Ruff Night As Devils On Brink of Elimination

The New Jersey Devils are on the brink of elimination after a 6-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 of their second-round series. It was a carbon copy of the first two games in Carolina. The Hurricanes outworked, outhustled and frustrated the Devils in every way possible. As they have been all season long, late-period goals and the second period did in the Devils.

Devils on Brink of Elimination After Being Embarrassed

This time it was a five-minute stretch in the second period where the Hurricanes scored four goals that did the Devils in. In total, the Devils surrendered five goals in the second period. New Jersey gave up a late first-period goal as the Hurricanes tied the game at 1-1. If the game wasn’t over at 5-1, Jordan Martinook made sure it was over tallying his fifth point of the night to make it 6-1 after two periods of play. That was the final score of this contest as the Hurricanes were thoroughly dominant.

The Devils returned to their old ways from last year when things got tough. Instead, of remaining calm, the Devils panicked. It looked like the Devils of the previous year when the score got out of hand, the Devils retreated. Unlike at times this year, when the Devils showed no lead was too big. That was the most painful thing for the players, especially captain Nico Hischier.

“It’s hard to explain right now, we just stopped playing,” Hischier said post-game, “We had the game right there, we were there where we wanted to be and something like that happens, it’s just unacceptable.”

Where was the team he saw all year that led the league in most comeback wins? For three games in this series, the Devils just gave up when things did not go their way.

Not only that but there were a lot of guys hanging their heads instead barring down and working hard to get back into the game.

“We just let our heads hang,” Hischier continued, “It’s definitely not the recipe, we had a game going on there, and that five minutes, we just got away from our game right there and made us pay.”

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Devils Show No Fight To Claw Back

Now give credit to Carolina for frustrating the Devils. They did not provide the Devils much through the neutral zone. New Jersey likes to use that stretch pass, but the Hurricanes did not allow it after the first 10 minutes of the game. The Devils continued to try it with no success. But the Devils are still a young team and this is a learning lesson.

It was the worst game the Devils played all season.

“That’s a hard one to explain. That’s about as poorly we’ve skated and supported the puck in any game this year,” said head coach Lindy Ruff.

Game 4 was a carbon copy of what Game 2 was like for the Devils. A great start to the game. The Devils dominated the first 10 minutes. New Jersey scores the first goal. Jack Hughes deflects a Timo Meier shot and Prudential Center was rocking. The Devils forecheck and speed was on display. After 10 minute mark of the first period, it was all Carolina.

New Jersey could not stop the floodgates. Whether that be the coach calling timeout too late or pulling the goaltender when it got out of hand, it is on the players to make sure things don’t spiral out of control. The players did just that. Not to mention many players started doing their own thing when the score got out of hand. That is not a recipe for success.

“We had guys that just went rogue. You can’t call that lack of experience. Even the power play turned into one man trying to do something and the next guy trying to do something,” Ruff continued. “There was no team effort. We weren’t good.”

Especially from a player like Jack Hughes. Hughes was running around his own zone the whole night trying to get sprung. But Carolina was not having any of it. This also forces other players on the team to be out of position thus opening the shooting lanes for Hurricanes players to score.

Considering the change of mentality by the Devils this year, you could tell the entire team was in shock when things got out of hand.

“We got the wind taken out of our sails really bad there in the second period and it was unfortunate,” defenseman Damon Severson said. “We’re in the second round of the playoffs. Now we’re facing elimination. There wasn’t any pushback from us. It’s not fun losing that way. We didn’t give our fans something to cheer about tonight. So that’s on us.”

That was a big problem for the Devils last season they let things snowball out of control. And in this series when they have gotten hit in the mouth, there is no pushback. Instead of doing something about it, they let things spiral out of control because the other team has momentum.

“We get down and then every game’s kind of been like that for us. Just grows and grows. We started pretty well in the first period and then the late goal gave them some juice. And then they took it to us,” defenseman Dougie Hamilton said.

The biggest Achilles heel this season has been turnovers and not playing well defensively. Both of those happened in Game 4. The Devils committed 26 turnovers. But that is because they have not adjusted to Carolina’s game. Making fancy players and not getting the puck deep will hurt teams in the playoffs. Just ask the Toronto Maple Leafs how that is working out. Both the Devils and Maple Leafs are facing elimination scenarios.

Go back to Game 3 of the Rangers series, the Devils trailing 2-0 in the series just made simple plays. While it was a boring game they did not make the bad mistake that ended up in the back of your net. The Devils just did the simple things right. In this series, they have not and have been outscored in their post-season losses, 32-7.

Now the Devils can’t make any more mistakes or else their season is over Thursday. As Hischier and Ruff stated after the game, with the Devils on the brink of elimination, the team has to move on from this game and play their best game of the season or they will be going home.