Devils Lose Third Straight, Fall 5-0 at the Garden

With the New York Football Giants taking on the Dallas Cowboys a few miles away at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, there was another rivalry game tonight directly within the confines of the City of New York. The Devils and Rangers got together tonight at Madison Square Garden to renew the Hudson River Rivalry. It was not pretty from the New Jersey view of things.

The Devils, losers of two straight coming into tonight and the Rangers, looking to be the first team in the NHL to 20 victories was not a good formula for this first matchup between these Metropolitan Division opponents. Although many fans would remember that last season the Devils were able to end their early season losing ways by defeating New York in overtime. That game, won by John Moore, was coach John Hynes’ first NHL win.

But there was no such luck tonight. In fact, almost everything went against the Devils from the start.

Sitting for the Devils tonight were Yohann Auvitu and Jacob Josefson (both healthy scratches) and Pavel Zacha (who is still out with the facial laceration – he should be back shortly). Sitting for New York were Adam Clendening and Rick Nash (who is ill).

In a change from the Lou Lamoriello days, the Devils stayed in and practiced in New York City this morning. Under Lou, they would practice in New Jersey and then bus over to Manhattan for the game later that afternoon.

Between the pipes, New Jersey went back to Cory Schneider, who has been having a rough go of it. With this game, he has let in five goals in consecutive games. He made 26 saves on 31 Ranger shots.

The real goaltending news came out of the Rangers camp, however. Coach Alain Vigneault decided to start Antti Raanta for the third straight game. Raanta is coming off of a shutout of the Chicago Blackhawks and has been playing really well. Henrik Lundqvist had been outplayed by his understudy and the Rangers were going to ride their hot goalie as long as they can. He was a perfect 19-for-19 in the shutout win.

The Devils seemingly got on the board early in the first when Adam Henrique had beaten Raanta on a goal mouth scramble. The Devils had a quick 1-0 lead for a few seconds. The situation room in Toronto reviews all goals scored across the National Hockey League. They reviewed this one and decided that Henrique had made “a distinct kicking motion” to put the puck in the net. The replay, to most people (including MSG Network analysts Ken Daneyko and John MacLean), looked more like Henrique was pivoting on his skates and not intentionally kicking the puck into the net. But Toronto disagreed and the goal was waved off.

That should have been the tipoff that this was not the Devils’ night.

The Devils have let in the most goals in the NHL in the calendar month. From the middle of November, they gave up 49 goals coming into tonight’s game. It became an even 50 at 16:43 of the first period when Chris Kreider scored five hole to notch his eighth of the year from Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Klein. It was 1-0 Rangers and would head that way into the first intermission. New Jersey’s coaching staff was thinking of challenging for goalie interference, but decided against it after viewing it on video.

The second and third periods showed why the Rangers are top six in both power play and penalty kill. At 15:56 of the second, Brady Skjei was called for tripping, but the Rangers’ JT Miller took advantage of a broken play when Kyle Palmieri fell down in the neutral zone trying to intercept a Rangers clearing attempt to double up the New York lead.  The Devils had lost the faceoff and New York was clearing the zone when Palmieri hit a rut or just lost an edge. Miller just picked up the puck and was off to the races on a 2-on-1. That goal came at 16:07 with an assist to Kevin Hayes. Miller now has four goals in his last four games against the Devils. Cory stopped another Rangers shorthanded attempt with his left pad right after the goal.

It seemed the Devils would get out of the second period only down 2-0. But, with about three seconds remaining in the frame, Skjei scored his first NHL goal from Derek Stepan and Oscar Lindberg. The Devils would go into the break down 3-0 instead.

And things got worse in the third period. First, at 6:04 Brandon Pirri made it 4-0 on the power play while Damon Severson was sitting for hooking. Kreider and Ryan McDonagh had the assists there.

New York had scored five or more goals on an opponent ten times this year. It seemed that the Devils would not make that list until late in the third. At 17:33, after a scrap behind the Rangers net, Klein was given a five minute fighting major while his opponent, Nick Lappin, was given five for fighting and an extra two minutes for roughing. It was questionable, but either way, the Rangers were on the power play.

And Jimmy Vesey made them pay. He notched his tenth of the year at 18:42 from Pirri and Nick Holden. The Rangers had posted five on the Devils.

An interesting incident in the early part of the third period came when there was a delayed call against Ben Lovejoy of the Devils. The Rangers pulled Raanta for the extra skater and nearly put the puck into their own net. They ended up hitting the post as they were passing back to their point man.

Overall on the power play, the Devils were 0-for-5 while the Rangers were 2-for-6.

Next up for the Devils, they get some time off to right some wrongs. They do not play again until Thursday, when they travel to St. Louis to meet the Blues again. Hopefully, they can get themselves back in the win column and gain a measure of revenge against the Blues for their defeat a week prior.

Devils Drop First Regulation Game at Home to Blues

Coming into tonight’s game against the St. Louis Blues, the Devils home record without a regulation loss was very much in jeopardy. The Blues have won five in a row against the Devils and St. Louis is 4-1-0 all time at Prudential Center. Not good numbers if you want to play the percentages.

