The last time I posted, the Devils had just completed their Florida trip and were on their first (and thus far only) extended break of the season before this most recent stretch of seven games in twelve nights, concluding tonight at MSG with a matchup over the troubled Rangers – who themselves are just coming off a five-game losing streak with all sorts of public speculation over players and front office futures. We’ve seen this rivalry be a tipping point for guys getting fired before…Gerard Gallant after their playoff loss to us a couple years ago and John Hynes shortly after the Rangers punked us at home in 2019. They did have a potentially job-saving comeback against the lowly Habs on Saturday, maybe we’ll see what happens if they continue to stutter.

As far as the Devils, on the whole things are still going fairly well…or at least they were until the last three games. Inarguably the Devils started this latest cramped stretch with three of their most impressive games of the season, coming home after the Florida trip for once they responded to the occasion at home in front of a big crowd and beat the Canes 4-2 in a back-and-forth game where Dougie Hamilton scored the tie-breaking goal midway through the third (at that point just his second of the season). Jesper Bratt also scored twice and the Devils’ special teams again made a difference with two power play goals – one by Bratt and the other by Stefan Noesen against his former team.

Noesen’s feel good late-career breakout has continued…that goal was his 10th on the season, he’s had three more since then for thirteen in the first twenty-seven games, already just one short of a career high! Two nights later in Washington, Hamilton again scored what proved to be the winning goal in a 3-2 game, giving the Devils a two-goal lead before they hung on after a late Caps surge in the third. In a sign perhaps the Devils are a good team this year, it wasn’t just the stars who won that Caps game (besides Dougie), but rather guys like Tomas Tatar with a goal plus an assist on Brenden Dillon’s unlikely first goal of the season. Tatar and Hamilton’s goals also came on the power play as the man advantage continued to pay dividends.

Monday’s 5-2 win against Nashville was a rarity in two respects, a rare stress-free home game and seeing a Nico Hischier natural hat trick. He’d never even scored three in a game in his career, much less three straight goals in the second period.

After the game Nico was genuinely touched by the fan reaction, and thus far beating up on the Preds and one-time assistant Andrew Brunette was a high point of the season. Even the one moment of drama in the game turned into a inspiration, when Timo Meier went too far retaliating against a punk Nashville rookie who was throwing cheap shots all night…but only got himself ejected (and later suspended for the next game) with a five-minute major. Perhaps it was a bit of karmic justice that the Devils not only killed off the entire major without giving up a goal, but also iced the game shortly thereafter when Justin Dowling scored an empty-netter to make it 5-2.

Now we get to the last three games and the downward turn, which hopefully will prove to be little more than a bump in the road. The Thanksgiving Eve special against the Blues was always going to be a tricky game given both the timing of it, and the fact St. Louis came in off a coaching change – and boy do they owe the Bruins a gift basket over their unceremonious dismissal of Jim Montgomery after they’d earlier failed to come to agreement on an extension. That said, I was still a bit peeved after the 3-0 shutout, in part because I had to cash out of going to the Nashville game due to a last minute schedule change in my rec league and decided to go to this one instead, which I’d initially used as a buyback game.

Selfish annoyances aside, the Devils really didn’t start well failing to even record a shot in the first twelve minutes. Nor did they finish well, as the third period looked like such a mail-in after going down by three goals I left halfway through it, and had no reason to regret that. Granted they had a little help in falling off the cliff that night, in part the refs failing to call an obvious hooking on Nico the first shift of the game, leading to a Blues two-on-one goal. Their second goal also came after a bit of a phantom too many men penalty, and for the coup de grace Brett Pesce was plastered right in front of the net seconds before the Blues scored. Certainly uneven officiating – and poor goaltending by Jacob Markstrom in a three-goal first period – didn’t help.

Neither perhaps did that slightly over the top ceremony before the game for Markstrom’s 500th game played a few nights before. It’s one thing to acknowledge the achievement and it’s nice to make him feel even more a part of the team…but a 10+ minute ceremony for it felt a bit over the top to be honest, especially for a guy who just got here and has barely had time to contribute as a Devil. Maybe the refs didn’t like the delay either and that’s why they made us swallow their whistle in the first period!

