The March 2024 Month in Review of the New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils still had a remote shot at the playoffs throughout March. It seemed like whoever held onto or was close to the second wild card spot in the East would fall apart. The Philadelphia Flyers also had a bad month to open up a long shot at third place. Even with all of the disappointing losses and failed opportunities in the preceding four months, the Devils had a shot. It turns out that when you go four months of falling short, you cannot simply flip a switch and make it better in the fifth. Not even after some much needed help for the crease and deserved firing of Lindy Ruff.

The Devils went 6-9-0 in March. They failed to win more than two games in a row and their 12 points earned are among the league’s lowest. Another month of disappointing hockey and failing to take opportunities to salvage the season. April is all but just playing out the string at this point even if the Devils are not mathematically out of the playoffs. Before we look to whatever those eight games may bring, let us look back at the 15 games of March 2024.

The Games of March 2024

The New Jersey Devils opened March while in the middle of their trip through California. They took on Anaheim on March 1. Did they get revenge for a bad loss to them like they did against San Jose in the end of February? No. They lost 3-4 to the Ducks. Caleb called it a wasted opportunity in his recap and those two words could be described for several of the team’s nine losses in March. The trip would end in Los Angeles for a matinee on TNT. The Devils filled their pants in a 1-5 loss in that one. The last major Devils moment under Lindy Ruff was Jack Hughes stopping with the puck while the net was empty to signal that there were only five skaters on the ice. Yes, Ruff failed to count. It would be his last failure as Devils head coach. The boss responsible for one of the worst Devils seasons of all time and one of the best Devils seasons of all time was behind a sinking 2023-24 campaign. General Manager Tom Fitzgerald fired him on March 4. Travis Green, responsible for the power play, would be promoted to interim head coach. Maybe the Devils would benefit from the coach being fired?

Maybe not. The Devils lost 3-5 to Florida in Green’s first night as the boss. The losing streak would end with that third game. On the eve of the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, the Devils took on St. Louis. Thanks to a hat trick by Timo Meier, who really emerged in this past month, the Devils won 4-1. On the deadline day itself, Fitzgerald would have a day of “transition.” It was really more or less being sellers but Fitzgerald finally got a pair of goalies to address the goaltending problem that has been in place since November: Jake Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen. Would they help? Yes. Did it stop the losing? No. The Devils lost 2-4 to Carolina on March 9. In a fated match for Fitzgerald’s latest “enforcer” acquisition Kurtis MacDermid did not fight Matt Rempe. He wanted to after Rempe headshotted Jonas Siegenthaler and earned a four-game suspension for it. But he did not. Also, the Devils lost the hockey game 1-3 to Our Hated Rivals in a performance not as close as the score suggested.

Jake Allen would join the team and make his Devils debut on March 14 in Dallas. He gave up two goals right away - and then locked it down. Dallas’ goaltenders were not having a good night and the Devils lit them up. They won 6-2 in an effort that makes one think, “Maybe all they needed was Jake Allen?” Then they went to Arizona on March 16. They lost 1-4 to the Coyotes in another disgraceful performance. This was followed up by a 1-3 loss in Las Vegas in the next afternoon to further cement the Devils’ issues. To think the playoffs were still a remote possibility at this point.

It did get a boost on March 19 when they hosted Pittsburgh, another playoff long-shot team. The Devils went up and kept on up to win 5-2 thanks to braces by Dawson Mercer and Timo Meier. Then, on March 21, something strange happened. Winnipeg visited the Rock and lost. Their heavy forecheck was ripped apart. The Devils’ power play, which did convert against the Pens, put goals on the board against the Jets. The Devils won 4-1. Maybe this team can do it after all. Maybe they can go on that heater they needed weeks or months earlier. Can and do are two different verbs, though. The Devils reminded the People Who Matter of that with a sad-sack 2-5 loss to Ottawa on March 23.

Hope would be rekindled in the final week of the month. Fittingly, it would be on the road as for the Devils to not continue to let their local paying customers down. The Devils went to Long Island and shut them out 4-0 on March 24. Kaapo Kahkonen owns the only shutout win by the Devils this season. On March 26, the Devils went to Toronto and beat them in regulation for the first time in years. The Devils prevailed 6-3 over the Leafs. They made some the People Who Matter think, once again, maybe they can do it. They just have to beat Buffalo to at least win three games in a row. Something the Devils have failed to do since the calendar turned to the year 2024. They were up 2-0 after the first period. Then they blew it in the second period, went down late in the third, and conceded two empty netters in another sad sack 2-5 loss to a non-playoff team in the Atlantic Division. The 2023-24 Devils have to be the most disappointing team in the season. I struggle to understand which team has continued to fail to take a step forward without moving backward as much as they have this season.