But the Devils were playing their fifth of 18 sets of back-to-backs and have been much better in the second half of those so far this season. Could they shake off the loss at Montreal last night and pick up the “W” against the Blues at home?

Some notes to get to before we begin. Carey Price did not receive supplemental discipline by the NHL for his blocker punches to Kyle Palmieri last night. Many of the Devils and their staff felt that they really did not want to see Price suspended and just wanted the call last night to be made, considering that would have helped them then.

The Devils got into Newark this morning at 2:30 AM while the Blues were coming in from Brooklyn where they lost to the Islanders last night – so they are also on the back end of a back-to-back.

Some milestones for the Devils as Taylor Hall was playing in his 400th NHL game tonight, Michael Cammaleri his 800th NHL game and John Moore his 100th as a Devil. All of that information came from the MSG broadcast.

One other interesting note that was brought up on the TV broadcast that one of the linesmen working tonight’s game (Kory Nagy) was a former member of the Devils organization. He played under current Devils’ broadcaster John MacLean in Lowell when the Devils had their AHL franchise based in that Massachusetts city. He also played for the ECHL’s Trenton Devils when they were a Devils lower level affiliate. Like MacLean said during the game, he is a great skater who is prolonging his career in hockey by becoming an official.

This game at home is a mere layover for the Devils, as the Devils’ next four come on the road.

Sitting for the Devils tonight were Jacob Josefson and Jon Merrill, who have been healthy scratches for the last few games. Pavel Zacha is still out with a facial laceration. He may play Sunday at the Rangers.

The Blues were without Carl Gunnarsson, Ty Rattie and Nail Yakupov. Also for St. Louis, Robert Bortuzzo was missing due to a lower body injury.

In goal for the Devils was Keith Kinkaid, getting his first start since the game at Nashville. He ended up with 28 saves on 32 St. Louis shots. Opposing him for the Blues was Jake Allen. Allen has three wins over the Devils, with two of those coming via the shutout. He made 20 saves on a meager 21 Devils shots.

This was the eleventh consecutive game that the Devils have been outshot.

Things began pretty rocky for New Jersey. Robby Fabbri scored his first of two on the night just 1:50 into the game. Brad Hunt and Vladimir Tarasenko had the assists. Fabbri scored in his second consecutive game, as he had a marker last night at the Islanders.

The Devils felt the wrath of the Blues very good penalty kill early on. After Joel Edmundson was called for roughing at 10:48 of the first, the Devils got their first of three power plays and could muster only one shot on goal. For the night, the Devils were 0-for-3 with the extra skater. St. Louis went 1-for-3.

With the Devils down 1-0 going into the second period, things began to look a little bit better when Palmieri came out of the shoot and nailed the post early in the second frame.

Unfortunately for the Devils, another controversial play would lead to an opposition goal. The Blues had seemingly iced the puck around the five minute mark of the period. The players – including the Blues’ Scottie Upshall – let up, assuming the icing was going to be called. It was not and the Blues pounced. Ryan Reaves ended a 38 game goal scoring drought when he put one past Kinkaid at 5:15. He got assists from Alex Pietrangelo and Kyle Brodziak. It was now 2-0 Blues just like that.

Icing is not a reviewable call and it seems that the linesmen just plain missed it. This could not have made the Devils coaching staff, who were already upset over the calls/non-calls of goalie interference (and the inconsistency of when those calls are made or not made) very happy. But, again, the call is non-reviewable, so it was 2-0 St. Louis.

The Devils got their lone goal at the 6:36 mark of the second. Taylor Hall rushed the puck up ice, attempting a wraparound on Jake Allen. The Blues goaltender stopped him, but the rebound came out to PA Parenteau, who took two swipes at the puck and buried the second one. Adam Henrique had the secondary assist on the play. It was Parenteau’s first goal since November 8 against Carolina. It was also now 2-1 and the Devils were seemingly back in the game.

But New Jersey would get into some penalty trouble that would cost them. First, Damon Severson was called for roughing Alexander Steen at 7:47. Then, the Devils went down 5-on-3 when Sergey Kalinin was called for tripping Jori Lehtera.

The Blues also have one of the top power plays in the league and would convert at 9:42 – just seconds before the 5-on-3 was about to expire – when Jaden Schwartz took a slap pass from Steen, who had faked a shot and deposited it into the empty side of Kinkaid’s cage. Tarasenko had the secondary assist.

Fabbri put the bow on this one in the third period when he scored his second of the night and eighth of the season, from Tarasenko (who had three assists on the night) and Lehtera at 11:24 of that session.

The game ended 4-1 as New Jersey just could not get anything going in the third period and just kind of wasted away.

Next up: the big one on Sunday, as the Devils head through the Lincoln Tunnel to Madison Square Garden to take on the rival New York Rangers, a huge game to be sure. Hopefully for Devils fans, the team can rebound from these two losses to get ready for a very good Rangers team.