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After jumping out to a 2-0 lead against the Islanders, the Devils were outshot 24-14 in the final 40 minutes and went on to blow yet another lead before eventually losing in a shootout for the 80th time in the last two years.
10 takeaways:
1. After blowing that lead, the Devils are now 3-0-5 in games this year when they've led after 20. It's nice that they're still getting points even when they blow games, but winning three of eight games when leading after a period is unacceptable. Teams with a worse win% when leading after 20: Edmonton, Ottawa and Colorado. None of those are playoff teams, so that's not exactly good company to be keeping.
2. In my preview I wrote the Devils would have to win the special teams battle if they wanted to win this game because the Islanders are far better at even-strength. New Jersey won the special teams battle 1-0 and lost, anyways. New Jersey's 5 v 5 struggles are killing them.
3. I was on board with giving Scott Gomez a shot due to injuries and what not, but I never expected him to perform at this level. He has six points in his last five games and was the Devils' lone scorer in the shootout. He's played very well.
4. Marek Zidlicky has had his share of bad games this year, so I have to give him credit for a rather good one. He posted very good possession numbers while scoring a power play marker and adding an assist on New Jersey's other goal. The Devils can probably fetch a decent pick in the trade market if they look to move him around the deadline.
5. Speaking of possession, here are the even-strength numbers from last night's game. The top line and 4th line were pretty good.
6. Tuomo Ruutu - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder should be a line that's scrapped and never thought about again. They spent almost every shift chasing play in their own zone and produced absolutely nothing offensively. They were crushed in the shot attempt battle and really didn't do anything remotely productive in this game. Playing Henrique with those two essentially is like tying an anchor to the guy's foot and throwing him in the middle of the ocean.
7. Keith Kinkaid was very good once again and it really bothers me that another strong effort from the rookie went to waste. His two starts have come against Chicago and New York, both of whom are tied for the league-lead in wins with 21, and he more than held his own in both games. He combined to stop 68-72 (.944SV%) against those two teams and came out on the losing end both times. Give the poor guy some help.
8. I think Seth Helgeson made a questionable decision prior to this rush and it's something that never should have happened, but I'm not sure what Jon Merrill was doing on this play.
The trailer was way behind the play and the Devils had a man close to him, so Merrill could have easily took Martin rather than blocking a passing lane to a non-existent player. He didn't and Martin scored the tying goal. I'm sure that'll be something discussed in video meetings.
9. RE criticizing Pete DeBoer's shootout choices: it's easy to do in hindsight. I didn't love the Ruutu choice, but I had no problem with the others. League average is about 30% and Zidlicky entered his attempt at 28%. Damon Severson has good hands and actually came quite close to scoring, while Jacob Josefson is one of the only guys who has scored over the last two seasons. Scott Gomez was a good choice with his hands/speed, too. A ton of people complain every time Jaromir Jagr, Travis Zajac, etc. shoot and they've had very limited success so it's pretty ridiculous to complain that they didn't get a shot last night. The reality is almost the entire team is terrible in shootouts and that there will be 2nd guessing every time they lose the skills competition.
10. After the loss the Devils are now five points back of Washington for 3rd in the Metro and four points back of the final wild card spot. That may not seem like much, but it is when you factor in the Devils have played three and four more games than those teams. It's not looking good...
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