The New Jersey Devils lost their Game 1 matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes. At times, it looked like the Devils were getting smoked. They allowed 17 shots in the first period and 21 shots in the second period. It was a rough look, and they entered the third period down 3-1. Even with the punch back in the last frame, it wasn't a great effort by the Devils outside of Jacob Markstrom.
When a game looks like that, teams often need a major change to fix their situation. However, at the end of the day, it's one game. The Devils are down 1-0. They just need to win four of the next six games. That's not that bad! So, let's take a look at the overreactions we're seeing from Devils fans on Easter Sunday.
Take #1: The Devils are cooked
The New Jersey Devils haven't played well down the stretch. Nobody is going to deny that. However, we've heard from everyone from the head coach to the players to the media with historical context saying it's hard to get up for games that mean literally nothing. It was basically set in stone since the middle of March that the Devils were taking on the Hurricanes in the first round.
Still, we wanted to see more fight. People pay their hard-earned money for tickets, and they wanted to see the best possible effort. And they didn't see it then, and it's hard to argue they saw it on Sunday in Game 1.
Despite the pretty bad first game of the playoffs, this is still one game. Repeat after us, "this is one game."
The Devils lost Game 1 to the New York Rangers 5-1 in 2023. They even lost Game 2 5-1 at the Prudential Center. That looked like a team that wasn't ready for the moment. They ended up winning four of the next five after a goalie chance and beat their biggest rivals.
Point being that this series is far from over. The Devils looked good in the third period. While some of that is score effects, with the Hurricanes taking the foot off the gas up by two goals for most of the third period, but it's good to see the Devils can even showcase their strengths when prompted.