Had the injury-depleted Devils beaten visiting Columbus on Tuesday night, it wouldn't have qualified as a "Miracle on Ice," as the phrase is used colloquially.
However, the fact that New Jersey managed to play the desperate Blue Jackets tough for 65 minutes surely had many around the league shaking their heads muttering something like, "Any given Tuesday."
A slew of injuries forced the Devils to dress 12 forwards who had registered 55 NHL goals this season. Columbus beat that with just their top two snipers, with Cam Atkinson and Artemi Panarin accounting for 60 total goals.
In the end, though, talent won out, as Atkinson and Panarin each scored in the shootout while Devils forwards Blake Coleman and Drew Stafford whiffed to send New Jersey to its fourth straight loss, 2-1.
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That didn't diminish the remarkable effort put forth by the Devils, who had to endure another player exit when wing Jesper Bratt, the team leader among Tuesday's actives in points per game (33 points in 50 games), limped off early in the second period and did not return.
Bratt joined Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, Kyle Palmieri, Pavel Zacha, Miles Wood, Sami Vatanen, John Quenneville and Nathan Bastian in the club's infirmary. When you include the skaters traded prior to the deadline, only four of the Devils' top 16 scorers this season were around to watch Tuesday's ending from ice level.
Those who blame this mess of a Devils season (25-33-9, 28th out of 31 teams) on Devils coach John Hynes should review the video from this game, which was similar to New Jersey's 1-0 loss in Boston on Saturday. In both affairs, the Devils, despite the mammoth discrepancies in talent, generated more scoring chances -- and high-danger scoring chances -- per NaturalStatTrick.com, than their two opponents who will likely be competing for greater glory this postseason.
In fact, aside from a 6-3 loss to Philadelphia on Friday, the Devils have been playing some of their most structurally sound and hard-edged games of the season during this skid.
"This particular group -- it's a good brand of hockey," Hynes said. "There's a lot of physicality to how we're playing. Our forecheck -- guys are fast, they're quick, they're on the puck, they have good sticks, they don't let the D off, they're finishing their checks. And then when you look at the defensive structure, the guys are committed to it. There's not a lot of blown assignments. I think it's a credit to the players that are in the lineup."
Since he said no tactical changes were made to simplify the game to accommodate the more inexperienced roster, Hynes has had to lean heavily on the few healthy veterans remaining. Like center Travis Zajac, who notched the Devils' only goal off a nifty backdoor pass from Blake Coleman.
"(Hynes) just reinforced things we've tried to work on all year," Zajac said. "First and foremost, it's our compete, and with that, you're in every game and you have a chance to win. And now, we've been chipping away at being better offensively in different situations."
One obvious situation in which the injuries have taken their biggest toll has been on the Devils' power play. They have now gone eight consecutive games and 18 opportunities without scoring with a man advantage after an 0-for-2 outing Tuesday. Unfortunately, when muckers like Stafford, Kenny Agostino and Blake Pietila are receiving major power-play ice time, there's not a lot of tic-tac-toe executions in the offensive zone.
With the season basically over in terms of meaningful games, the Devils will use the remaining 15 contests to enforce the identity they wish to recover and evaluate which players can play to that identity. Guys who have spent most of the year in the minors, such as Michael McLeod, Kevin Rooney and Nick Lappin, earned shifts in Tuesday's three-on-three overtime period.
Which is why you can't fault Hynes for not winning enough NHL games when he has an AHL roster.
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