This one really hurts.
Coming off four consecutive regulation losses, the New Jersey Devils travelled up to Boston to take on a Bruins team that they absolutely needed to beat. It’s true that Boston is off to a better start than most anticipated through the first two months of the season, but this is still a very thin roster. On top of that, Boston’s already thin roster was missing their two best skaters: all-world winger David Pastrnak, and stud blueliner Charlie MacAvoy. I mean, just look at the lineup Boston trotted out this evening:
That might be one of the worst rosters in the league.
And yet, despite Boston icing such a substandard lineup, they beat the Devils by three goals. It was the third straight game that New Jersey has lost by three goals, and in all five of their losses during this skid, they have lost by multiple goals every night. The Devils are a broken team right now.
Before we go any further, allow me to try and be positive for a bit. While New Jersey lost again, I do believe they were the better team this evening. They generated a lot more offense and controlled possession a lot better tonight than they have over the last few games. Not to mention that the Devils hit multiple posts tonight, and otherwise just missed on several other opportunities. Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman had to make some really tough saves this evening, and he made them all. New Jersey deserved more then one goal tonight, and it was only bad luck and good goaltending that conspired to keep the total at one. On another night with some better luck and a different netminder between the pipes, we might be talking about a 4-1 victory instead of a 4-1 loss right now.
But honestly, that’s about it as far as positives for tonight. And even those positives are damning with faint praise. While I do think New Jersey was the better team, they didn’t control play nearly as much as they should have given the current state of the Bruins roster. The fact that it was as close as it was according to the fancy stats is a serious problem. I know the Devils are missing Jack Hughes, but they should still put up a much, much better effort than they did tonight even without Hughes in the lineup.
And as far as the bad luck goes, while it’s true New Jersey hit multiple posts, so did the Bruins. I might argue that Boston was even more unlucky than the Devils tonight. So I don’t really believe that bad luck was as big a factor as Ken Daneyko and Bryce Salvador on the MSG broadcast wanted you to believe. At one point in the dying minutes of this game, Daneyko said something to the effect of “this is just one of those stretches where all the bounces are going against New Jersey”. Here’s the thing: I don’t necessarily disagree that the Devils have been getting awful puck luck over this losing streak. They certainly deserve more goals than they’ve gotten. But that being said, two things can be true at once: The Devils are getting unlucky, but they STILL aren’t playing well enough. It’s not like New Jersey has been performing well only to have bad luck keep them out of the win column. The bad luck certainly has hurt, but their own performances over these last five games have hurt more.
I know this is the second half of a back-to-back, but I still expected this team to come out with a better effort than what we witnessed tonight. When scoring one (1) goal is a notable achievement, you have a serious problem. And that’s the current state of the Devils: Timo Meier scoring late in the first period tonight was a major accomplishment for this club, and that speaks volumes.
I don’t know about you, but I really don’t think this is an issue of players not trying. When I watch the Devils, I see a team that is competing hard. The problem is, every facet of this team is so out of sync right now, they have a hard time doing anything right. They can’t complete passes, they can’t exit their zone on the first, second, or sometimes even third try. They can’t get to the inside and generate offense from the dangerous parts of the ice. They can’t stay structured in their own zone for as long as they should. Everything is off, and I’m not sure who or what exactly to blame. Perhaps the injuries, or the coaching, or the roster construction. I don’t know. All I do know is that this team is floundering when every other team around them seems to be thriving (more on that below).
The Devils lost a game they really, really, really needed to win tonight. They have now lost five straight games, and they have scored one goal in their last three contests. We will see them win again, they obviously won’t go 0-fer the rest of the season. And who knows, maybe they’ll even put together another long win streak like they did earlier this year. But for now, this is a broken team with no answers. Something needs to change.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com
The Streak Is Over
The losing streak rages on, of course. But the goalless streak has finally come to a merciful end. Timo Meier’s goal late in the first period was the first time the Devils scored a goal (that wasn’t called back) since Monday against Columbus. Shutouts happen to the best of teams, but going scoreless over almost nine whole periods is just completely unacceptable stuff. Good for Meier for scoring and finally putting that tired streak to rest.
There has been very little to cheer about around the Devils lately. But Meier is one of the few players who I actually think has been playing decent since Jack Hughes went down. Not great, mind you, but decent. The Devils could still use more out of him, but he’s the least of New Jersey’s problems at the moment.
