If you only looked at the box scores for this Devils team (and I can’t blame you if that’s all you do at this point) and saw the Devils got five of a possible six points coming out of the All-Star break, going 6-2-2 in their last ten games you would think ‘wow, the Devils are playing much better now with the new staff’.  If you did not look at the standings you would be delusional enough to think the Devils even at three games under NHL .500 could still make a run at a playoff spot with a home-heavy schedule down the stretch.  And if winning was truly everything with nothing else mattering then you don’t care that the Devils have only managed a pitiful 28 shots on goal in the last two games combined.  Or that they’ve been outshot 317-203 during this ten-game stretch.

Unfortunately however, reality suggests that the Devils – still thirteen points out of a playoff spot despite this ten-game stretch – don’t have a realistic chance at the playoffs with the top eight in the east clearly distancing itself from the pack, and that this stretch of results is a total illusion considering the Devils are being outshot by over 11 shots a game and have had 20 shots on goal or less in six of the ten games.

Those facts are what make me conflicted over watching this product on the ice during the last couple games (thankfully I did not watch the worst of the three games against the Pens, but did attend the two wins).  This Devil team is the ultimate test of whether winning really is everything.  It’s one thing to win and look bad doing it on occasion when you’re higher up in the standings, it’s another thing to win and look bad repeatedly when winning does very little other than worsen your draft position.  Especially considering this version of the trap the Devils have gone back to is so much of a shell it makes the Jacques Lemaire trap look like a run and gun system.  Then again at least you could count on Lemaire teams to hold shots against down too, this Devil team looks like an expansion team being outshot 45-20 and trying to win on the strength of goaltending and keeping the opponents’ shooting gallery stationed on the peremiter of the ice.

Honestly, it has been the goaltending that has been the main bright spot lately by far.  Whether it’s Cory Schneider giving up three goals with a whopping seventy saves during the games against the Leafs and Penguins, or Keith Kinkaid last night coming within minutes of his first NHL shutout making 26 of 27 saves you can’t say enough about either goaltender on this team.  Cory’s finally putting an end to the stigma that ‘yeah, he’s been good but he’s never been good through 55-60 games in a season’ and quieting the doubters who probably still haven’t come to terms with the fact Martin Brodeur’s no longer here, while Kinkaid’s firmly established himself as an NHL goaltender during the last two months with strong play of his own.  You could say we haven’t had as strong a goaltending tandem since 2012 when Marty and Moose were both playing well but even then it’s not like the goaltending was making 35 saves a night, it was more like 25.

Leaving the goaltending out of it right now, it’s not a pretty picture.  Apart from Adam Larsson who’s developing into a legit top-pairing defenseman, there isn’t much to suggest the coaching change has really helped anyone else.  Defensively the shots against are well-documented, they were high earlier in the year and still high now even with Scott Stevens having a freer hand on defense.  Yes, there was a little more scoring on the West Coast (of course during the two games I did not watch) but during these three home games post-break the team’s combined for a putrid four non-empty net goals combined.  Of course you can’t score if you don’t shoot, or like the famous Wayne Gretzky quote says, ‘100% of the shots you don’t take won’t go in’.  Last night was a new low even for this team in terms of getting shots on net when the team managed just four total shots in the final two periods, and one of THOSE was a Steve Bernier empty-net goal, so really it was three shots against a goaltender in the final forty minutes.

Things got so embarassing last night the Devils were mock cheered for putting just one shot on goal in the second period – with mere seconds to go before intermission.  In fact that mock cheer was one of the most hilarious experiences I’ve ever had live and the only memorable part of the final forty minutes of last night’s game.  Apparently this output embarassed the Devils so much they didn’t even put the shots on goal up on the jumbotron after the second period the way they usually do.  Following a good first period, it seemed as if the Devils were content with a 2-0 lead to (using a boxing term) just lay on the ropes and take punches the rest of the night.

And yeah I feel like a bit of a hypocrite complaining about being ultra-boring with a lead while complaining about Pete DeBoer’s leaky system where blown leads were the norm but are these really the only two options available to us?  Be ultra-boring or blow every lead in sight?  It’s one thing to be boring, it’s another to just hope and pray the goaltending bails you out.  At least when Lemaire teams were boring they wouldn’t permit shots on goal.  Being boring when you only give up five shots in a period is a little different then being boring and getting outshot 22-4 in the final two periods.  So in fact this is actually worse than boring, it’s just begging the goaltenders to bail you out night after night.

I’m not going to get into the draft stuff too much…would it be annoying to have a worse pick at the end of the day because of wins that aren’t really doing a lot for us, yes.  That said, I still can’t bring myself to root against the team for the sake of the draft pick (especially in the games I do attend), but talk to me again after the trade deadline – if we move anyone.  While it seems an impossibility this team can get back in the playoff race, don’t tell Lou Lamoriello, cause even as many points out as the Devils are they’re still acting like every game is Game 7 of a playoff series with their lineup decisions – i.e. playing the useless Mark Fraser and journeyman Peter Harrold over youngsters Eric Gelinas and Seth Hegelson – and their system of death.  So it’s not the fact we’re winning meaningless games that bothers me, it’s the fact we’re not really doing a lot to earn those wins or are getting many positives out of them.

I can deal with winning games and a worse draft pick if you have younger players playing well and any type of system that doesn’t make the prevent defense look like a risk-taking maneuver.  All I want to see from the rest of the season are positives, whether they result in wins or not.