The New Jersey Devils came out with another poor effort and let in the first goal before coasting to another easy loss. The first goal was bad. Mackenzie Blackwood needed to stop that one. There was no angle for the puck to reasonably go in and surprisingly the defense was in position. In five of his last seven starts, Blackwood’s save percentage is under .900. He needs to get it together. He is not just the goalie of the future, he is the goalie of right now and this team needs him to be an NHL average goalie right now.
The team’s slow starts are just ridiculous. Of the first ten shots of the game, eight went to the Flyers. On the second goal, there was no defense again and they let another cross-ice chance make it to an easy tap. In other bad news, Ty Smith made an awful giveaway at the offensive blueline and showed no battle for the puck all night. The teams defensive structure is so bad that even Dougie Hamilton has now decided to try and pull a pond hockey dangle around a man while being the only guy back. As the game moved on, things did not get any better as the giveaways continued and more bad goals went in including a floating knuckle puck from the point and Ty Smith losing a tape to tape pass that he let become a turn over and a goal.
The only real positives this game were the fourth line was pretty solid and the Subban Bahl pairing was good. Anyone going even in a game like this should feel at least alright about their performance and Bahl was certainly not the problem. Pk played a good physical game and was chirping a lot after the whistles without managing to take a penalty which is great for him. McLeod and Bastian played their game and played it well with 3 and 5 hits respectively and were the only positive players on the team for plus minus. It is nice to see the coaches pay enough attention to what they do to finally give them the minutes they deserve with 13 and 15 on the night.
This team however is going no where but the draft lottery without a coaching change so at this point they might be better off with a few losses to make it happen now instead of dragging this out for another season or worse.
It is a sad time to be a Devils fan.