Paul Cotter serves as hero for New Jersey Devils in ugly game from the referees

The New Jersey Devils felt like they had two opponents on Monday night. They, of course, faced off with the Boston Bruins. They currently hold the final Wild Card spot, holding off the Columbus Blue Jackets by two points with a game in hand (after Monday’s loss). Outside of the Jackets, every other team in the Eastern Conference is at least four points out of the final playoff spot. It’s feeling like it’s coming down to two teams.

However, the Devils are at least playing as if they care down the stretch. After a loss to the Detroit Red Wings essentially ended their season last week, the Devils have played well. Ignore the loss to the Calgary Flames, but they put a six spot on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, and then on Monday, they snuck a 4-3 win past the Boston Bruins.

Both the Bruins and Kings are fighting for their playoff lives, so the Devils are doing a good job playing spoiler. Their own playoff hopes are essentially futile. They are 11 points out with 15 games. They have a relatively easy schedule, with two games against the New York Rangers this month, but they still have matchups against the Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes ahead of them.

Even if the Devils won every single game left on their schedule, they aren’t guaranteed to make the playoffs (giving them an even 100 points). Still, it’s nice to see them keep this respectable.

One player who hasn’t enjoyed the season he expected is Paul Cotter. The second-year Devil came into the game with just 11 points on the season. He didn’t have a point in the month of March. He has one point since December 13th. Cotter brings a lot to his game, but he can’t go this long without offense, even if he spent much of his time next to Luke Glendening. 

On Monday night, Cotter was a completely different player. He was playing with speed and intention. That paid off in the third period. 

Cotter took advantage of a beautiful deke by one of the Devils' newest players, Maxim Tsyplakov. He's been playing well after the Olympic break, showing he wants to stick around in New Jersey. He served Cotter a high-danger chance that was buried to give the Devils the lead.

Ironically, the referees started to get too involved in the game after this. A few minutes after this, Cotter was hit in the face by Mark Kastelic. Johnny Kovacevic fought him for the borderline dirty hit, but both Kastelic and Kovacevic were given minor penalties. Ridiculous, but we move on.

Then, Nico Hischier was given a tripping call a little over a minute later. Felt like a dive, but whatever. Those are rarely ever call. That is UNTIL THEY CALL IT ON THE DEVILS.

Less than a minute after the Hischier penalty, the referees called Charlie McAvoy for an interference penalty. They coincided that penalty with an embellishment penalty on Connor Brown. It was a ridiculous sequence that went from the Devils going to 4v4 and eventually getting a power play to going back on the penalty kill.

Almost exactly a minute after that, Nick Bjugstad took a tripping penalty, putting the Devils in an inevitable 5v3 situation. Somehow, the Devils killed all those penalties, then killed another interference call against Dawson Mercer with about three minutes left in the game. If the referees weren’t calling penalties, they weren’t doing anything in the third period. 

The Devils sustained and survived, taking this game into overtime. The game was seconds away from the shootout, where Cotter truly thrives. He was able to contribute another “goal” to the tally. However, head coach Sheldon Keefe gave him a shot in overtime to show he could jump on the opportunity early.

In the past, we were very against Cotter playing in overtime, but it worked out as well as it possibly could on Monday night. 

Honestly, we're just impressed with the physics of this shot. How did Cotter roof the puck from in that close? It looks like we went off the inside post, but it's still very impressive! He did it with fewer than seven seconds left in overtime, securing two points for the Devils and their 34th win of the season, putting them back over .500 on the year.