Once again, the atmosphere in New Jersey Devils The locker room was a place of frustration after losing their fourth straight game Friday night. The fact is they didn’t play good hockey. They have mediocre goaltending, haven’t found consistent line combinations, and defensive attention to detail is lacking.

These are all valid reasons to be concerned. But for the second straight season, the Devils are getting no help from NHL scheduling officials. In 2023-24, the Devils faced the most consecutive games in the entire league, with 16. Of course, it didn’t help that on the back half, they lost 13 of 16. But no matter, it’s a little baffling how this is allowed to happen.

Demanding Devils schedule

In the blink of an eye, the 2024-25 Devils have already played 11 matches – 13.4% of their season. That’s at least two games more than any other team, with the NHL average being 7.5 games played. Two Metropolitan Division opponents – the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals – have played just over half of the Devils’ games, with six.

It would be fair to assume that Czechia, who started the season early in Prague, would be a reason for this. But the Buffalo Sabres, also holders in Prague, have played three fewer times (8). Head coach Sheldon Keefe said: “Nine games in 16 days is a lot. Fatigue is difficult to combat. You won’t look the way you want. (We had) two practices in 16 days. There are times tonight where there are things that we would address in practice (but) we didn’t have that time.

Frankly, the eye test and the numbers confirm that the Devils are a team that just needs to make some adjustments, but haven’t been able to do so accordingly. In their first seven games, they went 5-2-0 while allowing just 14 goals (averaging 2.00 per game). In their next four games, they went 0-2-2 and allowed 23 goals (5.75 average per game).

Given their departure, it is clear that they want to play better. On paper too, the team is too talented to fight hard. But as Keefe also mentioned, video work and talking to guys about what to fix can only do so much. If they are not able to get on the ice, it is much more difficult to make the appropriate adjustments.

Related: New Jersey Devils’ multi-year home struggles must be resolved

Some may view Keefe’s mention of the schedule as an excuse, but it’s not like he shied away from criticizing the team’s play. Earlier yesterday morning, he admitted that the goaltenders needed to be better. He also mentioned that attention to detail is lacking and even acknowledged the struggles of local ice.

“It’s not an excuse, it’s the reality of the league,” Keefe said. “It’s been difficult to get any real traction on what we want to look like, quite honestly, just because of the demands of the schedule. We’re trying to navigate our way through this.

Luckily for the Devils, they’ve managed to pick up a few underdog points during their recent struggles, which could pay off in the long run. Last season, they allowed 27 empty-net goals and only tied the game once with the extra attacker (via Natural Stats Tip). With Jesper Bratt’s goal late in the third period against the New York Islanders, they already got their first with 71 games remaining. Taking games to overtime is so crucial; just look at the Islanders team last season that only won 39 of 82 games, yet made it to the Stanley Cup Playoffs by essentially winning eight more games with 16 overtime losses.

Hit the Bratt signal and Jesper delivers. pic.twitter.com/WtSbImF0CH

– New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) October 26, 2024

In the game against the Washington Capitals, Dougie Hamilton scored a power play goal late in the game to tie the game and get that extra point. Last season this almost never happened. Yes, the Devils are surely a work in progress and there are reasons to be concerned from the start. But their schedule will lighten up a little. They will have two full days off between games at various times in early November, then a four-day break between November 16 and 21. The goaltenders will have a chance to settle in, Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes will get up to speed, and then we can get together again and discuss if it’s time to panic. But for now, it’s way too early. Remember, the 2023-24 Edmonton Oilers started 2-9-1, and they finished very well. The Devils are in a much better position than that.