New Jersey Devils: Quit Doesn’t Exist In This Team’s DNA

The New Jersey Devils went down big for the second game in a row. While it still ended in a loss, this team shows they don’t know how to quit.

Once again, it’s hard to take positives for the New Jersey Devils coming out of yet another playoff loss. The Devils are currently down in the series 2-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Two crucial games go by, and there are times where the Devils look like they don’t deserve to take the same ice as the Lightning.

Then again, there are times where the Devils look like the better team. Unfortunately, a large majority of that time is when the Devils are trailing.

Much of that has to do with the Devils being down for a majority of this series. For 82 minutes this series, the Devils have been on the comeback trail.

In the first game, the Devils went down 3-0 before Taylor Hall scored the first Devils playoff goal since the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. The Devils then cut the lead to one in the third period, before the Lightning pulled away.

In Game Two, the Devils showed even more fight. During possible the worst stretch of the Devils season, they allowed four goals in a span of ten minutes. The goalie who led them Keith Kinkaid was not his usual self. No, this isn’t blaming him for all the goals, but his save percentage looked closer to DeAndre Jordan’s free-throw percentage than Steph Curry’s.

After Kinkaid was pulled, it seems like the Devils finally woke up. Sure, the Lightning likely took the foot off the gas, but that let the Devils back into the game.

It would be real easy to quit at that point. The Devils were down 5-1. The goalie that carried the team into the playoffs wasn’t making the miraculous saves to bail out his defense like he was just a week ago. Cory Schneider, who was letting in easy goals every game, was now coming in. The Lightning was on the verge to blowing the doors off the Devils.

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That wasn’t in the cards. It started at the end of the second period. Just minutes after Sami Vatanen shot the puck into his own net, he cut the Lightning lead to three with an awesome shot with just 26 seconds left in the period.

Still, one could say that was a fluke goal and a good shot from a defenseman. Nobody thought the Devils could actually make this a game. Surely, they couldn’t keep the Lightning off the scoreboard for a whole period. I mean, they hadn’t done it in the five previous periods.

The Devils third period against the Lightning gives hope that things can in fact turn around. They were dominant. There were 19 shots on goal in the final frame. 19. Somehow, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 of those shots. Still, the Devils never quit sending them his way.

Well, he may have been given credit for one shot that went in, but because of the NHL’s outdated technology we will never know.

Just think about how different things would go in the final three minutes if this was a one-goal game. One thing is for sure, that offensive zone faceoff with nine seconds left would look different.

No matter the final result, one thing is for sure, never give up on the Devils. Because they will never give up on themselves.