The firing of Hynes stung Hall. He’d also underperformed after the Devils acquired him from Edmonton in a blockbuster trade in June 2016. After that 20-goal season, Shero asked Hall if he wanted to be traded. The next season, Hall scored 39 goals and led the Devils to the playoffs. He won the Hart Trophy, as the league’s most valuable player.
“I don’t talk about it a lot, but I have a pretty cool trophy at home that I think he had a part in and certainly helped me get to that,” Hall said, referring to Hynes.
Subban, projected as a top-line stopper and power-play asset, has only two goals and a poor minus-12 rating. Forward Kyle Palmieri is the only Devils player with 10 goals. Hischier has five goals and Hughes has four. The Devils are 28th out of 31 N.H.L. teams in goals per game.
“Coming into the season, you had a lot of promise, a lot of expectations,” said Palmieri, a New Jersey native who joined the team in 2015. “My time in Jersey hasn’t come with a ton of expectations, as far as what we were expected to achieve.”
There is time. On Dec. 3, 2018, the St. Louis Blues were 9-13-3 and had fired Coach Mike Yeo. His replacement, Craig Berube, led the Blues to the Stanley Cup, becoming only the second interim coach to do so. The first was the Devils’ Larry Robinson in 2000.
“I just think the season has been a yo-yo,” said the veteran defenseman Andy Greene, who is the Devils’ captain. “It’s been up and down. Good for a game or two, then bad. No real consistency, no real sustained momentum.”
Playing to about 90 percent capacity at home, the Devils are 27th in the league in attendance, down one spot from a year ago. Their next home game, against the Chicago Blackhawks, should draw a good crowd, only because Chicago fans will be mixed in.
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