffs and the Schmid being the savior narrative got lit up against the Canes. His success was more due to the Rangers epic choke job and stubborn refusal to adjust as the series went on than to him being ready for prime time (I believe he was around .500 in the regular season before playing NYR in the playoffs).
Anyway I’m terrified for the day they figure out their defense and goaltending.
Despite all this we are still in with a shout at the playoffs (albeit unlikely) gives me hope for next season! Please get a good Goalie!
I'm a Rangers fan and I hate the Devil's.
But I'll say this, you wanna better team next year?
Get 2 veteran D-men and someone that can protect Hughes on his line.
And they also need second line scoring.
Most importantly, get a good goalie.
LGR!!!! 💯💯💯
It's not just 1 problem that has gone wrong with the Devils this season. It's been many things that have all swelled up and into a perfect storm of bad over the garden state this season.
So much hope going into this season and as a Season Ticket Holder, Opening Night was so great, and High Hopes were plenty for what should have been another great season of Devils hockey.
1. Bad Coaching
2. No Defense and Terrible Goaltending
3. Injuries and the Off-Ice Issues
Those 3 reasons like you mentioned are why we have struggled but this core is still wicked young guys that aren't even in the primes of their carrer's yet. Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec will only get better and lead the defensive core in the future. And Just that goaltender away will help out in the net.
Hopefully, Tom Fitzgerald and the front office will nail the Coaching hire and get that big goaltender he's promised because if not the fanbase will not be happy. The main lesson we can take away from this season is that nothing is ever for granted in this league sure we had success last season but that's long gone by now and you aren't just handed a playoff spot based off skill and talent. You still gotta play the games and earn your spot. I still think this team is fine for the future and I hope so as a season ticket holder but they have some work to do in the summer.
Great video btw really enjoyed it keep up the good work
I agree with you. I just have this feeling Fitzy takes a "wait and see" approach to the goaltending issue and chooses to keep the Allen/Kahkonen tandem
This is growing pains! Last year they came into their own and now no one takes them for granted, plus lots of injuries and bad bad goaltending. It’s very normal to regress like this when your very young.
Hughes is really good but he’s like that skinny player on the only Nintendo hockey game. You know the one you just tap and they lose the puck? That’s Hughes!
Is he the one that was heard telling an established 1st liner (Arvidsson) "people pay money to watch me play, not you"? That's the other issue, snot nosed punks that think the league should just roll over for them.
@@stanschmenge1965he didn't say "not you" and you've omitted the first part of what he said which is "you could have injured someone" meaning people pay to watch jack play and not to see arvidsson injure people
Watches too many average size guys just toss Hughes with one arm.
If they don't surround him with some bigger guys I don't know if they could ever make a decent push at the cup
As a Rangers fan, I'm happy for now, but I fully expect the Devils to bounce back next season.
I don’t expect it, last year was a fluke
Traded two key defenders and Hamilton getting hurt was the problem.Dont blame Ruff also Hughes needs to bulk up and shut up.
How can they be on a decline, they have Jack Hughes and he's so good that people pay to see him.
I was absolutely shocked as a rangers fan. I was truly in fear of this team this year, unbelievable
13-5 against them this year 😂. Cant wait for Wednesday
@@HankingMySchraderkeep making fun of the devils, y'all have one cup in 80 years
@@CheeseGrater69 y’all have 1 playoff series win in 10 years
@@HankingMySchrader you guys have been more disappointing over the years... couldn't even get one of the best goalies of all time a cup, hell you only won in '94 because the other team choked harder and you had prime Richter and and damn good messier who clutched up for you
@@CheeseGrater69 funny how you mention 94 where we sent y’all home in 7 😂. We at least made the playoffs over the years, y’all legit have 1 playoff series win in the past decade and that also would’ve been your only playoff appearance in the past decade had the panthers had 1 more ot loss instead of regulation in 2018. Broduer carried the devils franchise and last year was a fluke
I actually enjoyed the Devil's season this year. Enjoyed watching them fail.
