I really did mean to do a blog after last Thursday’s win against the Oilers, which ensured the Devils’ first three-game winning streak since December and was a nice bounceback from the rock bottom that was deadline day and a 6-1 loss to the Jets in the immediate aftermath. At that point, I was a little bit more optimistic about the team, at least to the extent it looked as if they were energized by some of the new additions and the team’s other key players stepped up to fill the void of the absence of Jack Hughes and friends. Maybe I never fully bought in because in the back of my mind, I feel like even if we avoid disaster and make the playoffs, it’s still unlikely we’ll do anything in them…but that’s a problem for another day. Just get there first.

While we were probably due to finally lose a clunker to the Penguins (figures we’ve actually split with them this year, in one of their worst years in decades when we dominated them for years while we were the rubbish team), probably the most concerning thing about that 7-3 loss was Jacob Markstrom’s performance. I said I thought perhaps he was playing tight on deadline night, but his game really hasn’t clicked in since he came back off of injury. Mercifully, I saw little of yesterday’s game apart from turning it on when it got to 4-3 in the third period only for Erik Karlsson to put the dagger in our comeback, but from what I heard it was a poor showing for Markstrom, who’s had a streaky season. If the Devils were in more of a bind, the calls to give in-form Jake Allen more gametime would be louder but at the moment the Devils are still seven points up on the Canadiens for the last wild card spot (albeit they, and tonight’s opponent Columbus who are eight points back both have two games in hand).

Imagine if the Devils didn’t finally put together three in a row. Four in a row seems like too much of an ask at the moment, and to be fair I’m not expecting any long winning streaks from this team as presently constituted – they just have to keep bringing it every night, and their best players have to play like their best players and there should still be enough here to make the playoffs. Despite my pessimism about actually doing anything in the playoffs this year, it’s not like we’re a bad team per se, or at least shouldn’t be hopelessly bad. Not with guys like Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier and even sophomore Luke Hughes with a defense/goaltending combo that’s remained in the top 3-5 places of the league for much of the season.

To be fair, if deadline Friday was the low point of the season in terms of my home game experiences this year, last Tuesday actually wound up being one of the most fun games of the season. In spite of our win in Philly Sunday – which felt more like a stay of execution as we barely hung onto a one goal lead late, only after Travis Sandheim took a stupid penalty in the final two minutes as the Flyers were pressing for the tying goal. I was never more blase for a big game than I was on Tuesday, with us still barely hanging onto a semi-comfortable lead against the Blue Jackets I feared their heart and determination would overcome our supposed skill and lack of the former.

Much to my relief, the Devils matched the Blue Jackets’ effort, and the big names all showed up for a big game for the first time in months, with Nico, Timo, Bratt and Luke all scoring goals in a 5-3 win that (for the most part) was slightly more comfortable than the score suggests, although I’m not going to lie after we got 3-0 up and gave up two quick goals in the second I went from chilling back to fearing the worst. Unlike other instances however, this team didn’t panic and Timo’s late second period goal restored a degree of control to the game. After Luke scored early in the third, the Devils coasted to the finish line despite giving up a third with just over nine minutes to go.

Oh and yes, the cookie finally won a race!

I’ve mostly chuckled at the internet meme this year that our intermission snack giveaways have become – Mrs. Fields, Auntie Anne’s and Welsh Farms all do a ‘race’ during a stoppage of play at home games, whoever wins a section I guess gets vouchers for that particular brand at the arena. I don’t even know what specifically they win, although my section was one of the ones up for it on Tuesday ironically enough, I didn’t see any cameras or stuff out of the ordinary around so I figured I wasn’t getting anything. Anyway, the fact Mrs. Fields never ‘won’ a race in close to thirty home games had become a cause celebre on and offline with signs around the arena saying ‘FREE THE COOKIE’. All along I figured the cookie was going to win the home finale and there’d be some sick promo around it lol

The fact it happened Tuesday…maybe some higher power sensed the crowd needed a bit of a boost in a big game, although to be fair we were already 2-0 up at the point where IT happened. I’m still half rolling my eyes at the fact I’m now spending two paragraphs talking about a contrived snack race…but then again as my Yankee fan friend (ironically) pointed out, maybe Mrs. Fields can become the Devils version of a Grimace meme. I mean if I believe in the mythical power of a fictional purple blob, why not a cookie? Can’t really argue with two big home wins since it happened (and not-so-surprisingly the cookie win again and the Devils immediately scored two goals against the Oilers on Thursday in a 3-2 comeback win that again showed mettle I wasn’t sure this team still had two weeks ago.

Although it felt better to leave the arena after a win last Tuesday, I’m not going back to the arena Saturday – just didn’t feel like trekking out for the Calgary game this week so I used a buyback, but I’ll be there for what could be a four-point game against Ottawa on Saturday (as Travis Green’s crew is just one point behind us now, although they don’t directly impact us as long as we remain third in the Metro). Still plenty of work to do before then, starting with tonight’s matchup against those same Blue Jackets – now barely hanging in the playoff hunt after a three-game losing streak of their own. It was nice the key players showed up for two straight home games, but they need to bring it pretty much every night to make sure this team finds their way into the postseason.