Last night’s performance against the Minnesota Wild was a repeat of the previous night when the New Jersey Devils lost 5-2 to the Sharks. They started the game flat and had to play catch up in the 3rd period but it was too little too late.
Now the Devils find themselves in a slump. Three points out of their last five games played.
“We got smoked on the compete, there’s no doubt,… Devils coach Lindy Ruff said about last night’s game. “First goal, went around us. Net front, we got beat. They won the compete game, there’s no doubt.
And that is after a hard and grueling practice from the day before.
Jack Hughes maybe back but the Devils need to work on their power play some more which is in the bottom five of league. At times with the extra man, power play looked good with puck movement. But they need to stop playing the perimeter game and snap more shots on goal. Often times, the Devils are awaiting for that perfect play to get a shot on net.
However, penalty killing has been much better as of late. The Wild were 0-4 on the man up advantage. This is an encouraging sign. The Devils blue line has been effectively getting the same puck out of the zone and have been great on their positioning. Hopefully this trend continues.
The Devils are in a funk. In previous seasons, they would spiral out of control and have a few long losing streaks. Winning will solve everything. They need to start playing a full 60 minutes and compete. Let’s see how they fare tonight against the Winnipeg Jets.
Severson’s Bad Luck Continues
Is it me, or is it Damon Severson is always involved in a strange play where he is scoring on the Devils net?
Butt Puck with the puck head! #NJDevils pic.twitter.com/VXi9emWZax
— Let's Go Devils Podcast (@LetsGoDevilsPOD) December 3, 2021
******
Sam Woo is co-host and executive producer of the Let's Go Devils Podcast which can be heard live every Sunday at 9pm ET and Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.
You can follow Sam on Twitter: @PrimetimeSamWoo