In this edition of the hotstove, we share our picks for the least entertaining teams in hockey this season.
Todd Cordell
The New Jersey Devils.
Taylor Hall and Damon Severson are fun to watch, Miles Wood has shown some flashes, and Cory Schneider making save after save while hung out to dry can be entertaining. After that, there isn't really much to enjoy in Devils games this year. They're at or near the bottom of the league in pretty much every offensive category and they play a very low-event style to try and minimize how obvious the talent deficiency is on many nights. It gets tough on the eyes after a while.
Peter Tessier THE KINGS- yawn.
Oh my are they boring. Remember the tail end of Sutter hockey in Calgary, it's happening again in LA. While I think Darryl Sutter is an excellent coach, figures out ways to use his roster and gets the most out of it, he's not making money because of the entertainment factor.
Results matter and two Stanley Cups will buy you a fair bit of time, especially with a GM like Lombardi who is a bit all over the map.
Adam French The New Jersey Devils
I'm going to preface this by saying it's not about their play style. We all know they don't play the trap anymore. That still doesn't make them palatable to watch.
While the Avalanche might be the largest disaster since the Challenger Mission, they at least have star-level players that you can hope give you a show...they won't...but you can hope. The Devils on the other hand, are the most boring collection of players in the league.
Taylor Hall is a game breaker sure, but he's on the lower end of game breakers. Palmieri is a good top-6 forward, but pretty much every team has a Palmieri level player. Zajac and Henrique are fine players. They're fine. Other than that the forward core is very boring. Their lone young gun in Zacha isn't having a revolutionary rookie season.
Then the defense. I can't name a more boring defense.
The Devils can't score, they can't defend and they don't have any superstars that make it worth my while to change the channel. They don't even have some kind of gimmick or "identity" to at least try to get into it. Looking at this team makes me miss Kovalchuk.
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