Devils Drop Frustrating One in Columbus, Shut Out Again

The Devils traveled to the Buckeye State to finish a home-and-home series with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Although the setting was different, the result was hauntingly familiar. Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky shut the Devils out, this time by a score of 2-0.

The game was a lot closer than the score would seem, but we will get to that in a second. In the meantime, the Devils have dropped their eighth straight game and are all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt.

In lineup news, Karl Stollery and Kevin Rooney were sent back down to Albany while Miles Wood and Damon Severson, who missed the last game after being a bit banged up in Boston, were slotted back in. Michael Cammalleri and Jacob Josefson were again scratched with injuries while captain Andy Greene was out of the lineup for personal reasons. We learned during the telecast that the reason Andy was out was because his father, David, had passed away. Our condolences to Andy and the Greene family in this time of difficulty as he deals with the loss of his father. Another player who played on the blue line for and captained the Devils, Bruce Driver, also recently lost his father, Gord. Our condolences go out to Bruce and the Driver family as well.

Scratched for Columbus were Josh Anderson, Scott Harrington and Ryan Murray.

In nets, Bobrovsky extended his shutout streak for the Blue Jackets, making 33 saves on all 33 shots he faced for a 1.000 save percentage. He has not let up a goal in excess of 180 minutes. He had his first ever shutout against the Devils in his career this past Sunday in the New Jersey half of the home-and-home. Keith Kinkaid got his first start for the Devils in about two and a half weeks (he last started against the Islanders in the game in Brooklyn that started the Devils’ skid). He made 23 saves on 24 shots for a .958 save percentage in 59:51 of ice time. Columbus had 25 shots on goal including an empty netter.

Congratulations to Ben Lovejoy as he was playing in his 400th NHL game this evening. A nice milestone for a player who was undrafted and broke into the league with the Pittsburgh Penguins, forging a nice career since then – including a Stanley Cup victory last year.

The Devils got off to a good start in a game that they were in all night. Early in the first, former Blue Jacket Dalton Prout dumped the puck in to the Columbus zone and it took a fortunate carom to the stick of Adam Henrique in front of the Jackets’ net. He was stopped by Bobrovsky, but that was not the end of the Devils’ offensive frustration.

Late in the first period, Prout took a shot from the point that was seemingly tipped in by Taylor Hall. The goal was immediately waved off on the ice by the referee saying Hall played it with a high stick. Toronto confirmed and the Devils seeming 1-0 lead was knocked out.

In some small victories for the Devils, they did have the final eight shots in the first period and also kept the Blue Jackets off of the scoreboard. Columbus has outscored their opponents 65-35 in first periods this season, so this was a nice little moral victory for the Devils. Also, the teams, scoreless going into the third period, did not register a shot for the first six minutes of the third frame. The Blue Jackets finally broke through and got a shot on Kinkaid six minutes in.

But moral victories do not gather points. Wins do. The Jackets finally broke the ice at the 9:39 mark of the third period. Stefan Noesen inadvertently knocked Kinkaid’s stick out of his hand and Columbus’ Oliver Bjorkstrand was able to capitalize from Sam Gagner and Scott Hartnell to make it 1-0.  Bjorkstrand is a Devil killer early in his young NHL career. The Danish forward has eight NHL goals; four of them are against the New Jersey Devils. He also had one in Sunday’s game. Would Kinkaid have made the save had he still had his stick in his hand? We cannot know, but it was still a tough way to give up a goal in what was a great performance to that point.

The Devils would pull Kinkaid with about a minute left, but the Blue Jackets were able to add an empty netter when Cam Atkinson took a lobbed pass from Brandon Dubinsky and potted it into the empty New Jersey net. Seth Jones had the secondary assist on the empty netter that made it 2-0 Blue Jackets.

The Devils once again played well enough to lose, in what was essentially a one goal game here too. Now they must try to put this loss behind them as they travel to Denver on Thursday to play the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs are the worst team in the NHL and this would seem to be a great time for New Jersey to get off of their slide.

The good news is that if they play as well as they have against some of these top teams like the Rangers, Capitals and Blue Jackets, they should be able to beat Colorado. They have been doing so much right but not getting the results, plus in facing Bobrovsky in the last two games, the Devils were really up against a hot goalie. But you have to still play the games and the Devils will need to continue to put forth a good effort to beat the Avalanche on Thursday.

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