The Season Of Giving
Christmas is right around the corner, and the Devils seemed to be in a giving mood tonight. What were they gifting the Bruins, exactly? Turnovers. The kind that led directly to five alarm chances for the Bruins.
The first goal of the game wasn’t technically off a turnover, but it might as well have been. Dennis Cholowski, who is in way over his head at this level, tripped over thin air trying to chase down a dump in, so he couldn’t get to the puck in time. Thankfully his partner, Simon Nemec, could. But Nemec lost a board battle, Mark Kastelic fed Fraser Minten in front, and Minten took a shot right in Cholowski’s face that beat Jake Allen for the opening goal.
On the Bruins’ second goal, Brenden Dillon absolutely gift wrapped a turnover right onto the tape of Elias Lindholm, who found Morgan Geekie on the backdoor for one of the easiest one-timer goals you will ever see.
And while it didn’t end in a goal, Dawson Mercer had one of the worst looking plays of the season, spinning a blind centering pass from near his own blue line that went tape to tape to a streaking Bruin, who got a partial breakaway on Allen. Credit to Allen for making the save, but that was a play worthy of a benching in my eyes by Mercer.
New Jersey is a team that cannot generate any offense for themselves, but seemingly has no issue generating offense for their opponents. Pathetic.
Why This Losing Streak Hurts Even More
Obviously a five-game losing streak (all in regulation) is damaging enough on it’s own. But what makes it even more painful and alarming is seeing how every other team around New Jersey seemingly has no problem picking up points.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a look at the results of the other Metropolitan Division teams in action today:
The New York Rangers hosted the best team in the league, the Colorado Avalanche. New York fought hard and entered the final minutes of regulation down a goal. But a late tally from Artemi Panarin sent the game to overtime. They did lose in OT, but they salvaged a point against the Mighty Avs.
The Columbus Blue Jackets lost a wild one to the Florida Panthers, 7-6. The game went to overtime though, so even in defeat the Jackets picked up a point.
After picking up a regulation win against the vaunted Avalanche on Thursday, the New York Islanders travelled down to Tampa Bay and shut out the Lightning, 2-0.
The Carolina Hurricanes did what actual good teams do tonight: They beat up on a bad team. The Canes doubled up the lowly Predators in Nashville this evening, 6-3.
Yes, every single Metropolitan Division team that played today registered at least one point. Every team except the Devils, that is. There is still plenty of season left of course, but with New Jersey now out of a playoff spot and sinking fast while everyone else around them rises, they desperately need to get back in the win column.
Finally Some Intrigue…But I Am Skeptical
There has been a significant portion of the fanbase calling for general manager Tom Fitzgerald to either finally make some moves to improve this team, or to be fired. Might we be getting the former soon? This evening, Elliotte Friedman reported that the Devils have officially reached out to the Vancouver Canucks about acquiring Quinn Hughes. This comes on the heels of reporting from The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun that New Jersey has also inquired about Predators forward Steven Stamkos. The Devils have been linked to Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly recently as well.
Now, how much of this can we buy into? I am not sure, but to be honest, I am skeptical. Friedman and LeBrun (and every insider just like them) are more or less professional marionettes. They trade journalistic integrity for access. Precious, precious access. So the SOP usually goes that a GM, agent, or league official will tell an insider to “report” something in an attempt to either get some good headlines or to get an angry mob off their back, or both. We’ve seen this time and time again in this league, so while I would love to believe Fitzgerald is on the verge of acquiring Hughes or O’Reilly or some other reinforcements, I can’t shake the feeling that this is just Fitzgerald getting one of his mouthpieces in the media to leak some info that would take some of the heat off of himself.
And wouldn’t you know it, Friedman also went on to “stress” (his word, not mine) that he does not believe that anything is imminent with the Devils and Quinn Hughes.
So in the end, I don’t believe that Fitzgerald is actually close to trading for any help. I think the plan here was to get a lot of headlines out there akin to “Devils are close to multiple major blockbusters!”, while trying to sneak the fact that nothing is actually going to happen into the larger articles that a lot of people won’t even read. And just like that, Fitzgerald has his good PR that can help quell the torches and pitchforks at his door.
Am I being too cynical about all this? Perhaps. But I also think I’m just being realistic. I’ve seen this song and dance before, and I refuse to buy into anything until I actually see something happen.
Next Time Out
The Devils next hit the ice on Tuesday when they travel up to Ottawa to battle the Senators. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.
Your Take
What did you make of tonight’s game? Are you as disgusted with this performance as I was? What do you want to see change between now and next game? As always, thanks for reading.