Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid making one of his 37 saves during his NHL debut (NJ.com)

Tonight’s shootout loss against the Blackhawks was a classic dilemma of figuring out whether the glass was half-full or half-empty.  On the plus side, an injury-laden lineup had a gritty effort against a superior team on a back-to-back, overcoming a crucial double-minor penalty on Jacob Josefson in the second period and an overtime penalty on Jaromir Jagr to gut out a 65-minute tie against the mighty Hawks with a rookie goaltender making his NHL debut.  However, Keith Kinkaid deserved more than one point with a poised, outstanding game making 37 saves and exhibiting outstanding rebound control.  It’s only shameful it took the Devils this long to give him a start after extended periods on the bench in 2013 and earlier this year.  And of course on the minus side, you had yet another blown lead in the final five minutes of regulation and yet another shootout where the two teams might as well have walked off the ice with how helpless Kinkaid and shooters Martin Havlat and Jaromir Jagr were in the skills competition.  Not to mention with the Devils still several games under .500, moral victories aren’t going to help for long.

Amazingly enough the Devils have managed five points out of their last four games, but you wouldn’t have thought it given their shameful efforts at home against the Caps on Saturday and in Carolina last night.  Clearly the game in Carolina the 2-1 regulation win was entirely due to Cory Schneider, who made 40 saves and was under siege all night as the last-place Canes dominated the Devils.  Those two games didn’t exactly give me much hope for tonight, though in a weird way I was a lot more excited about the game when I heard Kinkaid (a 25-year old undrafted FA, who has been playing well for Albany the last couple of seasons) would finally be making his NHL debut.  Not to mention relieved Cory would be getting a well-deserved rest after dragging the team to two undeserved points the previous night and playing four games in a week in four different cities.  Still, part of me had the feeling of ‘why did it have to be now?’  Giving Kinkaid the nod against a loaded and rested Blackhawks team – albeit one playing a backup goaltender of their own – seemed tantamount to giving him a blindfold and a cigarette facing a firing squad.

Yet as they did in Toronto last week, the Devils saved one of their best efforts for when the odds were most stacked against them.  In a way it was fitting that our fourth third line of Stephen Gionta, Jordin Tootoo and Steve Bernier scored both goals, especially since seeing 20-11-18 from the stands gives me flashbacks to 2012 with Ryan Carter as the ’20’.  While Tootoo has struggled this season staying out of the box, he played his best game as a Devil tonight, scoring a goal picking his spot far side on a two-on-one in the first period, and bringing energy in his seven minutes.  Stephen may well be the best Gionta in the NHL at this point given big bro’s struggles in Buffalo, and he capped off a two-point night with a masterful deflection of a Bernier shot in the third period, giving the Devils a lead against the run of play at that point.

While the Devils did play their best period in the last three games in the first (a welcome change from all our bad first periods lately) the tide started to turn in the second when we were outshot 17-7, and only Kinkaid and some timely plays from our defense were able to keep the Hawks off the board long enough to give us delusions of a storybook finish.  With forwards Travis Zajac (lower body/flu), Patrik Elias (groin) and Mike Cammalleri (butt – yes that is not a misprint) all on the shelf, and Damien Brunner in exile the Devils had to mix and match up front.  Unable to trust rookie Reid Boucher or Tootoo late in a tight game, the Devils went to a three-line rotation in the third period of a back-to-back.  Ironically, it caught up with us when Mike Sislo subbed in for Michael Ryder on a shift and missed an assignment on the game-tying goal when Duncan Keith snuck in from the point to tie the game with just 3:13 to go in regulation.  Perhaps the Devils’ best chance to win the game had already passed minutes earlier when Havlat somehow managed not to score despite hitting a post and a crossbar on the same shot.

Defensively the story of the game was the icetime logged by our four main guys, including Jon Merrill who led the way playing nearly thirty minutes (29:30), followed by Andy Greene at 26:38 and Marek Zidlicky and Damon Severson clocking in at just under 24 minutes.  While six defensemen played, Seth Hegelson was barely a factor with under eleven minutes and it seems as if healthy scratch Eric Gelinas is in the doghouse yet again and rightly so after continued struggles defensively.  With Adam Larsson still out with the flu/possible mumps it was the restored Peter Harrold – who never actually went down to Albany – that filled out the defensive core and made a couple of nice plays to save goals.  Up front, perhaps the most alarming thing is that recent signee Scott Gomez led our forwards in icetime with 21:28.  Alarming because you can’t actually criticize that given the way Gomez has played and the fact very few of our other forwards are capable of big icetime.  Ironically enough Gomez has even become a go-to-guy in the faceoff dot, winning thirteen of twenty draws tonight against some tough centers.  Every other Devils center (Adam Henrique, Jacob Josefson and Gionta) combined to win under 40% of their faceoffs.

Still the story of the game was Kinkaid, who shined and made the Devils look foolish by waiting so long to play him.  His playing well can only mean good things in terms of giving Cory more of a blow during a tough December schedule that doesn’t let up anytime soon with another six games in ten day stretch starting Wednesday, with the first three on the road in Philly, Dallas and Long Island before returning home for a four-game stand going into the holiday break.  With some winnable games coming up before the break, now’s the time for the Devils to make a move if they’re going to be serious about staying in the playoff race this year.  Granted the competition in the Metro isn’t lighting the world on fire yet other than the Penguins and Isles, leaving the automatic third spot up for grabs which is the only reason the Devils aren’t yet buried with an 11-13-5 record.