I have brought this up that it’s been the biggest challenge since the Lou era ended. And it’s not just the team on the ice, what is this organization’s identity?
They play strong defense and have a strong offense. They also have a goaltender.
Certain people here scoff at the idea of team chemistry being a key component of success.
Absolutely nobody scoffs at that. That is a strawman. I scoff at the notion of team identity being important - obviously the team has to believe they have an identity, but the identity from the outside is functionally 'being good, making the right play, and making the courageous play'. That's it. I don't work for the team so I don't have to care about the ins and outs of how the coaches and GM build a team that does that.
The closest thing we had to real chemistry and an identity since Lou left was two years ago with the balanced lineup of homegrown talent and immense speed.
Goalpost shift. Are chemistry and identity the same thing or two different things?
The problem there is that speed alone is not good enough to be a real contender.
The Devils didn't just play with speed in 2023, they also played very solid defense.
So we traded away pieces to address areas of need but the replacements don’t seem to have the chemistry. I look at our top four forwards and they have these flashes of individual talent, sometimes together on the ice, but it never feels consistently cohesive. Contrast that with a line like ZZ pops from years ago…that line was a force, together as a unit, almost from the very beginning for three straight seasons. We have at least four top line talent forwards, yet nothing resembling a ZZ pops line. This is a big problem that rarely gets acknowledged.
It isn't a big problem at all. ZZPops was together much less than you remember. Keefe discovered, as Ruff did, that Meier and Hughes do not work well together. The Devils never really realized that Kovalchuk and Zajac can't play together either, but that's in the past too.
There’s also the issue of how our forwards don’t seem to have a ton of talent outside of individual offensive production. I believe this can be taught and addressed with the right coaching and systems, but perhaps there’s still a limit there that hampers team success. Organizationally, what do we stand for? Who are the kinds of players we target? “Talented individuals” is not specific enough. There needs to be cohesiveness from the ownership all the way down to the towel boy. That’s what builds a consistent expectation and lifts everyone higher than their individual talent.
The Devils have targeted a type of player for the last 2 seasons and I don't know how this is not obvious. They want big players who are strong defensively. They have almost exclusively targeted this sort of player - the exceptions are Toffoli and Cotter.
What is Tampa's identity? They're a good team who has strong offensive players and a good defensive system, and a strong goalie. They're well-coached so they know what they're supposed to be doing. That's where the Devils want to get to. The 90s aren't coming back, the trapping Devils aren't coming back, but Keefe wants to bring back strong defensive play with fewer risks and more simplicity in the Devils' game, and for the first 6 games of the season it looked like he had done that. Identities aren't built in a day, but I'm sure if the Devils start winning regularly again, they will have found one.
