The New Jersey Devils are 5-3-2 at the ten game mark while overcoming many key injuries from the start of the season.
Here is the good news on the injuries front: Dougie Hamilton has been practicing with the team and saw time with the first power play unit yesterday. It appears he will be ready to go soon. The bad news? The Devils will have to deal with another major blow to their lineup. It was announced that Miles Wood had undergone surgery on his right hip and will miss a significant amount of time. Wood suffered the injury during a preseason game against the Washington Capitals.
Surviving without Jack Hughes, Mackenzie Blackwood, and Miles Wood has not been easy for New Jersey to start the season. But Jonathan Bernier has stepped it up and Mack Black is back. The next four games will be a big test as they start a brutal stretch starting with the Florida Panthers, who are 10-1-1 and coming off a loss to the New York Rangers last night. Games against the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins are never easy while rounding out the weekend with the Rangers, who are 6-2-2 in the last ten games.
If the Devils were to have success this week, expect the Devils blue line to get more involved offensively and take more chances in the offensive zone. It was good to see Ryan Graves get his first goal of the season and he has been one of the more consistent players for New Jersey. However, Tomas Tatar has to find his scoring touch now and start putting the puck in the net. He has been largely a disappointment thus far and needs to start earning his pay check. I believe he will get going soon.
The Devils’ Achilles heal has been their specials teams play and need to improve in all areas. The penalty killing has been improving but they need to win more faceoffs and do a better job clearing the puck out of the zone. On the power play, the Devils need to create more traffic in front of the net and get quicker shots on net.
My prediction for the next four games: 2-1-1, 5pts.
What are your predictions?
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Sam Woo is co-host and executive producer of the Let's Go Devils Podcast which can be heard live every Sunday at 9pm ET and Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.
You can follow Sam on Twitter: @PrimetimeSamWoo