The New Jersey Devils were looking for a little nostalgia when they made John MacLean the fourth member of the team’s Ring of Honor in a pregame ceremony Tuesday night at Prudential Center.
What they got instead was deja vu.
That’s because these Devils, who lost 4-3 to the Winnipeg Jets, are way more reminiscent of the 2010-11 team MacLean coached to a disastrous 9-22-0-2 record before being fired, then the plucky upstart Devils he starred for in the late 80s and early 90s, let alone the 1995 or 2003 powerhouses he won Cups with as a player and assistant coach.
With most of the franchise’s all-time greats looking on, the Devils no-showed the first two periods. A couple of late goals, one in the second and one in the third, made the final score look respectable, but this didn’t feel like a one-goal game.
The Devils, desperate to keep their playoff hopes alive, have now dropped two straight, all but wiping out any positive vibes they may have rekindled by sweeping their western Canada road trip last week. Somehow, they’ve found a way to lose to the 29th-place Jets twice in 17 days.
Tuesday’s loss meant they failed to gain ground on the idle Islanders and Flyers, and will have to hope Seattle beats Washington in Tuesday’s late game to remain a point behind the Caps. Both the Islanders and Flyers have games in hand on the Devils.
If MacLean hadn’t seen much Devils hockey recently, the team gave him a crash course in what’s made this year’s edition so maddening and disappointing. They played all their greatest hits. They opened Tuesday’s set by allowing a goal on the first shot, followed that by falling behind on two quick goals in the second, and closed with a frantic attempt to tie the game that was too little, too late.
The 15,454 in attendance hadn’t even settled into their seats before the Jets took advantage of a sloppy line change, with Mark Scheifele scoring his 26th of the season on a three-on-one break at 1 minute, 33 seconds to make it 1-0.
Finnish rookie Lenni Hameenaho, in just his fifth NHL game, scored his second of the year at 8:02. Arseny Gritsyuk tipped a bad pass from Jets winger Alex Iafallo to spring Hameenaho at the blue line. Hameenaho broke in and beat Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck five-hole.
But goals by Gabriel Vilardi and Cole Koepke 4:29 apart early in the second dropped the Devils in a 3-1 hole and left them reeling.
Nino Niederreiter’s 8th of the year at 16:42, scored off a two-one-one thanks to a failed pinch by Dougie Hamilton, made it 4-1.
As punchless as the Devils offense had been to that point – they had just 12 shots on goal with less than a minute to go in the second – it looked like an insurmountable lead.
But Jesper Bratt’s 12th of the year with 36 seconds to play got the Devils within two.
Bratt converted a slap pass from Jack Hughes, who was absolutely fantastic Tuesday, on a late power play.
It was Bratt’s 485th career point allowing him to pass Scott Gomez for fifth all-time in franchise scoring.
He’d pick up his 486th with 1:46 to play in the third when he set up Nico Hischier’s 17th of the year with goalie Jake Allen on the bench for an extra attacker, but the Devils were unable to come up with the equalizer.
Palat Traded to Isles
Some good news from Tuesday night: Ondrej Palat is gone. General manager Tom Fitzgerald sent Palat and what remains of his 5-year, $30 million contract to the Islanders along with a third-round pick in the 2026 draft and a 2027 sixth-rounder. The Devils get 27-year-old Maxim Tsyplakov in return. Tsyplakov has been a big disappointment to the Isles this season after a nice rookie season where he’d scored 10 goals and 35 points in 77 games. So far this season, Tsyplakov has a goal and two points in 27 games.
Up Next
The Devils are back in action at 7 pm on Thursday night when they host the Nashville Predators. At 24-23-5 Nashville is four points back of the second wild card spot in the west. The Predators rallied from a 2-0 deficit on Tuesday before losing to Boston 3-2 in overtime.
Your Take
What did everyone think? The Devils are a very frustrating team to watch. Every time it looks as though they’ve turned some kind of corner or they start to build momentum they throw it away. The first two periods tonight were totally unacceptable. They seem to think there’s a lot more runway left then there is.