Our day after Thanksgiving trip to Detroit didn’t start much better, once again it was Markstrom giving up the first two goals as the Devils got behind the eight-ball again in the first period…but this time at least they showed a bit more resiliency in coming back to tie the game before the end of the period off a pair of PP goals from Dougie and Timo – returning off his suspension. Again, the Devils gave up the lead early in the second but Dougie and Nico both scored in response to finally put the Devils in front. A Jack Hughes power play goal early in the third momentarily gave the Devils a two-goal advantage but the Wings scored literally on the next shift and for the rest of the game it was fingernail-biting time but somehow the Devils held off the inevitable onslaught to win a sloppy game 5-4.

Who would have even guessed that Friday’s game would be just a preview to the idiocy we’d see Saturday night? I could do an entire blog just on this game that’s been the length of my post to this point but don’t really want to re-aggravate myself now on Monday morning. Once again, the Devils failed to start a game with any urgency or even shots on net in the first several minutes and only an inspired early performance from Jake Allen kept the game close. In fact, the Devils actually took a 2-1 lead in the second period against the run of play after Nico scored midway through the first, and Dowling early in the second period.

Unfortunately, a moment of carelessness from Dawson Mercer inexorably changed the game with a four-minute minor and the Caps took full advantage scoring on both ends of it. This time it was special teams which were used as a weapon of mass destruction against us as the Caps had a natural hat trick of power play goals, scoring a third late in the second period to go up 4-2, a score which quite frankly flattered us after being dominated for forty minutes. Finally, belatedly the Devils came to play in the third period and their early surge actually managed to tie the game when Noesen and Bratt scored in the first 4:15 of the period. With the game tied and finally momentum in their back pocket, you would have thought maybe the Devils could steal one in the third, or at least get it to OT for the inevitable loss there.

It was a pair of goals, ten seconds apart that all but ended the game as a contest – Taylor Raddish scoring after defensive breakdowns in front of the net at 13:54 was bad enough, but Pierre-Luc Dubois scoring into an empty net after a puck handling mistake by Allen ten seconds later was the coup de grace on the night, at least for me. I stormed out of my seat intending to leave the arena but instead wound up camping out in front of a TV downstairs just before going down the final escalator to leave. Maybe something inside told me this game’s been crazy already, might as well see the rest of it. Lo and behold, the Devils got a power play of their own and Noesen scored his second power play goal of the period to put the Devils back within one at 16:45.

With just over three minutes left, I now faced a dilemma…go back to my seat or stay in my potentially lucky spot downstairs? Ultimately I stayed in front of the TV, not due to luck though…I still figured on us losing the game and didn’t really want to expend the time and effort getting back upstairs to my section only to have the Caps pump in an empty-netter to finish the game again. To be fair, in the back of my mind I also figured if we don’t win I’ll stay closer to getting out and if we do somehow come back to tie then I’d have to stay committed to the bit and remain in my spot anyway.

I kind of figured this would just be a tease though, and indeed it was – narrowly missing a tie by a smidgen two or three times. Probably a deserved team result in the end to be honest, even if Allen’s great play early on got overshadowed by what turned out to be a really costly mistake late. It wasn’t his fault even if he took the blame like a good vet does…the entire team just didn’t play well enough. We started out the first forty minutes a step behind everywhere, and every goal in the game was either a bonehead play or caused by one. What was a stretch that started with a lot of goodwill ended with me again being worried about potentially shaky goaltending and cursing out this team’s consistent poor play at home, at least compared to their mad road form (5-5-2 at the Prudential Center, 11-4 outside of NJ).

While tonight’s Battle of the Hudson is for the moment bigger for the Rangers than for us, it’s always a big game for us…especially with the dreaded five-game homestand coming up next. Hopefully the three day break and no back-to-backs until after Christmas will lead to some improved play at the Rock but first things first tonight…drop the hammer on our rivals and make them potentially do some panic moves after they already publicly floated players being on the trade block.