Two days after suffering a 5-1 blowout defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the New Jersey Devils’ offense went cold in a frustrating 1-0 shutout loss to the defending champion Florida Panthers on Thursday night.

Unlike the ugliness that surrounded one of their worst games of the season, the Devils were much more competitive against the Panthers before a capacity crowd at Amerant Bank Arena. Coach Sheldon Keefe went back to Jake Allen after Jacob Markstrom struggled against the Lightning. Despite being banged up, he was the backup last night. If something’s bothering him, perhaps the Devils would be better off placing Markstrom on IR and recalling Nico Daws from the Utica Comets.

In what was a hard fought game that was spent mostly at even strength, the Devils were unable to solve Sergei Bobrovsky. The two-time Vezina winner was on top of his game, finishing with 32 saves for 51st shutout of what will be a Hall of Fame career. Bobrovsky is up to 439 wins, which ranks ninth all-time – passing Jacques Plante for sole possession.

With Connor Brown having recently returned, Keefe had him on the second line with Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer, who’s had to move to center without leading scorer Jack Hughes (6-to-8 weeks). Nico Hischier is being asked to carry the offense in addition to drawing the tough assignments. Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Arseny Gritsyuk remained together. Evgenii Dadonov and Dougie Hamilton have also returned following stints on the IR. Dadonov played on the third line, and Hamilton was on the third pair with Dennis Cholowski.

In a cleanly played first period that saw the Devils outshoot the Panthers 13-9, it was the home team that got the all-important first goal. Following a Bobrovsky save on Mercer, Sam Reinhart hit the crossbar. Matched up against Hischier, Reinhart was able to take a Gustav Forsling pass and get around Luke Hughes to score a pretty goal that gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead with 7:02 left.

A fast skater who’s tough to defend one-on-one due to how deceptive he is, Reinhart beat Hughes outside in and quickly released a high shot past Allen for his 11th. He’s very good at using his speed to find some open space. In this instance, Hughes didn’t do a good enough job cutting off the angle. The second replay will show how he created enough room to get off the shot.

For Hughes, it’s been a struggle so far defensively. Since losing partner Brett Pesce, he’s played with Brenden Dillon. They’ve had their issues. On a goal scored by Nikita Kucherov in the final minute of the first period on Tuesday night, both were beaten badly. Dillon lost a board battle to Brandon Hagel. Hughes then got stripped by Anthony Cirelli, who slipped a feed for Kucherov to bury to put the Devils behind 2-0. It was a backbreaking goal they never recovered from.

Hughes is in his third full year. As expected, he’s seen an increase in ice time, averaging a team-high 23:03 a night. His offense is coming. Prior to the last two defeats, he had four points in the previous three games, including scoring his first goal in a 3-2 shootout win over the Washington Capitals on Nov. 15. The 22-year-old defenseman is still searching for consistency. Perhaps that’ll come when Pesce returns. That can’t come soon enough for the Devils.

As a pair, Dillon and Hughes have been outscored 7-3 by opponents according to Natural Stat Trick. While their numbers are a net positive, the glaring mistakes are a cause for concern. Interestingly, the current number one pair of Jonas Siegenthaler and Simon Nemec have bad analytics, but the Devils have outscored opponents 6-3 with them at five-on-five. Unlike Dillon and Hughes, Siegenthaler and Nemec start more in the defensive zone. Siegenthaler has been Keefe’s shutdown defenseman. He’s been highly underrated for a while, breaking up a lot of plays due to his ability to recover quickly.

Facing a very tough opponent in their building, the Devils had some opportunities to draw even. However, Bobrovsky didn’t cooperate. He made key stops on Hischier to keep the Panthers ahead after one.

In the second period, it was more tilted in the Cats’ favor. They had the better of the play, pinning the Devils in for long stretches. That led to Allen having to make some strong saves to give his team a chance. That included denying Anton Lundell and Niko Mikkola. At one point, the shots favored the Panthers by a wide margin. They held an 11-7 edge for the period, including 11-5 at even strength.

Twice, the Devils had opportunities on the power play. The first came when Forsling went off for tripping Paul Cotter. However, they got nothing done against an aggressive penalty kill that made life difficult. Brad Marchand was a nuisance, blocking a Hamilton shot. He continued to fire away, having another attempt repelled by Aaron Ekblad.

After getting no shots through on their first man-advantage, the Devils had another shot when A.J. Greer was hauled off for taking down Hughes. Nemec came close when his shot from the left circle rang off the goalpost. That was the best chance, with Bobrovsky shutting the door on Stefan Noesen.

Just as the period was concluding, there were some fireworks. After having his first attempt blocked, Hischier took another shot just after the buzzer, which led to some pleasantries exchanged during a scrum. Nothing happened that led to any additional penalties. They were just making Thanksgiving plans.

It set up an interesting third. Although they only had four shots in the final period, the Panthers didn’t sit back. Allen made his best stop on a point blank chance from Greer. In a strong performance, he finished with 23 saves on 24 shots.

With the Devils still trailing, Nemec was escorted off for a phantom hook on Reinhart. Even though it wasn’t a good call, the penalty kill got the job done by holding the Panthers without a shot.

Needing somebody to step up, the Devils nearly found it in Bratt. He took off with the puck in the neutral zone, blowing by Forsling to get off a tough backhand right on Bobrovsky, who made the big save.

He’d make a few more stops in crunch time on some tricky shots, including Hischier and Mercer. The latter one looked like it took a funny bounce. But Bobrovsky froze it for a stoppage. It looked like the Devils would find a way to tie it. But Bobrovsky was up to the challenge, preserving the Panthers’ one-goal win.

It’s only the second time the Devils have lost two in a row. They’ll try to prevent a three-game losing skid when they wrap up the five-game road trip by visiting the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night. It’s the first of three meetings, which is yet another NHL scheduling screw-up. The Flyers will visit The Rock on Nov. 29. The I-95 rivals won’t meet again until Apr. 7. That makes about as much sense as the Devils and New York Rangers playing only three times, with the first matchup on Mar. 7.

Next year, the NHL increases its schedule to 84 games. It would be nice if rivalry games were more emphasized. Don’t bet on it happening.