LGR!!!! 💯💯💯
This hurts to read but I respect it I'd be doing the same right now if the teams were reversed.
Best of luck to you in the playoffs
I hope they enjoyed the series win last year, after all they threw a parade in the streets of Newark singing our goal song after they won, cause now we’ve outscored them 13-5 in our 3 games against them this year. Cant wait for Wednesday when we seal the deal.
Same what happens to the Sens accept for playoffs. I thought Devils of old and one of the cup contenders. Not winning yet, but keep knocking on the door.
I was only listening to the list of things that were wrong and as a sabres fan, you could change the title to "what happened to the sabres" and it would be the same exact issues.
Eventhough im Nowhere near a devils fan. But the main issue with NJD this season is mostly due to Horrible Goaltending. Bad defending and Injuries. Not to mention Losing to teams that they should beat like Anaheim who alongside SJ are the top two worst teams in the league. also losing to The Sharks. Speaking of SJ. Ottawa. Buffalo and teams that they shouldn't be beating. Winnipeg Dallas Preds Colorado. Nucks. Marchy and the Bruins. Vegas and the Maple Leafs Eventhough to be fair. Toronto was Massively Outperforming The Devils it was the Leafs defense that was just off that game. Trading two Crucial Defenders and hamilton getting hurt was also a Huge Blow
luckily weve been a little better recently and some how are still in the race, its not over til its over
it’s joever after tage had his way
yeah its officially over@@lowtierduster-7254
Only in the race because the canes and rangers are the only compitent teams in the metro, everyone else is mid or the penguins and blue jacket
In my opinion, they changed too much in the offseason, particularly on the Blue Line. I wasn't a fan of letting Ryan Graves go to Pittsburgh for nothing and I wasn't a fan of trading Yegor Sharangovich to Calgary for Tyler Tofolli, especially since it didn't work out in the end. Also, losing your Special Teams coach to Nashville defidently hurt their overall play.
The future is bright, timo is starting to heat up to honestly better than we thought he would be, Hughes will be one of the best in the league next year, our young D is starting to develop, we'll go big game hunting this off season for a goalie, etc. I'm not too worried about the future, we've got a great young core
What happened is that their coach who was responsible for last year's success, went to Nashville
Good summation but injuries were a way bigger deal, we were putting out half of Utica for a while there. That just made all the other problems worse. They def should have gotten rid of Lindy sooner but what are you going to do. Quite frankly while I’m not glad it happened, I think the boys were a little high on their own supply and needed to be taken down a peg and will come out of this season better for it, the future is still bright! LGD😈
This is not rocket science. The Devils defense corps lost Dougie Hamilton for the season early on among many other injuries to their D men and didn't and/or couldn't replace them. It takes three years to make an NHL Defenseman and for all of the offensive potential in Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec both of those guys
weren't able to play defense at even close to a NHL level. Compounding this problem the Devils went into the season without a proven NHL veteran goalie too. Vanacek was irratic at best and was eventually moved to another franchise. Backup Akira Schmid needed more work at Utica before being given the full time goaltender job. The addition of very young German goaltender Nico Daws was very promising but neither Schmid nor Daws was the answer in 2023. Eventually towards the end of the season the Devils acquired Stanley Cup winning goalie Jake Allen from Montreal. A veteran goalie that Devils GM TRom Fitzgerald could have acquired months earlier for the same price before the season collapsed in on itself and Lindy Ruff was fired (not for anything he did or didn't do BTW). price but did nothing. If I'd have to blame something or somebody for what what happened to the Devils this year. First and foremost I'd have to say injuries while secondarily the Devils front office was awful in doing nothing to improve the situation untill way after it was too late. Calgary was shopping multiple D-men and their Goalie for months and Fitzgerald did nothing ecept to "fire Lindy".
