Happy Halloween, Devils fans.
As of today, the team is fourth in the Eastern Conference with 18 standings points in 14 games on a 9-5-0 record. In the old 82-game schedule, that would roughly be a 105-point pace, though it is now a 108-point pace. Through this first month, the Devils have already been through considerable change: although the first week or two featured some warts, the team grew stronger as a whole before our eyes before General Sunny Mehta deemed it was time to get serious by acquiring
Connor Hellebuyck.
For Devils fans who remember the excellent quarter-century of goaltending by Martin Brodeur and Cory Schneider, Hellebuyck may feel like a throwback. For those fans who were not around for even the end of the glory years, the level of play he can provide may feel like a fever dream.
Beyond Hellebuyck’s raw skill, though, I think his acquisition does something that can’t easily be quantified in a box score or an analytics report: it gives the skaters in front of him confidence. Luke Hughes indicated it last night:
If things go right from here, Devils fans will be in for some years of fun, fantastic hockey to watch. Early in the Gamethread yesterday, MCDevs put it best:
Is it weird to get excited to watch a game to see the goaltender play? It’s been a very long time since we could look forward to this.
Now, I don’t think it’s weird at all. Watching what Brodeur could do in goal was the majority of my motivation in the earliest years of my fandom. And aside from the great 2022-23 team performance and the flashes of defensive brilliance in the first half of the 2024-25 season, the Devils have struggled to develop an identifiable team identity since the end of the Brodeur era. Now, at five-on-five, the Devils are currently third in shot attempts per 60 minutes and seventh in all-situations shots on goal per game, per Natural Stat Trick. Adding a world-class goaltender like Hellebuyck will serve to embolden the Devils offensively and make it more frustrating for teams to meaningfully pierce their defense.
There are even further signs that this is a team with special chemistry. Beyond skill, something that every great player or athlete needs to have to function at their best is confidence. But when most people — professional athletes included — watch a player like Jack Hughes score a fantastic goal like the one he scored in the second period yesterday, they might say that Jack is on a whole different level from them. Sometimes, they’re right. Sometimes, players only need to take the reigns and move with the same confidence that allows Jack to play at the best of his abilities.
Many of us have always believed there was a gap between the skill that Arseny Gritsyuk possesses and the kind of productivity he had last season, when he had 31 points in 66 games. There was far too much skill, speed, and and intelligence in his game for him to level out as a 40 or 50-point player. But not only has Gritsyuk taken the next step, he has done so with the encouragement of Jack Hughes, who is someone fans might not realize can serve as a true motivator or someone who can teach other players how to play the way he does. And if Jack can impart any of his skill or the style with which he plays on his teammates, that too is a good sign of things to come.
If You’ll Indulge Me for a Moment
On Thursday evening, the world received the news that the legendary actor Patrick Stewart had passed away. For any of us who have had family members with Alzheimer’s disease or Lewy body dementia, we know how stunningly fast the disease can impact the afflicted. Of course, we try not to remember the end, but the better times beforehand.
I, like many others, came to appreciate Patrick Stewart through his role as Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, though I was not around for its original run. I started watching it sometime after being made to watch Shakespeare performances in high school, many of which included actors like Stewart. But I wanted to touch on something loosely related to my topic today regarding some of the overarching message of The Next Generation.
In the show, if you have not watched it, it begins with a test of whether humanity was progressing from their old ways and is worth saving. Over time, the crew is forced to grapple with coming to terms with inherently inhuman technological terrors like The Borg, who seek to achieve perfection through technological assimilation. This latter point has been sticking in my mind for some time over the last few years, as I have felt the world turning too much at times to perceived technological advancements while not appreciating enough what makes the human experience fulfilling. And in The Next Generation, Picard represented what it was to embody the persistence and strength of human values in times when we are asked or tempted to abandon them.
Sports are one such area where I think we continue to find human fulfillment, where the creativity, skill, and camaraderie of people put to a common goal shines. Even though people have made some advancements in the fields of analytics, the good of analytics is that they are used to inform what kind of plays do the most to create goals or play better defense or save more shots. But sports are an arena in which the excellence of people will always be the primary draw.
If you might find yourself so lucky, I highly recommend that, if you have found yourself unable to compete in even casual sports for some time, try to get back into something when you can. Whether it’s beer-league hockey or adult-league softball, soccer, or basketball, get out there and get your blood flowing a bit.
In the meantime, I am happy to engage with everyone here on the Devils team we all see before us. From when I was younger, reading In Lou We Trust, having people who shared a common interest in the team made it more enjoyable to be a fan. Right now, the vibes surrounding this team are high, and I am glad I am sharing all of it with you. Let us enjoy this ride, wherever it takes us.
