The New Jersey Devils look immature on the ice

The New Jersey Devils are 0-2-0 on the season following 5-2 losses to both the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings.

Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna talked on Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live about what’s going wrong in New Jersey…

Seravalli: “Let’s talk about the New Jersey Devils, who are feeling some heat after Miles Wood came out following their loss to the Flyers to open the season and said… ‘Our next game is a must-win.’

Hang on a second. Miles Wood, it’s the second game of the season, you know that, right? I love the urgency of him saying that he’s tired of playing bad teams. They want to win. They need to take a step forward. It’s kind of created an interesting dynamic here just a couple of games into the season as they went and lost that second game of the year.

Where do the Devils go from here?”

McKenna: “First off, I could never stand hearing my teammates saying a game was a must-win. It’s only a must-win when your season is on the line and I think you put a ton of pressure on yourself by doing so.

That said, I love the urgency as well. He’s obviously fed up with losing but if you’re fed up with it, don’t take a penalty in the early part of the game. That happened and Miles Wood is sitting in the box for a high stick.

I don’t see this Jersey team being able to defend. I don’t think it’s fair second game in to be calling for the coach’s head but I think there’s something that goes along with it. It’s something that’s been heaped on the goaltenders that the team hasn’t been able to defend the past couple of years.

Well, they’ve allowed the most goals in the league since Lindy Ruff took over as head coach. And when Lindy Ruff coached the Dallas Stars between 2013 and 2017, that team was fourth-worst in the league at defending.

You can heap this on goalies all you want, but this is an immature team in Jersey that’s saying immature things that looks immature on the ice. They haven’t reached the peak of where they need to and they can’t defend.

What’s the answer here? You can work as hard as you can and hope your players take some strides, but, right now, is Vitek Vanecek the answer? I thought he might be better than what they had. They don’t have a star goalie to rely on and I don’t think they’re defending hard enough or smart enough. They look immature on the ice.”

You can watch the full episode here…