With there Goaltending they might as well play with 6 attackers plus every team pushes them around.
They couldn’t even do that right 😂 in their game against the kings they pulled their goalie but forgot to put a 6th man on
As others have mentioned, injuries to 2 top D-Men which also exposed their below average goaltending. Plus tuning out their coach. Also, the incentive of winning the Cup would only result in a parade that would just do a couple of laps around their arena parking lot. That does not compare to the ticker tape parade thru Times Square that the Rangers would get across the river from them.
Personally, I feel like I was the only sane hockey fan in the world last year. They had no goalie, and like everyone on that team last year had a career year. It was never gonna stick
Errr…..injured 1&2 dman, the most important position in the nhl. Oh and Hughes injured 20 games and Hischier injured for 8 and Meier injured and your best face off man is gone for good. Your D core is the youngest in the league. Yeah blame the coach. Do you guys even watch hockey?
Hughes always comes up with an injury.
even though this season has been so miserable, its nice to see timo find his footing after ruff got fired, he leads the league in goals this month
I'm a Red wings fan but it applies to them too they can't beat teams they should smoke.
And they get blown out!
Good video.
Some New Jersey Fan told me at the beginning of the season that they would do better than our Bruins 🇨🇦🏒🍺🐈💀!
Hamilton lost for the season leading to two rookie defensemen taking on more minutes then they should. Vitek regressed. Daws and Schmid regressed. Lindy kept Timo on his off side for the whole season. McLeod getting arrested.
There were a lot of moving parts this season that didn't help. Personally I wished we didn't extend Ruff but instead promoted Brunette to HC. Made moves too little too late at the deadline.
Oh well, got a ton of experience for players who needed it and now they played through adversity. Hopefully this motivates them next season and they have a breakout year.
Very simple.
Injuries and more injuries, goalies declined, losing Michael McLeod who was having a career year before the suspension and slotted in 2 rookies on the blue line over vets in free agency that weren’t meant to be as relied upon that much thanks to the injuries. This is not on fitz, as he fixed all these issues this offseason and it all comes down to staying healthy.
Emotional fans need to let last year go and rebound on a lost year mainly due to injuries
They drafted and picked up too many undersized guys. Injuries will be a big problem for this team for a long time.
Jack Hughes started to try to make the perfect pass instead of shooting the puck that’s what I saw
0:43 "With the mad advantage" LOL totally rad dude.
The inability to change things before it got worse killed the Devils this season. Goalie play was a killer. We kept sending Vita out there and he kept failing. That should have stopped many months ago.
Injuries to key players and the inability to make it work without them hurt too. I really hope Jack can get through a full season with his production someday.
Damn, it wasn't until I heard it, but wow losses to non playoff teams have been really bad. 🤦♂️
Letting Miles, Gravy, and Seves walk in free agency was the main factor.
Still all the right decisions to make based off the contracts they received though. All 3 of them are some of the worst signings from last offseason
Of course there is gonna be decline of play when a 19 now 20 year old and another 20 year old are playing just about all season long, 20 mins per game on the backend. That obviously isn't the only reason but it's a big one.
I'm going to say that NOT many experts said they'd win the Cup. That they'd contend, yes.
But I'd not heard Devil's to win Cup at the start of the season.
I like how the coach "wasn't able to turn it around" which is a cop out statement if I've ever heard one. Coach was conducting the orchestra, those Bums with were just ALL outta tune on the ice.
New coach and one solid d man. Goaltending looks like it’s sorted now
We need guys willing to bleed for the team on defense and a young goalie with no ceiling and one forward with size and skill. That’s what’s needed but good news is it’s very doable!
Two key things: The defense frankly stunk all season. Missing Dougie was a gaping whole after also departing with Severson and Graves. Luke looked like a rookie more times than you'd like, he likely could have benefitted from some AHL time. ..... And of course, the keepers. Upgrading to even middle of the pack goalies had made a huge improvement. We needed the change way earlier in the year.
