New Jersey Devils Get Stomped in St. Louis with 5-2 Loss

I honestly don’t even want to write this recap. I’ve been very disappointed with the way certain Devils have been playing lately, and it’s getting hard to watch. But here I go, nonetheless.

This game was another in a series of disappointments. It wasn’t disappointing in the sense of the team as a whole not playing to their full potential.
Because oh my god, did they try. Blandisi, bless his little heart, tried so hard to get his first NHL goal, but to no avail. At the very least, he took home his first NHL point with an assist on the Stempniak goal.

Kinda like my last recap, this is pretty much just going to be me sobbing into my laptop as I complain about all of the things that the Devils have been doing poorly, and just so that no one (read: myself) falls into a spiraling, hockey related depression, I’ll mention some of the things that the Devils have done lately that I liked.

To kick it off, the Devils have been starting off their games with a lot of energy and a lot of force, and believe me when I say that it’s a fresh change. They’ve also been managing to keep up with the energy and they’ve continued to check people and hit people through out the entire games. Again, a fresh change.
But, having energy and using force isn’t enough if you don’t have the shots and goals to back it up. You can go out and play your hardest for the full 60 minutes, but if you’re not putting shots on net or getting pucks in the goal, then what’s the point?

And, for some unknown reason, Bobby Farnham is the only guy that can seem to open up the scoring for the Devils lately. Totally not sure what’s going on there, but I’ll gladly take it.
I have such mixed feelings on Bobby. One minute he’s aggravating the life out of me and then the next, I just want to hug him because he’s the only guy on this team that has been scoring consistently, lately.

I mean, one of my biggest issues with Bobby is that if you even look at him the wrong way, he’s going to throw down his gloves and pop you in the face, and it gets old. Fast.
Like, tonight for example, Bobby went after everyone and everything. I mean yeah, his force got him a goal, but it also got him a major penalty and an ejection from the game, so…
I know that he said after the game that he’s not counting on hearing from the NHL about his hit, but hooooo-boy, I will be surprised if they don’t suspend him for at least 2 games. I’d also be kind of shocked if they didn’t tack on a fine. But that’s just me.

Personally, I feel that Bobby has a lot, A LOT of potential. The guy could be a shining star if he wanted to. He has all of the right components that make him such a worthy asset for the Devils, but the guy severely lacks the discipline necessary for the NHL. I think that if the Devils were to drop him down to the AHL for a conditioning stint and then bring him back up to New Jersey, it would do him a world of good.

Tootoo got into it with Reaves pretty badly. Reaves hit him right in the jaw, where he had previously been injured by a Gelly Bomb. He immediately went to the team bus after the game and wouldn’t talk to anyone.
He got into the fight, trying to step in and defend Farnham.
Now, I feel that Tootoo would have fought someone anyway, because God knows that he doesn’t need to seek out a reason to fight, but had Farnham used better judgement, Tootoo may not have gotten re-injured. At least maybe not in this game.

Also, really quickly: Keith Kinkaid was not super great tonight. Not sorry, it needed to be said. I love Kinkaid. I think he’s a phenomenal backup goalie, but holy cow, tonight was not his night.

Tonight was just not a good night. Here’s to hoping that the Devils can step it up and find another win on their roadtrip.