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The New Jersey Devils put together arguably their best and most complete game of the season against the Ottawa Senators and were rewarded with an all too familiar result since Ilya Kovalchuk went down: a loss.
While the Devils still can make the playoffs if they can put together five, six, or even seven wins in their last seven games, the loss made a playoff appearance much more unlikely.
Game Notes
- The loss to the Senators definitely was a big blow to the Devils playoff chances, but they're not out of the race yet. It's unlikely they'll make the postseason, but it's certainly not impossible. The Devils are four points behind the New York Rangers for 8th in the Eastern Conference with seven games left. Gaining four points in seven games is normally a very tall order, but given the Devils play the Rangers twice in their final seven games the ground could be made up with two wins against them.
I did some digging and here is what the Devils have to do to have a chance at making the playoffs this year:
- 5-1-1 would give the Devils a slim chance of making the playoffs. That chance increases if two of those five wins are regulation wins vs. the Rangers.
- 5-0-2 again would give the Devils a slim chance of making it. According to SportsClubStats, that slim chance would be about 30%.
- 6-1-0 gives the Devils a moderate chance of making the playoffs if they beat the Rangers twice in regulation.
- 6-0-1 more than likely gets the Devils a playoff spot.
- 7-0-0 all but clinches a playoff spot, but is pretty unlikely.
So realistically the Devils have to go 5-0-2 down the stretch and beat the Rangers twice to have a decent chance at getting in. Anything better than that and the chances increase significantly. Given the Devils string of losses of late, 5-0-2 and getting a bit of help is the most likely situation to play out should they get their ducks in a row and start winning some games.
I'm not saying the Devils will make the playoffs, but they're not completely out of it yet.
- The good news for the Devils in all of this is that Kovalchuk has been practicing harder of late and the Devils are off until Monday. The two days off gives Kovalchuk some extra rest which may be enough to get him back in the lineup Monday. If he can go, he'll provide a much needed boost whether he's 100% or 75%.
- Last night's loss had to be one of the most frustrating losses in a long time. The Devils played their hearts out and thoroughly dominated the Senators for 60 minutes yet weren't even rewarded with a single point. The Devils outshot the Senators 33-11 and controlled play for essentially the entire game.
The Senators entered last night's game 1st in the NHL in shots per game averaging about 32 shots and the Devils held them to 11 shots. 11. Ottawa registered three in the 1st period, six in the 2nd and two in the 3rd. It's almost laughable that they couldn't at least get the game to overtime when they were the better team by a landslide.
- One thing that really has to be eating the Devils about this nine game losing streak is that they're outplaying and outshooting their opponents almost every night by a pretty significant margin. It's not sustainable over a long period of time to do that and continue to lose hockey games, but somehow the Devils are managing to do it.
The big glimmer of hope for the Devils is that when they breakout, they should be able to put together a nice string of wins. It's just a matter of when they snap out of this. One or two more games is too late. They need to get back on track Monday. If they don't, they'll have to win out to have about a 50% chance of getting in the playoffs.
- Andy Greene continues to be a rock on the Devils back end. As the games get more important down the stretch, Devils head coach Pete DeBoer continues to spoon feed Greene more and more minutes. He played almost 27 last night. You can make a very strong argument that Greene is one of the most underrated defenseman in hockey. Lou Lamoriello was very smart to keep him around.
- Adam Larsson played very well last night. He had a couple good hits and made a very strong first pass all night. Zone exits were very smooth for the most part when Larsson was on the ice. He was good defensively, too.
- The Devils power play was abysmal again. That's been the killer for them during this losing streak. They haven't been able to convert when they have been given Grade A opportunities to do so and its hurt their momentum. I believe the Devils are 3-for-33 on the power play since Kovalchuk went down.
Their power play has been so predictable and teams are just sitting waiting to pounce on their power play because they already know what the Devils are going to do. They're not shooting, either. I don't know what the answer is, but the Devils can't continue to use the same personnel and strategy on the power play. It's not going to work.
- Given how poorly the Devils power play has been, I'd like to see Larsson get a shot. He's arguably the best passer the Devils have on defense and he could provide a nice spark/wrinkle to the power play unit. I'm pretty sure he could run a 3-for-33 power play with no problem.
- Adam Henrique played just 14:47 against Ottawa. That's his 2nd lowest total of the year and lowest total he's played since his first game of the year. He's typically been playing 18 or 19 minutes on a pretty consistent basis this season so that was a pretty noticeable decrease in ice.
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