Pucks and Pitchforks
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New Jersey Devils Lose Undefeated Record In Sloppy Performance Against Colorado Avalanche

By Vincent Parise

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 18: Erik Johnson #6 of the Colorado Avalanche defends against Kyle Palmieri #21 of the New Jersey Devils during the second period at the Prudential Center on October 18, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - OCTOBER 18: Erik Johnson #6 of the Colorado Avalanche defends against Kyle Palmieri #21 of the New Jersey Devils during the second period at the Prudential Center on October 18, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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It is the NHL, the hardest hockey league on planet earth. Nothing comes easy to any team, even if it may seem like it sometimes. The New Jersey Devils came into Thursday’s game 4-0-0 and looking to go undefeated through five games for only the second time in franchise history.

Things would not go their way on this night, as the Colorado Avalanche end the Devils win streak at four.

Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog scores a hat trick, with his third goal sealing it. The Avs, like the Devils, have a monster top line led by an MVP caliber player. The Avalanche line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen is very similar to the Devil line of Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier and Kyle Palmieri. Both lines are awesome 5 on 5 and on the power play, and both lines were incredible in this game.

Hockey is very weird sometimes. Hischier and Hall both scored their first goals of the season, and the Devils lost the game. Any fan in the world would have signed up to be 4-0 if they knew both would go goalless in those games. It was very relieving to see them both score, and have multi-point games.

The scoring beasts may be all the way back, and everyone should expect both of them to have monster years offensively, especially Hall. The 9-13-21 line was a bright spot in this otherwise tough game.

The Devils did not play particularly well all game long. In fact, most would agree it was an overall tough game for most guys. That is what separates good teams from not so good teams. Good teams are in games even when they are not at their best.

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It is also possible that they looked bad at times because of the play by Colorado. There will be times they win games they should lose, and times they lose games they should have won. This was a game that they probably deserved to lose, especially with the way they played, giving up 34 shots and taking 8 penalties.

The thing that happened that is more concerning than the loss itself, is the injury to center Travis Zajac. He was not putting any pressure on his leg when he left the game and did not return. The Devils and their fans can only hope that it is a similar situation to what happened to Will Butcher, meaning he leaves the game and everything turns out okay. Zajac is one of the New Jersey Devils most important all purpose players.

The New Jersey Devils will look to get back in the win column on Saturday October 20th, when they take on the rival Philadelphia Flyers for the first time this season.

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