So far, the New Jersey Devils’ West Coast swing has been a disaster.
The Devils are 0-4-0 on their six-game road trip and 0-3-0 out west heading into Monday’s game at the Seattle Kraken. They’ll have one more road game remaining, Thursday at the New York Rangers, before returning to home ice.
New Jersey’s latest loss, 3-2 on Saturday at San Jose, came when it surrendered the go-ahead goal with 25 seconds remaining.
“When we play hard and we play with structure and purpose, we’ve shown we’re a good team,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We’ve also shown that when we don’t, we’re not a good team.”
Nico Hischier and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, and goaltender Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves.
“We’re frustrated,” said Hischier, the Devils’ captain, who turned 26 on Saturday. “Obviously, we’re going through a rough stretch right now. We’ve got to stick together because when you do, you grow together and come out on the other side.”
The Devils have won just once since the NHL’s holiday break, defeating visiting Carolina 4-2 on Dec. 27. Their skid started the next night with a 5-2 loss at Carolina.
Then they fell 3-2 on Tuesday at Anaheim, 3-0 Wednesday at Los Angeles and 3-2 Saturday at San Jose.
“The structure is off because we’re not working, we’re not skating, we’re not connected as a result,” Keefe said. “When you’re just off by one stride, this is the NHL, if you’re off by one stride, hanging around on offense or you swing away, you expose the game unnecessarily.
“It opens up the game for the opposition and you’re less likely to get the chances the other way,” Keefe continued. “A lot of why we’re not scoring is connected to the fact we’re not defending properly. We’re not defending hard enough. You get what you deserve.”
The Kraken are wrapping up a four-game homestand on which they’re 1-1-1 after Saturday’s 4-2 defeat to Edmonton, which was playing the second half of a back-to-back.
Chandler Stephenson and Jaden Schwartz scored as Seattle nearly rallied from a three-goal deficit, but the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl, the league’s leading goal-scorer (29), clinched the game with an empty-netter.
Goalie Philipp Grubauer, making his fourth consecutive start for the injured Joey Daccord (upper body), kept the Kraken in the game with 28 saves. But Seattle fell behind 2-0 in the opening 5:18 and never fully recovered.
“Not good enough,” Kraken coach Dan Bylsma said of his team’s start to the game. “Early on, a little too much standing around, watching their good players and not putting enough bodies on guys.
“It’s mentally hard to look up and be down one, two goals and continually trying to mount the comeback. That talk about the start of the game, it’s not critical to get the first goal of the game, but we’ve got to have that mindset where we’re coming out to get the first goal and get the lead in the game.”
The Kraken have made a habit of late comebacks recently, including in Vancouver on Dec. 28 when they became just the third team in NHL history to win after rallying from a three-goal deficit in the final five minutes of regulation in a regular-season game.
“We’ve got to get better starts. It’s tough coming back all the time in this league,” said Schwartz, who has seven points (five goals, two assists) over the past six games. “It’s good to be able to do it and put ourselves in position to tie it up again. But especially with them playing (Friday) night, we’ve got to be sharper off the start, be on our toes, be aggressive instead of watching them and being on our heels.”
Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson left the game late in the second period with an upper-body injury Saturday and didn’t return.
“We have to see how it reacts at this point in time,” Bylsma said about Larsson’s prognosis.
–Field Level Media
