Devils' Fitzgerald Takes The Blame for Team's Struggles

After being one of the league's best teams early on in the season, the New Jersey Devils have gone in the opposite direction in a major way.

As of this writing (Wednesday, January 14), the Devils are sixth in the Metropolitan Division, 13th in the Eastern Conference, and 22nd in the league with a record of 23-21-2 for 48 points. To make matters worse, they are currently five points out of the second wild card spot.

There is certainly a lot of blame to go around. One can look at the play of goaltender Jacob Markstrom as one reason why the Devils are struggling.

Markstrom, 35, is currently 11-10-0-1 with a 3.41 goals-against average, and a .879 save percentage. For someone who is supposed to be the team's starting goaltender and someone that the team recently gave a two-year extension to, those are extremely poor numbers and numbers that have negatively impacted the team this season.

One can also look at the team's defense as a whole as a reason why the Devils are where they are. The team is currently 18th in the league in goals allowed, as they have given up 143 goals in 146 games, which means they are allowing close to four goals per game (3.67).

It would also be easy to say that the Devils started going downhill when Jack Hughes got injured. Hughes is the player that drives this team's offense, so when he is not in the lineup, it leaves a huge hole that is extremely hard to fill.

Speaking of offense, one can look at that and say that is yet another reason why the Devils are fading fast. They are currently 28th in the league in goals scored as they have scored 120 goals in 46 games, which means they are averaging under three goals per game (2.61).

All the reasons mentioned above are valid when it comes to why the Devils are struggling. With that said, the right person in the organization stepped up and took the blame.

Devils' President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald spoke with reporters today and told them that it is his fault when it comes to why the Devils are currently not in the playoff picture.

This is on me. Where we're at right now is on me. And I'm one to take accountability for myself," Fitzgerald said. "And accountability is a word that we use a lot with every part of our organization, and not witch-hunting.

"...We're all in this together. And the one thing I'm trying to do is find solutions to help this organization move forward to become the team that we believe we can be."

When it comes to making the team better, Fitzgerald told reporters that he believes that the answers are in the room. He spoke about how he trusts his club's core to get it done.

I'm very confident in where I've taken this team to and how we've built through the core and added the pieces that we wanted to add to become a contender every year," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald also told reporters that he feels that making trades is not the way to go when it comes to fixing his hockey club.

You can’t trade your way out of this,” he said. “This has to come from within.

The last thing Fitzgerald said in regards to his club is that both he and his team have the keys to get things turned around.

I look in the mirror,” he said. “I want everybody to do the same.”

Obviously, everything that Fitzgerald said today is just talk. Everything he said sounds great in theory, but words do not help teams win hockey games.

It is time for Fitzgerald and his hockey club to take action and start winning hockey games in short order because if they do not, they will be on the outside looking in come the end of the season.