The Devils offense fell flat once again as they were shutout by the Florida Panthers (Photo by Andy Marlin/Getty Images)

Game Summary

For the third time this season, the Devils were shutout, as they were defeated by the Florida Panthers by a score of 3-0. There weren’t many bright spots for the Devils last night other than Cory Schneider, who made 26 saves on 27 shots against. The Devils had 14 scoring chances at even-strength, as opposed to 7 for Florida, but weren’t able to capitalize on any of them as Roberto Luongo was dialed in after returning from a brief absence with an injury.

Game Notes

• It’s seemingly too late, but Cory Schneider seems to be returning to form. He’s had a save percentage of .950 or better in four of his last five starts. It helps that the Devils aren’t giving up as many as shots. In three of those four starts, he’s faced thirty shots or less, including last night’s loss. If the Devils can do that more often, it’ll help Schneider going forward and hopefully help him build confidence to end the season back to where he usually is.

• It was a pretty rough night for Devante Smith-Pelly. He was +3/-11 in shot attempts on a night where a majority of New Jersey’s forwards finished on the plus side of possession. He has just 2 goals on the year and hasn’t scored since November 17th against Anaheim. He also has a 41.9% Corsi For on the year, and isn’t generating much in the way of scoring chances. With a number of young forwards coming up in the system, he needs to be better or he could find himself on the move at the trade deadline.

• The Devils have a number of key contributors on significant goal droughts up front. Travis Zajac hasn’t scored in 17 games, while Mike Cammalleri has one goal in his last 17 games. Taylor Hall has one goal in his last 13 games and that was an empty-netter against the Boston Bruins. The Devils are going to need more from their top line guys if they want to make things interesting in the final half of the season, because they’re not getting a lot of secondary scoring as it is.

• Per John Hynes, Andy Greene will accompany the Devils to Edmonton for their trip to Western Canada. Last night’s leaders in ice time for defensemen were Jon Merrill, Ben Lovejoy, and Kyle Quincey. You can get away with that for a couple of games, but getting Andy Greene back sooner rather than later, even if he hasn’t been the same player he’s been over the last couple of seasons, is definitely a help.