Pucks and Pitchforks
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No Heart Shown In New Jersey Devils Loss To Ottawa Senators

By Nick Villano

Feb 16, 2017; Newark, NJ, USA; Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson (65) (not shown) scores a goal on New Jersey Devils goalie Cory Schneider (35) during the third period at Prudential Center. The Senators defeated the Devils 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 16, 2017; Newark, NJ, USA; Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson (65) (not shown) scores a goal on New Jersey Devils goalie Cory Schneider (35) during the third period at Prudential Center. The Senators defeated the Devils 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports /
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The New Jersey Devils had a chance to prove they were worthy of a playoff push when the team faced the Ottawa Senators. Instead, the players put up a terrible performance.

20 minutes into the game, the New Jersey Devils were going punch for punch with the Ottawa Senators.  Going into the first intermission, both teams had a few offensive chances. Both goalies made some really good saves. The team showed life despite being left off the scoresheet.

Once the Senators scored its first goal of the game, everything changed.

At that point, the Sens had a 17-15 shot advantage. Basically the teams were even. The goal came on after an iffy call on Mike Cammalleri where he had a defender on top of him causing him to trip Derick Brassard.

From that point on, it seemed like the Devils had nothing. For the next 24 minutes of play, the Devils were outshot 18-6.

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Six shots. That is all the Devils’ players could muster in the third period. Down one goal needing every single point on their way to a possible playoff run, they couldn’t even hit double digit shots.

Cory Schneider did all he could to try and keep his team in the game. He stopped 32 of 34 shots, including one that just barely trickled past him and was about an inch over the goal line. Meanwhile, his team couldn’t break the plane against Mike Condon.

It seemed at times that Taylor Hall was playing by himself. At one point he set Ben Lovejoy up perfectly on a two-on-one and the defenseman could not handle the pass. Hall ended the game with three shots and two hits in 18 minutes of ice time.

Besides Schneider and Hall, it seemed like everyone else lost their edge after the first deficit. As soon as they needed to come back, the players couldn’t bring it. Coach John Hynes needs to get an edge to these players. There are clearly more talented teams in the league. If this team is going to compete they need to play harder and smarter than their opponents every single night.

The team didn’t do that Thursday night. In fact, they did the opposite.

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