What was ironic about the Devils’ loss to the Kings in the teams’ first game since the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals is that for the first period and the early part of the second it didn’t feel like a revenge game at all.  Partly because of the dissapointing (barely above 12,000) attendance and partly because half our team from that series is no longer here.  Plus the stakes are clearly lower in November, especially for the Kings right now.  All of the dissapointment and frustration from playing that team in 2012 came back in one big flash when Peter Harrold got called for a phantom double-minor high-sticking call (replays showed it was actually a Kings stick that drew blood on the play) early in the second period, which brought back memories of the Steve Bernier major penalty/expulsion in Game 6 and thus the bitterness from that series.  From then on I wanted to stick it to the Kings, Johnathan Quick or no Quick.  Unfortunately the immortal Ben Scrivens did his best Quick impression and shut us out 2-0 in yet another disheartening defeat.

Other than the Edmonton fiasco early in the season, I haven’t been this mad about a game all year.  Yes, the Devils played well for forty minutes despite not scoring (how familiar does that sound?!), but I’m sorry…I know this offense doesn’t have Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise or David Clarkson anymore.  But any team with Jaromir Jagr, Patrik Elias, Travis Zajac, Adam Henrique and company should not be getting shut out five times in nineteen games.  Especially against journeyman/backup netminders like Scrivens, Al Montoya and Ray Emery.  Our pathetic attempt to even set up a power play late in the third period was indiciative of our offense last night and really the last two seasons.  Boos rained down from the heavens late in the game and I joined in, beyond frustrated with this team.  Especially since last night was yet another failed attempt at winning three in a row, which this team still has not done since February.  Not to mention another lost two points at a juncture in the schedule where it can be ill-afforded, particularly with almost everyone else in the division on a hot streak right now.

Our lack of offense was one thing, it could have been predicted by anyone with half a brain who wasn’t high on Kool-Aid before the season (although the Devils manage to find new ways to lower the bar daily) but the effort level in the third period was beyond pathetic.  It was as if they gave up once Scrivens started stonewalling them and they knew it was going to be another one of those games.  People used to harp on Kovalchuk’s lack of backchecking (and Elias for one still takes his shots publicly) but at least the Russian merc tried to backcheck unlike the invisible Damien Brunner, who spends more time complaining to papers in Switzerland about how we’re stifling his creativity than actually attempting to do anything without the puck.  Brunner lah-de-daaed his way to a puck late in the third period during our ill-fated power play and wound up taking a tripping penalty that effectively sealed the game up for the Kings.  For a guy who was begging for a contract in Switzerland before the season, he sure hasn’t done much aside from a couple of early-season goals in losing efforts.

Even guys like Andy Greene had their head up their you-know-what during the third period, when he first deflected a harmless floating shot right back at Cory Schnieder, who had to make a spectacular reflex save to keep the game scoreless. Schnieder however, cannot score for the team – nor could he make up for Greene’s next faux pas which was drifting over to the right boards way out of position and letting Dwight King have free reign in front for an easy tip-in goal, the Kings’ only score of the game against the ill-fated Schnieder with just under eight minutes left in the third period.  Schnieder must be wondering what he’s gotten into here…with a GAA under two and a save percentage almost .920 he still has just one lousy win (and a shutout at that).  ONE LOUSY WIN with a GAA under two, what a disgrace.  Scoring by committee my tit, what scoring…you can’t exactly count on Cam Janssen goals every game, or Ryan Carter two-goal games – except maybe against the Rangers.

As usual our coaching left a lot to be desired last night too.  Pete DeBoer‘s fascination with surrogate children Stephen Gionta and Harrold is by now well-documented, to the point where I don’t even bat an eye anymore when Gionta gets played (and overplayed) while Jacob Josefson sits in the press box time and again, or when Harrold gets played (and overplayed) with Mark Fayne getting ruined by the constant yo-yoing in and out of the lineup.  I’ve almost come to accept that as fact at this point.  Janssen’s two goals unfortunately I knew in the back of my mind was going to buy him another 10-15 games at least in spite of his utter lack of talent – or fighting these days.  I’m a believer in chemistry but sometimes that goes off the rails and it’s doing that with Janssen now.  When you play Janssen you willingly handicap yourself, especially not being able to play him in a scoreless third period and running eleven forwards out there including Carter-Gionta-Bernier as a de facto third line yet again despite all of our supposed forward depth.

What ticked me off more than any of that was seeing literally all of the above players on the ice late in the second period when Kings’ offensive aces Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams were out on the ice.  Coaches look to match up your fourth line against their first line on the road, it’s flat inexcusable just handing them that matchup at home!  And if you’re not going to play Josefson or Mattias Tedenby over Gionta or Janssen, could you play them over Brunner?  At least they’ll freaking try!  It’s just amazing the amount of self-inflicted wounds this team gives itself on a nightly basis.  Especially when it relates to Josefson, a former first-round pick who was trusted by former coach Jacques Lemaire in all situations but wound up permanently in Pete’s doghouse after some bad games early last season.

Speaking of Lemaire (above), he’s been observed with GM Lou Lamoriello taking in practice and games the last few days.  Presumably Lemaire went with Lamoriello to Toronto on Tuesday to take in the Hall of Fame festivities with former Devil Scott Niedermayer among others being inducted and the Devils were playing the Leafs soon after that but the fact that Lemaire’s been around for much of the last week is eyebrow-raising in itself.  Of course all the speculation is whether he’ll return yet again to coach with a testy and scared Pete on increasingly shaky ground.  Or what kind of coaching/player evaluations he’s concurring with Lou on.  As much as I don’t want us to keep going to that well forever, there really aren’t all that many candidates out there if you’re talking about an in-season coaching change and with this nightmare of a schedule coming up I could see a season-crushing five or six-game losing streak on the horizon.  Although the Devils’ results were better the last couple of weeks before last night’s two steps backward, Lou’s been known to make changes even when the team’s winning if he sees something he doesn’t like.  He can’t like the way DeBoer’s managing his lineup at the moment, or the largely underwhelming results.