Game Summary

It was the same old story for the New Jersey Devils as they suffered a 5-1 blowout loss to the Nashville Predators. New Jersey was once again picked apart, this time on home ice after returning to Newark after completing a stretch of 17 of 23 games on the road. I won’t get too much into the details here, because what has plagued the Devils for the last month is exactly what was their downfall last night. Poor defensive execution, screening Cory Schneider, and one inexplicably bad goal given up by Schneider that seemed to be the back breaker in what was one of the Devils worst performances of the season.

With the Devils being stuck in an elite division, time may be running out for them to make any kind of run towards the postseason and it’s not going to get any easier. The Devils have a handful of games against Metropolitan Division teams coming before 2016 is over. Things may get worse before they get better.

Game Notes

• There were almost no silver linings to last night’s game. However, the Bennett/Zacha/Parenteau line had a decent outing. They were the only Devils line at positive possession. Bennett was +13 shot attempts while Zacha and Parenteau both finished +9. After all three were healthy scratches last week, they’ve been paired together and playing well.

• I’m not sure what’s going on with Kyle Palmieri, but his numbers have taken a dramatic drop from where he was last season. He only has 58 shots on goal, which puts him on pace for 158 for the season. That would be well below the 222 shots he fired on net last season. If John Hynes can find a way to get him going, it would certainly help some of the Devils struggles.

• Not to be a pessimist, but looking at the Devils defensemen after Damon Severson and Andy Greene, I have a hard time seeing how they’ll dig themselves out of this hole before it’s too late. Quincey, Moore, Merrill and Lovejoy have struggled at great lengths defensively this season. There isn’t much help on the way, either. We’ll probably see Yohann Auvitu sooner rather than later while Steve Santini may debut at some point later this season. Other than that, there aren’t options to help take care of the Devils defensive woes. That’s just the reality of the situation.

• The Devils were outshot again last night. That makes it 15 of 16 games where they’ve been outshot and 15 out of 17 where they’ve given up 3 goals or more. When you see those numbers, it makes sense why they only have 3 wins in their last 17 games.