By the Numbers

All stats come from Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com where mentioned. Data was pulled after Sunday’s game. Stats in the top ten are colored in green; stats in the bottom ten of the league (23rd to 32nd) are colored in red. Ties in rank are rounded up to the highest rank.

5-on-5 Play: The offense took a dive under the month largely coached by Travis Green. And the defense, well, that was not a trainwreck again, so that was a plus.

Natural Stat Trick

The Devils were awesome at generating offense last month and bad at allowing opponents to attack in February. This month, they shored up one while become worse at the other. With mixed results. The Devils did not score that many goals, still got out-scored in 5-on-5, still lost in expected goals in 5-on-5 and overall, and hovered around (which includes below) 50% in three of the four major on-ice rates. Those are not very positive - which befits a team that went 6-9-0 in the month yielding these stats. The saving grace are the high-danger chance rates. Those were solidly in the green. Problem is that goals are scored outside of the crease and slot areas too and the Devils did not generate enough of the former or stop enough of the latter.

For those interested in the player-by-player breakdown in 5-on-5, here is the scoring and here are the on-ice rates. For the scoring, it was largely carried by Timo Meier, Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and Jack Hughes. Everyone else had 5 or fewer points in 5-on-5 play. That everyone else includes 13 Devils out of 17 in March. Telling. For the on-ice rates, there were more positives but a similar sense of not a lot of Devils doing well. For CF%, eight Devils finished March above 50%. For xGF%, nine Devils did so. Again, this is out of 17 skaters so that means most of the team were out-attempted or out-xG’ed. Nevermind actually out-scored of which only six Devils were not. Timo Meier, Luke Hughes, Nico Hischier, and Erik Haula were a part of that positive group among those three.

Power Play Situations: The Devils power play was much more successful in March! Just do not look beyond the results.

Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com

Oh, Travis Green and Chris Taylor, what is this? The Devils basically got their power play going thanks to shooting at above 19%. Which is not going to last. The low rates reflect a lot of the frustration here and elsewhere among the People Who Matter during a Devils power play. Lamenting the lack of shots. Lamenting the same plays being broken. Lamenting a power play leaning too much on the Hughes brothers only to see the secondary unit and quickly getting reminded they did not generate much as well. The Devils were rather bad on the power play in March from the perspective of generating offense. In terms of success, it was much better - but even then, one could not shake the feeling that they could have done better.

For what its worth, the 10 power play goals came from exactly four players. Four each from The Big Deal and Meier. One from Nico Hischier and one from Tyler Toffoli before he was sent to Winnipeg in a trade. Somehow, Hischier ended up with the most shots on net on the power play in March. With one goal scored, perhaps someone else should have taken more initiative. In any case, the power play in March was more successful than the past two months. It is not anything I would call “good” or even “mediocre.” I do not think you should too, but that is your call and not mine.

Penalty Kill Situations: The Devils penalty kill was rather good for another month.

Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com

Even bad New Jersey Devils teams have been able to put together some solid penalty kills. Of all of the issues in March, going to the penalty kill was one made minor by how the PK units played. It started in net with Jake Allen going perfect in shorthanded situations all month leading to a very high team save percentage. The penalty killers did a great job limiting a decent rate of attempts allowed to a top-ten rate of shots getting on net. You wanted blocks and forced misses, then there they were. The expected goals rate reflects how good of a job they did and the goaltending elevated the March PK play to greatness. Excellent work.

The only issue I have was that the Devils had to be on the penalty kill 42 times in March. With Kevin Bahl, Erik Haula, Kurtis MacDermid, and John Marino taking at least five minor penalties in the month, it is easy to see who needed to be better with their sticks and their bodies. Taking more calls than Brendan Smith is not something to encourage.

Goaltending: Four goaltenders saw action in this month and three of them did quite well. Fortunately for Tom Fitzgerald, two of them were the goalies he acquired at the NHL Trade Deadline.