But that would make the Hughes family and brother Jack unhappy.
To their credit the Devils had a deal in place and ready to go for goalie Jakob Markstrom from Calgary but **management** interfered and vetoed the trade ! Also losing 74 point d-man Dougie Hamilton early in the season and for the rest of the season didn't help either !
Fitzy's offseason decision to re-sign Ruff instead of making Andrew Brunette head coach was huge. It's obvious that Brunette's coaching was a big part of last season's success. Ruff mishandled Timo Meier and Alexander Holtz, among others and could never figure out either his line or defense pairings. Fitzy's mishandling of the goaltender situation and his decision to rely on young defensemen also proved disastrous. So, step one in the offseason is to fire Fitz, whose judgment is terrible. Second, get a tough coach such as Berube or Brindamour. Then, give the new GM permission to trade ANYBODY, including the Hughes brothers. Make the team tougher and more like the Canes, Panthers, Golden Knights, Lightning, and Predators. Keep Jake Allen as your #2 goalie and sign (or trade for) a real #1 goaltender such as Saros or Ullmark. But the #1 key to this offseason is to fire Fitzgerald. If you don't do that, you're just not serious about winning.
As a NJ diehard, let me break it down for you real quick.
The offseason GM Tom Fitzgerald allowed several veteran defenceman to leave and replaced said veterans with children & first time full timers.
GM Tom Fitzgerald failed (again) to upgrade the disaster that was the Goaltending position.
Lindy Ruff his entire tenure with NJ, the goaltending save percentage was below .900.
Another Tom Fitzgerald disaster.
Tom Fitzgerald in the offseason trade Yegor for Toffoli in a seemingly win now move.
Then Tom Fitzgerald trades Toffoli at the deadline for peanuts leaving NJ without a tremendous young player nor a proven veteran. Another Tom Fitzgerald disaster.
Couple with the fact Jack Hughes was hurt all season long ( again ). Part due to the fact Gm Tom Fitzgerald refuses to sign legitimate veteran power forwards who can protect NJs pipsqueak stars in Hughes & Hischer ie like Foligno's role with Bedard in Chicago.
NJs bottom six...stinks and for the most part all season hadnt done much of anything.
Nj all season long needed to upgrade the goaltending while also bringing in a legit force defenceman who can bring the body.
Tom Fitzgerald fired Lindy too late to matter & traded for a few old goaltenders from the scrap heap, again too late.
GM Tom Fitzgerald punted and tanked the season. It is as simple as that.
NJ is a team that drips with talent. However, they are small and soft as silk. As they have been under Gm Tom Fitzgeralds entire tenure.
NJ has a serious grit, toughness, and mental toughness problem....and it comes from the top down.
When management levies no demand for success coupled with no accountability , then of course the team will not be a legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.
Tom Fitzgerald needs to be fired. 🔥
However, NJs lame-o ownership group of Harris / Blitzer will not do it.
It’s weird because the NY giants pretty much fell of the same way last year ,got into the playoffs which was big because they never get in ,Won a playoff game,got destroyed the next playoff game/sereis,has high expectations for next year,fail everyone and suck/ don’t make the playoffs next year.that must suck for New Jersey
Everything went wrong for them unfortunately. Just hoping for a competent coach, change in defensive system, and for everyone to stay healthy
100% offense and 0% defense. That's what happened. Other Devils fans attacked me with "it's not he 90s anymore!" but you'll never win a cup without defense.
It is simple. Bad goaltending, injuries and bad coaching.
All due respect, the caps are going to the playoffs so saying you lost twice to them isn’t too bad. Yeah they having an aging core, but the coach can tinker with lines to win games. Are they contenders? Hell no, but they do enough to scrape byZ
In hindsight, yes, but Devils were expected to be better than them. The first game against the caps, Devs were missing J. Hughes and Hisch
I said during the off-season that Lindy ruff would lose the locker room and he was riding talent without coaching. Like gallant
this reminds me of edmonton after 2016-17. more days of dark to come for these guys
If they can restructure Meier's contract that would help...but they need the right coach.
