In three consecutive games the Devils held leads late in the 3rd period and couldn't hold on in the final couple minutes of regulation.

Against Dallas they managed to recover and win the game after allowing the Stars to tie it, but they failed to do so against Nashville and Colorado and coughed up two big points they should have had as a result.

Last night's loss to the Avalanche seemed to be a tipping point for fans, many of which are calling for Pete DeBoer's head on a spike as a result.

I, however, think DeBoer is a good coach and the Devils would be wrong to replace him - which I don't see them doing, anyways.

Some notes on that and more:

- Pete DeBoer is not the problem in New Jersey. The Devils' biggest issue this season has been scoring goals and that's not on him or his system. If you really pay attention when watching a Devils game you'll notice that they often out chance their opponent even when they lose. It's on the coach to try and find ways to create opportunities to score, but it's on the players to execute. To my count the Devils had, what, four shots go off the post last night? They also had a shot die right on the goalline. Like DeBoer said after the game, the Devils could have scored five last night. Obviously they didn't, and it cost them a point as a result, but that's not on him. As I've said all season long, it's a personnel problem. Look no further than to Los Angeles to see a team outplaying their opponent nightly and losing games because they can't score.

- Lost in the fog of last night's loss is that the Devils led an excellent Avalanche team for about 40 minutes, and for the most part were the better team all night. The Devils were playing an excellent 3rd period against Colorado, too, prior to the last 100 seconds. New Jersey kept the puck in Colorado's zone for a good portion of the period and out chanced them. I believe with about three minutes left the Devils were up in the shot department 8-4 in the period. Patrick Roy pulled the goaltender with an abnormal amount of time remaining and the Avs pinned the Devils in their own zone before DeBoer could get a chance to change his lines. Colorado made them pay, and fans were quick to point their finger at DeBoer for who had on the ice, which I think is unwarranted.

When Colorado tied it, DeBoer had 2/3 of the 4th line (Steve Bernier, Stephen Gionta and Patrik Elias) out on the ice along with Jon Merrill and Pete Harrold, both of whom played pretty well. That's two regular penalty killers in Gionta and Elias, and a guy who's getting his feet wet down a man in Merrill. There's nothing wrong with icing that unit with two minutes left and trying to trim the clock down while Andy Greene, Travis Zajac and the rest of New Jersey's top defensive players rest up for the final stretch.

Based on the way they were playing I'd rather the Merrill pairing out late than Bryce Salvador's, and the 4th line, especially with Elias subbed in for Carter, is probably the best defensive line on the team besides Zajac's. Blaming DeBoer for that is lazy and ignorant, in my opinion.

- Bryce Salvador and Marek Zidlicky played less than every Devils defenseman except Pete Harrold, who was playing his first game in a few months.

- Cory Schneider stopped 23-25 (.920 save percentage) in what was his 4th consecutive start and allowed two goals or less for the 11th time in 12 games. He's only won six of those starts in large part due to a lack of goal support. At what point does Lou Lamoriello look outside the organization for scoring help?

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- I recently posted my midseason rankings for the top-30 first-year NHL draft eligible players from the OHL. You can view that here.

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