Natural Stat Trick

The delay in Jake Allen’s visas meant some more time for Nico Daws and Akira Schmid as Kaapo Kahkonen came into the fold. The two new goalies have shown their merit. Allen quickly earned the coach’s trust to get 7 appearances in the month even after a disasterous first few minutes in Dallas. Allen has been able (and lucky) to make some stunning stops. They have added up to an excellent 90% high-danger save percentage and a very good 92.3% overall save percentage with a 92% in 5-on-5. Kahkonen has the Devils’ lone shutout of the season so far and has done very well over his three appearances. It could be argued he should get some more time but given that Fitzgerald basically got him to dump Vitek Vanecek’s contract on San Jose, I doubt he figures into the team’s plans. Even Akira Schmid in spot duty was more than acceptable. Both Khakonen and Schmid missed the 100 minute cut-off I used for ranks in 5-on-5 play (and in Schmid’s case, overall) but they did their job well.

The only one who did not was Nico Daws. I know I praised him last month because he was providing the level of goaltending many were willing to settle with. With Allen and Kahkonen, it is fair to say that there is no need to settle. I do think Daws got used too much to a fault. But Allen was the goalie the team really needed and his performance in March proved that. Alas, the one month the Devils get some decent and dare I suggest above decent goaltending, they win 6 out of 15 games.

Additions and Subtractions

The biggest subtraction to the team was made on March 4. Lindy Ruff was fired as the New Jersey Devils head coach. It is increasingly clear that the 2022-23 season was a case of a lot going right much more often than it went wrong. From health to performances to tactics not getting exposed to just stringing games in a row. However, when that did not happen again, the experienced head coach had no answers but to stick to his ways. Even when that led to losses, how the Devils played did not change very much and so the results did not change very much as a whole. Failing to be close a playoff spot after a franchise-record 52-win season and winning a playoff series (over Our Hated Rivals! in 7 games! in a comeback!) is a failure by any means. Lindy Ruff earned his firing.

Travis Green, the coach behind the team’s power play, took over as the interim. Given how this month went, it has not been very good. Just like the power play after Dougie Hamilton suffered his torn pectoral. To quote Chris’ recap of the final game of March: Travis Green is not the guy. He was added instead. Chris Taylor is also technically in charge of the power play as Green is the interim, but by all accounts, it is largely the same as it was under Green. Right down to the results.

There were significant player changes at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline. Tyler Toffoli and Colin Miller were sent to Winnipeg for picks in separate deals. Vitek Vanecek was exiled to San Jose in exchange for pending UFA goalie, Kaapo Kahkonen. The Devils sent a pick to Montreal for Jake Allen. The goaltender deals have worked out well so far. Leading to a lot of “Why wasn’t this done earlier” comments from the People Who Matter. And, honestly, they are right to question it. Allen supposedly blocked a deal thinking the Devils were fine with Akira Schmid and Vanecek earlier in the season. Not a great salesmanship job by Tom Fitzgerald if he could not convince that Allen would supplant one of them right away. Alas, the best time for addressing the goaltending was in late November and in December, but it at least was done. Needs for center depth or even bottom-six depth were not met. Fitzgerald was busy but he was effectively a seller. And he did not even use all of the LTIR space created by Hamilton.

Oh, I forgot about the notably needless acquisition of Kurtis MacDermid. The cost was cheap: a seventh round pick and a seventh-round drafted prospect in Zahkar Bardakov. I pointed out that he would not have an impact. So far, he has not had an impact as he has not even averaged five minutes per game. Did he stop the Leblond-alike in Manhattan? Nope! Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

The Devils did have a number of injuries throughout the month. The most significant involved Jonas Siegenthaler and a media darling to those wishy-washy on CTE. Matt Rempe’s headshot on Siegenthaler not only knocked him out of that game on March 12, but for the whole month. At this point, Rempe is responsible for taking out two Devils as Nathan Bastian remained on the IR all month. The other injury of significant involved Nolan Foote. He was cleared to play right at the end of February but he not only did not get into a game but got hurt in practice in the middle of March. He remains out. That’s rough as there has been ample time for someone to get a shot on a bottom six forward position but Foote literally has not been able to get said shot. The other injuries were minor in terms of length of time lost. Ondrej Palat missed a game due to a lower body injury but he did return shortly thereafter. John Marino dealt with some upper body injury that kept him out of some games but he has since returned. Curtis Lazar and Kurtis MacDermid suffered injuries in the loss to the Senators. Lazar came back; MacDermid remains out for the moment.