Stop making excuses with the injuries. Debs have lost to a lot of bad teams this year. Last year was more of a fluke. Teams figured out how to stop them especially on the PP. They are a turnover machine too. 10th year out of last 12 missing the playoffs! Fore!!!
L take
Explaining why they were shit this year is not an excuse! We all accepted it but the reason this season was done was due to their best players being injured. Thats the reality
They are not under performing... They way over performed last season. They are performing to what they really are. It sad to say but it is true.
What happened?? They didn't lose enough games. They have more wins than the Islanders who grabbed a #3 seed. Great system awarding points for losing in OT.
Whenever they score it says you suck I don’t know if they are talking about them or the other team
From bad goaltending, mediocre defense, atrocious coaching, constant key players getting hurt, etc.
This Devils season was disastrous all around
Praying the 2024-2025 to be a big rebound 🙏
Right blame the coach not the shit stain GM who fucked over the team by NOT taking care of anything during the season
I remember them bragging about how much younger they are then the rangers and will dominate this year 😂😂
It’s the rangers that is that powerhouse team. LGR
Making Ruff the scapegoat is a mistake. The move away from him has not changed the outcome. Perhaps “I’m a superstar” Hughes should be looked at as representative of team attitude.
Given that I am Swiss, I made the effort to go a bit deeper into the issue since they have 4 Swiss players on their roster. I have to disagree on most of your analysis. The team is one of the youngest in the whole league. Without Dougie Hamilton the team is still something below 25 years old. Their current 1&2 defenders are both 20 years old!
The team has lost over 120 man games due to injury because of Hamilton, Meier, Hischier, Jack Hughes and Siegenthaler alone. The team has lost over 40 goals and 61 assists because of their injuries.
Dougie Hamilton missed 53 games and if one applies the same per game stats as last year, the team lost 14.3 goals and 33 assists just because of him. McLeod has missed 28 games and the team has lost 6.1 goals and 6.0 assists because of losing him. Meier has missed 13 games and therefor 6.6 goals and 4.3 assists. Hischier has missed 11 games and therefore 4.2 goals and 6.6 assists. Hughes missed 16 games and therefore 8.8 goals and 11.52 assists. Siegenthaler is not a scoring machine but a very solid stay at home defender. Mc Leod and Hischier are two of the top face-off players McLeod 58.3% and Hischier 56.7%. McLeod is a rare right hand shot center. Meier came back from the injury early because of the situation the team was in. He played with some level of pain for about 12 games. The same for Jack Hughes - it took him about 10 games to be somewhat on a normal level.
Because of the constantly changing roster, also the production of the other players went down the drain. Without Hischier or Hughes Bratt won't simply be as productive as with them - just as any other player would.
This means they most likely would have between 8 to 10 points more had they not had the injuries. Given that especially goalies depend on their mental strength a weak defense does not help and they will not play their best. The goalies did NOT fail - the team failed the goalies (because of the injuries). The same goes for the young defenders. The situation simply asked too much from them
Fitzi could not have anticipated this! Defenders like Hamilton don't grow on trees and a manager cannot replace them within weeks - unless you want to give up too much...
Meier looks lost? The guy just scored 10 goals in about 11 games!
So, what happened was nothing else than a rotten bad luck season because of injuries.
Eh… If they scored 25 goals on the power play and 37 5v5, how did "most of their goals come from the pp"?
Gm got rid of defense and veterans and top prospects and didn’t replace them
Last year wasn't luck, this year injuries (and then goaltending) took them out.
