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The New Jersey Devils squared off against the Edmonton Oilers last night and, for the second time in a week, were significantly outplayed.
As was the case in the first meeting, the Devils still managed to squeeze out a point on the back of a strong goaltending performance.
A few notes:
1) The playoffs are a lost cause, but it's still discouraging to see the Devils smacked around like they were last night on a pretty routine basis. Edmonton lived in the offensive zone and forced the Devils to chase play for much of the night. To put into perspective how one-sided the game was, here is a look at the 5v5 numbers.
That's a lot of red.
2) Though Connor McDavid was excellent, and definitely caused New Jersey's defense problems, if you turn on the highlights you won't see the Devils being torched by McDavid for a goal/play of the year candidate. That's a positive, I suppose.
3) Cory Schneider had a rough first half of the year but he seems to have regained his form. Over the last six starts, he owns a .938 save percentage and he has looked very good, and confident, in that span. Unfortunately for Schneider, he's been left hung out to dry and has only won two of those six starts as a result.
Schneider is starting to show noticeable frustration, which is very rare. I don't blame him, though. He can't do his job to the best of his abilities without his teammates helping him out, and that's not happening.
4) Taylor Hall didn't score in his return to Edmonton but he picked up a primary assist, had a couple shots and made some nice defensive plays. The most noticeable one came when he skated his ass off on the backcheck in order to catch McDavid and disrupt an odd-man rush. It was a pretty good play for a guy who can't play defense. Oh, wait.
5) Kyle Palmieri played somewhat limited minutes with the Ducks in 2014-15 but scored .24 goals per game and averaged 1.95 shots on a nightly basis.
Last season, in Palmieri's first as an undisputed top-6 player, he scored .36 goals per game and averaged 2.7 shots.
This year, playing in the same role, he is scoring .19 goals per game and averaging 1.90 shots on a nightly basis.
If he were averaging 2.7 shots he'd be on pace for 23 goals, even shooting 10.3% (his lowest total since 2013). He needs to shoot more, or at least start getting through those power play one-timers rather than missing the net every time.
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