While all injuries are bad, Siegenthaler was the most significant in March. Despite his performances, his absence combined with Miller being traded meant more games for Brendan Smith. Santeri Hatakka only drew in when Marino could not play. Why Smith is getting so many minutes as the season went down the drain is a question better answered by Green and his staff than anything I can come up with. There is some good news. Jonas Siegenthaler returned to practice on March 30 per Amanda Stein. Stein also followed up with Travis Green and Green stated Bastian could return before the end of the season. As for Dougie Hamilton, Green does not think a return is likely.

In terms of call ups, there were plenty involving said injuries and other issues. Namely, Jake Allen having visa issues to sort out before he could join the team. This meant Nico Daws and Akira Schmid were in New Jersey for a bit before Allen and Kaapo Kahkonen took over in tandem. Siegenthaler’s injury led to Hatakka’s initial call up and stuck around when Marino could not go. There ere other call ups of Tyler Wotherspoon, Isaac Poulter for a day, and Max Willman. Only Willman got into games in this month and even made a mark with two goals. The latest call up was Brian Halonen, whom also did not get into games in March.

There was one player who finally did get a shot with New Jersey. I nearly forgot that defenseman Nick DeSimone was claimed on waivers in January. He remained with the Devils but only in practices for nearly two months. On March 14, DeSimone made his debut in Dallas. He did quite well in that game! Overall, he has been a perfectly fine defender for what would be third-pairing like minutes. More effective than Brendan Smith. It begs a question: Why did he have to wait nearly two months to even dress for New Jersey? It was not like the Devils were on a heater between January 18 and March 13 that would have kept him out of the lineup. At least he is making his case.

With the season winding down and a limited number of non-emergency call-ups from Utica, it remains to be seen if any Comets will get a shot. They are trying to engineer their own late playoff push with longshot odds.

Devil of the Month

There are a number of potential honorable mentions here. The Big Deal, who may or may not be playing hurt, put up 16 points in 15 games. As did Nico Hischier. Luke Hughes took a step towards breaking Will Butcher’s points record for Devils rookie defenseman (44, not the franchise mark) with 12 points to go with some really dominant 5-on-5 on-ice rates. But I think a better honoree would be in the net.

Jake Allen has posted an overall save percentage of 92% with the Devils this month. 92%! That is a touch better than Igor Shesterkin and Charlie Lindgren! That is also including a sub-90% start for Montreal on March 5; his work with the Devils alone put him at an overall save percentage of 92.3%. Allen has given up some poor goals, sure; but he has also made many, many more stunning stops. Saves that the Devils were just not getting for most of this season. Saves that would keep games alive or keep leads intact. Saves that would bail out a team that needed a lot of bailing out at times. He was perfect in penalty kill situations all month. I gave a similar honorable mention to Nico Daws last month. Allen provided even better numbers in his time so far with the Devils. There are many reasons why the Devils went 6-9-0 in March. Allen is not one of them. Instead, Jake Allen is the Honorable Mention for the Devil of the Month of March 2024.

One New Jersey Devil benefited big-time from Ruff being fired. One who has played hurt and unsurprisingly ineffective back in December. One player who was put on his offwing instead of where he made his money in San Jose. Yes, it is the other big-money winger Fitzgerald locked up last Summer: Timo Meier. Normally, I would put together a full argument about his month to justify this selection. I will keep it simple. Meier put up 13 goals and 7 assists with 58 shots in 15 games in March. This not only led the Devils in scoring. Meier scored the most goals in the NHL in March. Yes, more than Nathan MacKinnon. Yes, more than Filip Forsberg. Yes, even one more than Zach Hyman. Meier got hot and controlled a lot of play in 5-on-5 next to Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier. The team may have been suffered in March, but Meier excelled. As such, Timo Meier is the All About the Jersey Devil of the Month of March 2024.

Concluding Thoughts & Your Take

The Devils disappointed their way through another month. Bad losses at home? Yep. Listless third periods to lose games that could have been won? You bet. Coaching failures? The month almost began with Lindy Ruff forgetting to put six skaters on the ice with the net empty. It ended with Travis Green calling for a timeout after an empty net goal was allowed and, somehow, the Devils coaches felt their team could score two in 40 seconds. They did not and they conceded another ENG in the process.

What do you take away at this point what has not already been written?