Devils should trade for Quinn Hughes to bring all 3 brothers together they could send Hamilton with a few prospects and first round picks
Karma for beating Rangers last season lol! But in reality though biggest reason is loss of Dougie Hamilton. You don't replace a guy like that, yes Rangers lost Fox for a month, but if it would have been longer then that we'd be toast too.
I can sum up the season in 3 words goaltending goaltending goaltending.... Gm waited way to long to get Allen a month sooner and they would be right in the mix .
Injuries have ravaged them this season
Lost Hamilton for the season and no Goaltending. They couldn't stop a volleyball. Not a difficult equation to figure out.
They also played a style that doesn’t equal playoff success so regardless they weren’t winning anything. At least they solved one of their problems by firing Lindy Ruff. Now they have to find themselves a competent coach if they want to get into the playoffs or admit last season they overachieved and continue to build and make changes to the roster before they go all in for a cup….
Why don't they look at a decade ago when they had a great goalie and good defence?
Yeah pretty obvious goaltending and our defense sucks. Allen has only been here for a little bit his still been better then any goalie we have had this year
main issue is they paid Timo Meier instead of Ryan Graves. You dont build from offense.
Graves has sucked in Pitt
Lacklustre goaltending and injuries to Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, and Nico Hischier. Basically, the entire team except Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, and their trade deadline acquisition goaltenders sucked
A lot of injuries, 2 bad coaches, bad goaltending until now, horrible toffoli trade
the capitals are not one of the leagues lower ranked teams. you literally showed them in the wildcard spot seconds later.
They lost their assistant coach who is now the head coach of the Nashville predators.
Also the toffolie sharangovich trade hurt them, why trade a young stud for someone much older
I honestly think he was always brought in for a trade latter but we didn’t think we’d be so desperate
Lol it looks like the rebuild continues
They might as well just become a farm team 👍
25 power play goals, 37 even strength goals
"Most of their goals were coming from the power play"
What
Wow I didn’t even catch that… nice look, I meant it as they were a power play dominant team, as in they had bad even amount of strength goals but their power play was top of the league. Hope that helps, terrible wording from me.
Don’t get him started, it’s a mess
Could probably do a video on the Jets… 6 straight losses.
Biggest problem was everyone crowned your ass before any pucks dropped.
This szn is gonna teach em a lot I bet they bounce back and terrorize the league for the next decade plus
It won’t be as easy as it seems. A lot of their problems are caused by injuries and their GM hesitating to upgrade in goal.
Moving forward, there is no guarantee they will be injury free and are Allen and Kahkkonen long term solutions in net? They don’t have a ton of cap space to straighten out their roster either.
hopefully green works out better in new jersey than vancouver
Goaltending, goaltending, goaltending, for the millionth time. Yes defense, but Goaltending!!!!! Plain and simple
It waa a giant mess
-injuries
-inexperienced defense
-bad goaltending
So the goalkeepers should not let too many goals in but watching hockey game with even 2-3 goals is super boring.
New Jersey Devils Good attack but not good defense
Goaltending, injuries, coaching.
Yet somehow, the Flyers STILL found a way to lose to them in the stadium series game this year.
They're goaltending is in an even worse spot with Carter Hart gone and his career likely over because of the sexual assault incident.
Why did you edit a white helmet onto the home uniform
You’re the first person to realize that 😂 It looks nice next to the devils logo so I put it there
Love that jack “on a heater baby” Hughes deserves so little blame 😂
That’d be target #1 in a major market
how is he heating up he is playing awful
Injuries and the young D. Still such a bright future, and technically they aren’t out of the race yet. (Unless your seeing this after tonights game against Buffalo which they will probably lose)
As a rangers fan, watching the team who’s fans chanted our goal song when they beat us in round 1 (their first playoff win in a decade) fail so spectacularly like this is so satisfying. I hope they enjoyed that series win, cause this year we’ve outscored them 13-5 in our 3 wins against them this season. “People pay to watch me play” was the final nail in their coffin.