Devils Are Worse Without Pete DeBoer (Pete DeBoer)

A lot of Devils fans were against Pete DeBoer and the consensus from them was the Devils would be a lot better without him, and that they have been playing better under the new coaching staff.

While Adam Larsson certainly has progressed nicely since the firing, the likes of Eric Gelinas and Jacob Josefson find themselves out of the lineup as much or more as they did under DeBoer, and the team as a whole is playing worse hockey.

New Jersey's numbers under DeBoer were nothing to write home about, but they were respectable. The sample size isn't overly large, but under Lamoriello and co. the Devils have numbers that you generally see from the three-to-five worst teams in hockey.

As you can see, the Devils possession numbers and scoring chance numbers have dropped about 5%. Prior to the firing the Devils played respectable hockey at even-strength and generated a similar amount of shots/chances as their opposition, but found themselves on the losing end of a lot of games because New Jersey didn't have the talent to match up against pretty much any team in the league.

The latter still holds true, but the Devils are generating a lesser percentage of the shots and chances which means, over time, New Jersey should lose a lot more than they win.

Given the state of the team and how necessary a full rebuild is, that's probably a good thing.

I'm not saying DeBoer shouldn't have been let go, because at this point a change was needed, but so far the results have gotten worse under Lou and the Crew.

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