The first takeaway for me is obvious. Travis Green is not the guy. Green’s tenure with the Devils needs to end on April 16. He had his chance to get the players going and has failed to do so.

The second takeaway is not as obvious but much more concerning. There needs to be accountability in the front office.

Consider this: Before the Buffalo loss, there was a report by Pierre LeBrun about how management likes what Green was doing. Really. I do not know how anyone can believe that after the loss to Buffalo. Or the loss to Ottawa a week earlier which was similar in defeat. Or the back-to-back losses to Arizona and Las Vegas. Or the loss to Our Hated Rivals. The Devils got their six wins under Green in part of the opposition playing poorly and making errors. It was not like Green ran on a coaching clinic on an opponent.

The more I think about that report, the more I have to accept the possibility that the front office has lost its grip on the situation. Goaltending has been a glaring need for this team since November. Since November, Fitzgerald has made a lot of noise about how hard it is to trade for a goalie and how he is patient and how he does not want to over pay. Then I read that a deal for Jake Allen was being made, but Allen rejected it on the basis of not knowing whether he would get playing time over Vitek Vanecek or Akira Schmid. That’s a Fitzgerald fault because both goalies were bad in 2023; and it is not hard to say, “Hey, Jake, the second you’re here, Akira is in Utica and you just have to not be terrible to get games over Vitek, that’s a promise.” It is not hard to say it. But Fitzgerald could not do so and so he made attempts at Jakob Markstrom before eventually getting Allen and Kahkonen, the latter treated as an afterthought.

This is also a thought when you consider the other skaters. Center depth was an issue even after re-signing Michael McLeod. Hence all of the acquisitions of Tomas Nosek, Chris Tierney, Kyle Criscuolo, Shane Bower, and Justin Dowling. Most of them did not work. Did the Devils go out and get another center? No. What about forward depth in general since most of them are not doing so hot? Nope. What about that antiquated value of grit? Fitzgerald got Kurtis MacDermid. That’s the answer you’ll get from him. Fitzgerald thinks he is a leader, by the way if you think leadership is a concern. I think Fitzgerald’s understanding of a leader is a concern too.

Of course, Fitzgerald fired Lindy Ruff way too late for Green or any other interim head coach to make any meaningful changes to how the team plays. The Devils still do a lot of swarming and strong-side focus on defense to mixed results. The Devils attack is still rush-heavy and often too deep in the offensive zone. The power play was put together by Green, why would you expect him to change his own work? Did the Devils get a “dead coach bounce?” Look at this month’s record and get back to me on that.

I am focusing much of my thoughts on Fitzgerald and the front office because they set the tone when it comes to leadership, culture, accountability, and other organizational features. Just as it is in business, manufacturing, and sports, it is a top-down effort not a down-top effort. It is fair to question why the team keeps playing “immature” in the word of team captain Nico Hischier. It is fair to question why Hischier keeps saying this. The answer has to come from the top since they thought the goaltending did not need to be addressed until the final day they could among many other issues. My evidence for that is that they actually did so on the final day they could. Leaks to the press do not win games.

And, again, the organization has failed to acknowledge and act or act in a timely manner with other issues. This has flowed down to the players. Whether your beef is with Erik Haula taking calls but not taking scorers in coverage or Jack Hughes over-handling pucks or every player on the power play passing it too much or Kevin Bahl-John Marino being a distasterous pairing or whomever you want to focus your ire on, the source of it comes from the front office of the organization. Is leadership a concern for the Devils? I think there is enough reason to think so, yes. Is the culture of the team also a concern? Look at the Haula non-coverage in the picture above and his lack of even missing one second of a shift for it. Where does that start? As tempting it is to complain about (Insert Devil here), the correct answer is up at the top. It starts there.

Just as the New Jersey Devils were fully disappointing in March and in this season, Tom Fitzgerald was a major reason as to why they were.

Now, April awaits. Eight games in fourteen days after this one. The playoffs are all but not happening for the Devils. I am not expecting it. I think the loss to Buffalo ended a lot of last hopes for many of the People Who Matter. Does it end gracefully? Does it end ugly as possible? Does it even matter? Until then, let us send March off one last time. It was another bad month that disappointed many. Do you at least agree that Timo Meier was the Devil of the Month? Please leave your answers and final thoughts about March 2024 for the New Jersey Devils in the comments. Thank you for reading.