Of all my years of being a Devils fan, I have have never seen the team struggle out of the gate as mush as they are right now. The worst was in 2001-2002 when they started 0-3-0, followed by 2007-2008 where they went 3-6-0 in their first nine. Now the team is 3-9-1, a very dismal start with absolutely little hope of getting out of their funk. Yesterday, the team played well in their 3-0 loss, but yet again the hockey super naturals if you believe in them decided not to get the puck into the net.
Most struggling teams would tell you that if we are going to lose, it better be by a score of 6-4 or 9-6, but at least they remain confident offensively. This is what the Devils should have done in their 9 losses this season and not lose games where they only scored a goal or two, but score at least 4 or 5 just to feel confident that you can score. The month of November will tell a lot about where the Devils might go, but their priority is to put together a winning streak and start getting their injured players back. When they do have a complete team and all the salary cap issues sorted out, I think they will be a force in the East, but they have to manufacture wins with what they have now. I think they will sneak into the playoffs, but missing it would not hurt them as many people would think it would, because they can learn from teams like Pittsburgh and Chicago, who struggled in years before they won their respective Stanley Cups, but their youth got them out of it.
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Like I mentioned yesterday, Parise is out indefinitely and should have his surgery sometime this week to determine how long he will have to miss. The fact that there is no structural, cartilage or ligament damage would probably mean he will likely miss a little under a month.
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