Entering the season offense was expected to be the New Jersey Devils' Achilles heel.
That was certainly the case on Tuesday night as the Devils mustered up just 24 shots against Jake Allen - the league's hottest goaltender - in a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Notes:
1) Jake Allen was good against the Devils but they made his night way too easy. He's playing as well as anyone right now and is stopping everything he sees so the key is to get traffic in front of him and make his life difficult. The Devils didn't do that at all and unsurprisingly were held off the scoreboard as a result.
2) Jacob Josefson and David Schlemko were the Devils' shot leaders against the Blues. They are not going to win many games when that happens.
3) Vladimir Tarasenko didn't get on the scoresheet but he was causing problems for the Devils all night. He had a game-high five shots, a game-high seven shot attempts and created a ton of good looks for his teammates. I know this is a Devils centric blog but I have to give credit where it's due. Tarasenko was great.
4) Cory Schneider was once again excellent and was able to keep the Devils in it until the very end. He's playing exceptionally well right now and that shows in the numbers as he's allowed two goals or less in five straight and owns a .937 save percentage in that span.
5) It looks like Damon Severson is finally starting to come around. He had four shot attempts, was the Devils' best blue liner in terms of possession and finished behind only Andy Greene and Adam Larsson in even-strength minutes among Devils' defensemen.
Prospect Updates
1) Pavel Zacha was held pointless in a 3-2 loss to Kitchener on Tuesday night. That was the fourth time in 13 games Zacha failed to register at least a point. He now has 11 in 13 games.
2) Josh Jacobs recorded a primary assist and had three shots on goal in Sarnia's losing effort. After a slow start to the year - he had two points in his first seven games - he's picked it up immensely having contributed eight points over the last 11 games.
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