Last night, the New Jersey Devils lost once again at home this season, losing 5-1 to the lowly Anaheim Ducks. The Devils fall to a record of 16-12-1 and sit at sixth in their division.
Recap
Period One
The Devils came out looking great, dominating the first period with chance after chance that they just couldn’t bury. John Gibson stood on his head in goal and Akira Schmid did just enough. The Ducks would get a power play to end the period which would lead into the second.
Period Two
The second period started out with a Ducks’ power play goal from former Devil Adam Henrique. The Devils would get their chances afterwards, but couldn’t finish. Later in the period at four-on-four, Henrique would score again off a loose rebound. To wrap up the period the Devils would finally get on the board. Michael McLeod would finish off a give and go with his linemates to get the Devils within one.
Period Three
You could see the games on back-to-back days start to hit the Devils at the end of this game. They looked sloppy and it resulted in an early goal. Alex Killorn buried his fourth goal of the season on an open-net one-timer. Later in the period, on a crucial power play for the Devils, Tyler Toffoli was called for a weak slashing penalty which sent the teams to four-on-four where the Ducks capitalized again with Troy Terry.
On another power play head coach Lindy Ruff pulled the goalie. The team would get some chances but Lucas Dostal, who came into the game for a sick Gibson, stood tall. The puck would hop over the stick of Alexander Holtz where Adam Henrique would jump on it and score his first career hat trick against his former team. That score would hold and the Devils would lose 5-1.
Game Notes
Losing the “Gimme” Games
The Metropolitan Division and the Eastern Conference as a whole is tough this year. Really tough. When it’s all said and done, if the Devils miss the playoffs, you got to look at games like this.
The Devils have lost at home to the Blue Jackets (28th in the league), the Ducks (30th), and the Sharks (31st) all in the span of about three weeks. It’s those “gimme” games that are going to cost the Devils in the run when they have to make up ground against tougher teams.
Back-to-Backs, Not Their Thing
The Devils have the most back-to-backs this season in the league with 16, four more than last year. So far on the first night of back-to-backs, the team is 6-1, very good. However, on the back-end of those, the team is 1-5-1, not very good.
If the team can even go .500 on the back-end of their remaining back-to-backs it would improve their playoff odds greatly.
What’s Next
The Devils welcome in the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night to the Prudential Center.