Balance and Patience : The New Key in New Jersey.
Jan 7, 2018 11:49:12 GMT -5
bjernagris (PHI) and Ville (SJS) like this
Post by jon on Jan 7, 2018 11:49:12 GMT -5
The end of the 2021-22 season was a hopeful time. The Devils were in a great position as the end of February was approaching and the trade deadline was looming. Fresh out of a long winning streak, they had climbed right into contention for the Metropolitan division's first place, and as such were in a perfect position to make a serious run. They had the momentum. They had the best goaltender in the league. They made two of the biggest deadline moves. They were stronger than ever. And yet the month and a half that followed turned into a collapse of epic proportions. Everything that had worked all year long suddenly came to a halt. Suddenly, the team could not score a goal. Its star goaltender couldn't stop a puck. And, more importantly, they couldn't get a win to save their life. It was a train wreck. A complete disaster.
The aftermath of the fall was a silent one. For a while there was no word of the Devils' intentions. The team that had always approached transactions with an aggressive strategy did not make a move until Free Agency. And even then, they were minor moves. Steve Mason and Nikita Kucherov went to Free Agency. Nikita Serebryakov and Ivan Barbashev were brought in to replace them. Ryan Pilon got swapped for Gustav Bouramman. Those would be the only three new faces going into the 2022-23 season. It was a change in direction for the Devils' management. Done they were with the hurried reactions, the massive overhauls. It was time for words that hadn't been heard in a while in New Jersey : Balance, and patience.
The early playoff elimination gave General Manager Jon Bold some more time to think. It also gave him some new perspective. "I've got to take responsibility for how that season ended", Jon said, "and I've got to learn grom it. Truth be told, I think I got a bit carried away. That long win streak - I think that was 14 games - blinded me to some of this team's problems. Steve (Mason) was carrying us on his shoulders. And we were also relying way too much on Dougie (Hamilton) and German (Rubtsov). Playing them too much. It's very conceivable we ran them into exhaustion - I mean, Steve played in 73 games last season, that's too much for any goalie - and when their play started suffering from it, the wheels fell off for the whole squad."
And so the Devils have been using a totally different approach since the start of the 2022-23 season. Going from one extreme to the other, they have now established a time share between goaltenders, to which they are zealously adhering to : Serebryakov plays two straight games, then Skorpik starts two games, and so on. Head Coach Petri Metikainen has not deviated from the plan once. Not after a shutout, not after a bad performance. Similarly, the top 3 lines are now targeted for equal ice time, with the 4th line not too far from the others.
"The idea behind it is we have a deep roster", Bold told me. "We don't want it to be the affair of three or four players anymore. We want the whole roster to participate in a big way, and we feel now that everyone can. Everyone is ready."
And so far the results have been good. At this time, the Devils are standing in 7th place in a very competitive Eastern conference after playing a majority of their games on away ice. 2 points away from being pushed out of the playoffs, yet only 6 points away from 1st place. Both goaltenders have been solid yet unspectacular :about what could have been expected from a Skorpik/Serebryakov duo. It's on offense that there is surprise. Aside from Hamilton, no skater has pushed himself ahead of the pack, with no one else on pace for 60+ points. Yet a total of 12 players are scoring at over a 0.5 ppg clip, enough for the Devils to rank 6th in the league in goals scored per game, without a bonafide top scorer. Signs that the management is right in thinking that this team's depth might be its strongest selling point.
Asked if the Devils would be a big player again on this year's deadline day, Bold brushed off the idea : "We won't be repeating the mistakes of last season. I'm counting on this roster to rise to contention by itself. There's only a finite number of assets a team can give away and we've reached the point where I mostly want to keep those I have. There's certainly a couple of moves I have in mind, but those will be depth moves, and certainly will not be rentals." But can Jon Bold really shy away from the big moves he's been doing since his very first days as General Manager some 7 years ago? "Who knows?", he answered, laughing. "Guess we'll both know for sure in about 15 weeks!"
The aftermath of the fall was a silent one. For a while there was no word of the Devils' intentions. The team that had always approached transactions with an aggressive strategy did not make a move until Free Agency. And even then, they were minor moves. Steve Mason and Nikita Kucherov went to Free Agency. Nikita Serebryakov and Ivan Barbashev were brought in to replace them. Ryan Pilon got swapped for Gustav Bouramman. Those would be the only three new faces going into the 2022-23 season. It was a change in direction for the Devils' management. Done they were with the hurried reactions, the massive overhauls. It was time for words that hadn't been heard in a while in New Jersey : Balance, and patience.
The early playoff elimination gave General Manager Jon Bold some more time to think. It also gave him some new perspective. "I've got to take responsibility for how that season ended", Jon said, "and I've got to learn grom it. Truth be told, I think I got a bit carried away. That long win streak - I think that was 14 games - blinded me to some of this team's problems. Steve (Mason) was carrying us on his shoulders. And we were also relying way too much on Dougie (Hamilton) and German (Rubtsov). Playing them too much. It's very conceivable we ran them into exhaustion - I mean, Steve played in 73 games last season, that's too much for any goalie - and when their play started suffering from it, the wheels fell off for the whole squad."
And so the Devils have been using a totally different approach since the start of the 2022-23 season. Going from one extreme to the other, they have now established a time share between goaltenders, to which they are zealously adhering to : Serebryakov plays two straight games, then Skorpik starts two games, and so on. Head Coach Petri Metikainen has not deviated from the plan once. Not after a shutout, not after a bad performance. Similarly, the top 3 lines are now targeted for equal ice time, with the 4th line not too far from the others.
"The idea behind it is we have a deep roster", Bold told me. "We don't want it to be the affair of three or four players anymore. We want the whole roster to participate in a big way, and we feel now that everyone can. Everyone is ready."
And so far the results have been good. At this time, the Devils are standing in 7th place in a very competitive Eastern conference after playing a majority of their games on away ice. 2 points away from being pushed out of the playoffs, yet only 6 points away from 1st place. Both goaltenders have been solid yet unspectacular :about what could have been expected from a Skorpik/Serebryakov duo. It's on offense that there is surprise. Aside from Hamilton, no skater has pushed himself ahead of the pack, with no one else on pace for 60+ points. Yet a total of 12 players are scoring at over a 0.5 ppg clip, enough for the Devils to rank 6th in the league in goals scored per game, without a bonafide top scorer. Signs that the management is right in thinking that this team's depth might be its strongest selling point.
Asked if the Devils would be a big player again on this year's deadline day, Bold brushed off the idea : "We won't be repeating the mistakes of last season. I'm counting on this roster to rise to contention by itself. There's only a finite number of assets a team can give away and we've reached the point where I mostly want to keep those I have. There's certainly a couple of moves I have in mind, but those will be depth moves, and certainly will not be rentals." But can Jon Bold really shy away from the big moves he's been doing since his very first days as General Manager some 7 years ago? "Who knows?", he answered, laughing. "Guess we'll both know for sure in about 15 weeks!"