The Prudential Center is known by most Devil fans as “The Rock”. –nj.com
What are the Advantages of Home-Ice?
Playing at home in the NHL is a blessing. You don’t have to travel, on occasion you’ll get the benefit of the doubt in regards to the officiating, and most importantly, you’ll be playing in front of thousands ecstatic hockey fans yelling their heads off for you. To go along with the unofficial benefits of playing on your home-ice, there’s also the official in-game benefits. The home team gets to make the last change, the visiting team’s center must put their stick down on a face-off before the home team, and if a game goes to a shoot-out, the home team gets to choose whether they want to shoot first or not. Sounds like playing at home is a pretty good deal, right? Well these past couple months, it has certainly not been the case for the New Jersey Devils.
What’s the Problem?
The Devils started the season 8-0-2 at home until a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on December 9th. After this, the Devils home struggles began. Since those first ten home games, the Devils have been a disgraceful 2-9-1 at the Prudential Center. During this twelve-game stretch the Devils are averaging 2.42 GF and an outrageous 3.33 GA. In addition to getting outscored, the Devils are also getting outshot 330 to 294. Also, the Devils power play over the last twelve-games has converted at a rate of only 10% (5/49)! To say the least, these last twelve home games haven’t been very kind to the Devils.
Why must they Fix it?
To make matters even worse 19 of the Devil’s 31 remaining games come at The Rock. If the Devil’s want to continue hanging onto their slim playoff hopes down the road, they must correct their home woes. In these remaining 19 home games, they will find themselves in numerous long home-stands. From 2/6-2/18 they’ll be on a 5-game home-stand, from 2/21-2/27 a 3-game home-stand, and another 3-game home-stand from 4/4-4/8. Needless to say, for a playoff run, finding home-success is paramount.
The Prudential currently has a capacity of about 16,500 hockey fans. –prudentialcenter.com
How can they Fix it?
The best way to fix their home woes is to duplicate what they were doing in their first ten home games. This comes down to three components: power play, shots, and goals. In these first ten games, the Devils power play converted 22% of the time. That number is down to about 15%. The 22% would leave the Devils in the top quarter of the league, and in an Eastern Conference that is as close as it is, every goal matters. The other two components I mentioned come hand in hand. With no shots, there will be no goals. As I said above, the Devils have been outshot 330 to 294. In their early season success at home they outshot their opponent 6 times over the 10 game-span. If the Devils can get shots to the net, whether it be by the defenseman from the point, or just by throwing the puck at the net while entering the zone, I guarantee you the goal total will start to rise. It is imperative the Devils start improving on their weak power play, which is something they haven’t been able to do in months, and increase their shot totals game in and game out. If the Devils can do these couple things, which is easier said than done, their home woes might just turn around and since they have so many remaining home games, maybe, just maybe this team can squeak into a playoff spot in these upcoming weeks.