On Sunday afternoon the New Jersey Devils dropped their seventh consecutive games as they were blanked by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
A few notes on the game and the Devils' play of late:
1) Since P.A. Parenteau was traded, Mike Cammalleri went down, etc. the Devils have played an extremely low-event style. So much so that the Devils of a couple weeks ago feel like last year's Dallas Stars compared to what we're seeing now.
The Devils have been blanked in two of the last three games and registered just 52 shots over the last three games (17.33). Sure, they were playing good teams in Washington, Boston, and Columbus, but those numbers are pretty sad regardless of the circumstances.
Defense is the key area of weakness on this team -- I think the forwards would pick it up if they had some better defensemen feeding them pucks -- but the Devils could certainly use another capable offensive player as they are 29th in goals per game, 29th in total scoring chances and 30th in total shot attempts.
Playing a low-event style doesn't help their cause but it's clear there is still plenty of work to be done.
2) I thought Joseph Blandisi played a really solid game. He didn't get on the scoresheet - no Devils did! - but he was in the middle of everything from the word go. He finished his checks, he aggressively chased after puck carriers, he took the puck into the dirty areas of the ice and he made a couple nice plays in traffic. Blandisi also finished with a positive shot attempt and scoring chance differential at 5v5.
3) We're two games into the Dalton Prout era and it's not off to a great start. The Devils have been out-attempted by nine and out-chanced by seven with him on the ice at 5v5 and last night he was 6th among Devils defensemen in ice time. Considering the defense was without their two best players in Damon Severson and Andy Greene that's not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Unless the Devils think they can trade, and get something for, Jon Merrill or John Moore in the off-season, thus meaning they need Prout for expansion reasons, I don't really understand why the Devils traded for him. Personally, I'd have preferred a draft pick of any kind.
4) Thanks to this seven-game losing skid, the Devils are now just one point away from 3rd last in the NHL and Detroit has two games in hand. The Devils won't catch Colorado or Arizona in the tank race, but if they can finish 28th they'd give themselves a decent shot to unseat one of those two for a Nolan Patrick/Nico Hischier pick. That'd be huge.
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