Now that the Devils are slumping, I feel moderately guilty for not blogging during the recent homestand, where the team looked like they were hitting all cylinders and even posting good performances at the Rock. Of course, as the home performances have multiplied – so now have some new road issues with three straight losses on their six-game trip coming after a three-game homestand sweep which was as impressive as it gets with dominant performances over the rival Penguins and Rangers and their second win over their nemesis Carolina at the Rock this year.

I had planned to go to all three of those home games but had to settle for ‘only’ attending the wins over the Penguins on the 21st and the Canes last Friday, which was more than satisfying enough. Even being home for once over a quasi-holiday game against the Rangers didn’t really help as 1 PM is an insane time for a Monday game, two days before Christmas or not. If I was still in my old job, I surely wouldn’t have had off for this game and as it was after eating lunch I realized just getting to Newark for puck drop might not be good enough this time – the way I’ve been doing for most games – given the fact my small parking lot just off Broad Street (which is amazingly convenient for getting out of the arena) was probably going to be packed for this game in the middle of the day. At least I could get away with selling my ticket for the Ranger game last minute, even if I didn’t get half the profit I could have gotten selling the ticket the day before – oh well.

At least having to sell my ticket and have the Devils come up with another dominant performance against their struggling tri-state rivals was better than the potential alternative of rushing to get there, finding no parking and having the game be a dud. I’ve been to Game 4 in 2006 and Game 6 in 2012, I can live with not seeing one regular season virtuoso performance at the Rock. Although admittedly I would have been more annoyed had they not pretty much tatooed the Penguins more than the 3-1 score on Saturday would indicate and beat their chief on-ice rival in Carolina last Friday.

While I certainly wasn’t expecting us to sweep the home-and-home with the Hurricanes on Saturday, the 4-2 loss was still annoying on a number of fronts. Our supposed solid backup Jake Allen started out strong against an early onslaught as the Devils held a fragile 2-1 lead in the third period, but then allowed a clunker goal in the third period that tied the game and that was only the appetizer for the main course of annoyance – the Timo Meier ejection and five-minute major for kneeing Martin Necas. I could post the Sheldon Keefe quote where he curtly pointed out that Necas was so hurt he played 3.5 minutes of the ensuing major penalty and that calls like that reward playing up an injury, but instead I’ll just post the play which wound up deciding the game.

If you’re going to make that call, at least make that call right away. Don’t make that call only after you see the guy playing up his injury on the ice with their hick crowd still booing the refs who didn’t give Carolina a minor penalty the entire game, and don’t tell me that wasn’t what happened – the Canes have a well-deserved rep for being divers and whiners. Necas certainly had a quicker recovery than a ‘dangerous’ knee-to-knee would normally entail. I would say it’s more amazing the league hasn’t punished the Canes as a whole for their constant playing of the refs, but to be honest I think they just like the fact that Carolina’s one of its most successful sunbelt markets and keep them propped up wherever they can.

Anyway, Carolina predictably scored the deciding goal on the five-minute major and a clinching empty-netter late in the game to salvage the split. At least the league didn’t double down on stupid and suspend Timo further for that nonsense, I was paranoid they would since he’d already been suspended for actual stupidity against Nashville less than a month back. Not that it helped the Devils in Anaheim where their performance was reportedly rubbish. I was actually surprised both because the Devils are usually good on the road, and because we absolutely ran the Ducks off the ice early in the season at home when we weren’t winning too many other home games.

At least Markstrom himself had a pretty good December, even being named one of the NHL’s three stars of the month and quelling many of my concerns after his slow start. Maybe Martin Brodeur was right about him with his top five goalie ranking after all lol…it was actually a bit cute hearing ‘Marky’ chants after a particularly impressive glove save off Sidney Crosby in the Penguins home game. It’s doubly important that Markstrom’s come good now that Allen’s somewhat predictably fallen off from his good start, although he seemed fine yesterday from what I heard. I actually kind of forgot yesterday’s game was an afternoon one – the holiday schedule is for the birds sometimes, but I sort of expected a loss to be honest with a back-to-back in LA against a good team we had to really slog through to get a win a few weeks ago at home. Sure enough, the 3-0 loss yesterday was our eighth shutout against this season – an inordinately high number for a team that otherwise hasn’t had much trouble putting in goals. Then again, even if I had remembered yesterday’s game was a matinee, as it turned out it wasn’t going to be on my TV anyway.

I guess now I’ll have an excuse for not keeping up with the Devils as much going forward since I’m one of the Optimum customers that is now without over the air hockey. TBH I don’t really care enough to get a new provider or pay extra for ESPN plus when A) I go to a good chunk of the home games anyway and B) the playoff games should still be over air, and despite the Devils’ recent lull it still is a good possibility they’ll at least be playing the first round in April. It’s never right when corporations try to leverage customers during the season and there’s usually no good guy in a titan vs. titan PR war. I wouldn’t blame anyone for ‘cutting the cord’, gaming the system with illegal online streams or changing providers, maybe I should too but I might just go back to listening to Matt and Chico on the radio feed for the games I’m home for. To a degree I feel a bit spoiled the stupid cable wars (which are more prevalent year by year on all providers) haven’t really affected me till now, especially since all NFL games are over the air and SNY hasn’t had this kind of nonsense happen yet with Mets games.

I don’t really want to end on that Grinch Stole Hockey after Christmas note but I really don’t have much to say on the team to be honest – for the most part you still have to be happy about their play and I’m still reasonably confident they’re not going to go 0-6 on this stupidly long road trip. Just win in San Jose – even if they throw out their second ex-Devil goalie in two games against us – and kick the season back into gear. Don’t let this little blip spiral into something potentially season-changing.