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Last night the New Jersey Devils wasted a golden opportunity to climb within one point of the Philadelphia Flyers for the final Wild Card spot.
Playing at home to an underperforming Los Angeles Kings team, one that was in the latter half of a back-to-back, the Devils spotted them three goals in the 1st period and that proved to be too much to overcome.
A few notes:
1) A lot of people were quick to jump on Cory Schneider for the rough start to the game, but I think he deserves a little leeway. Heading into this game Schneider owned a .936 save percentage over his last eight starts. He has been playing great of late and it's important to remember that. His schedule was also thrown off a bit as he missed a couple starts to the flu.
Then, there's the part where the goals weren't a) bad or; b) his fault. The first goal was a perfect shot through a screen on the power play. The second goal was a chop play where Steve Santini was all over Tanner Pearson and he was still able to take homerun swing at it from a few feet out. The third goal came just after a power play expired -- the Devils still only had four guys in the play -- on a third opportunity after Schneider made two saves. I'm not sure how anyone could blame him for the loss, especially considering the Devils only managed to beat Peter Budaj once.
2) Keith Kinkaid did an excellent job in relief of Schneider. He stopped all 13 shots he faced and gave the Devils a chance to get back into the game by locking the door and keeping the Kings at three. Unfortunately, the Devils weren't able to take advantage of their second life as the only goal they scored came well into the 3rd period.
3) Adam Henrique didn't get on the scoresheet but I thought he had a strong game. Henrique finished with a team-high plus-5 shot attempt differential at 5v5, made a couple sweet passes to create chances and had a few of his own. Henrique's best look came on the 5-on-3 where his one-timer was stopped by Budaj on an excellent post-to-post glove save. Obviously, he didn't capitalize, but that says more about the save than it does about him.
4) I really like how the Devils use five forwards on the 5-on-3. In terms of generating pure offense the four forward, one defenseman look is recommended on 5-on-4's. I like that the Devils take it one step further and go all out attack when they know there isn't much threat of allowing shorthanded chances. They didn't score on their 5-on-3 but they had no less than five or six hard shot attempts from dangerous areas.
5) I know Devante Smith-Pelly hasn't had a great year, but I don't like seeing him sit in favor of Luke Gazdic. The latter is a huge liability when on the ice and brings even less offense than a struggling Smith-Pelly does. It's not like Smith-Pelly is a soft perimeter player and the Devils lose toughness by playing him, either. I don't get the Gazdic thing.
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