Hope is gone; New Jersey Devils season essentially ends with listless loss to Detroit

The Pittsburgh Penguins came back from 3-1 down to beat the Boston Bruins in overtime. This gave two teams desperately hanging onto their playoff spots points in the standings. The New Jersey Devils attempt to make a late-season run took a hit, as they are chasing both those teams for an unlikely chance to make the playoffs.

That unlikely chance is essentially impossible. The Devils took on the Detroit Red Wings, who were playing without Dylan Larkin, on Sunday night. Yes, they were on the second half of a back to back where they beat the New York Rangers 6-3, but this effort was not at all what Devils fans wanted to see.

The Red Wings had John Gibson playing really well, but he had to leave the game in the second intermission after a collision with Timo Meier. Cam Talbot came in and shut the door, finishing the shutout of the Devils and capping a 3-0 victory. There’s not other way to say it; any hope that the Devils could make the playoffs ended on Sunday night. 

With 18 games left in the season, the Devils can only afford one or two losses in the standings. It’s tanking time. It’s time to look forward. 

What a terrible effort to end the season for the New Jersey Devils

After everything seemed to go right on Saturday, the Devils did everything wrong on Sunday. Jacob Markstrom let in a bad goal early in the game to give Detroit a 1-0 game. That ended up being the game winner. After the goal, the Devils play went into the ground. They were dominating at even strength, but the game flipped after the first Red Wings goal.

There’s so much to say about this game and this season, but the situation is as it seems. The Devils lacked effort and execution on Sunday, and that’s the way it’s been since November. Markstrom shouldn’t have started so many games in a row. The fourth line shouldn’t have played at all in the third period, let alone being out there for the third goal against. Someone should have been held accountable for this mess, and the Devils should have sold at the NHL Trade Deadline. 

With the season over, the evaluations of what went wrong can start today. We’ll have that in a post soon enough.