The Devils Gave Us The Classic All Star Break 'Heat Check' Last NIght

Well, what do you know? It turns out a team that suffers from a talent deficiency can't just show up for 10 minutes and expect to come out victorious. Doesn't matter how many games they've won in a row. Oh well, they had to learn somehow, right? Turns out their shit does -in fact- stink. If we are being honest it's probably one of more abhorrent smells in the entire NHL. When the Devils play badly it will leave you pinching your nose and breathing through mouth like no other, and I would have been better off without nostrils for the large majority of two periods last night. After an incredibly promising start the Devils were flatter then my 7th grade girlfriend. Bobby Farnham got robbed. Adam Henrique got robbed. Travis Zajac got robbed. Pretty sure the puck bounced over Joe Blandisi's stick -on what would have been an easy tap in goal- and into the Devils defensive end for the remainder of the night. To call the final 40 minutes a bumpy ride would be to imply that there were any relatively high points whatsoever. It's like they just decided that they had already thrown their best at Marc Andre Fleury, and whatever they had left in the tank wasn't good enough to get by him. They played like a pitcher that gets knocked around in the first inning and can't recover for the rest of his outing. They must have forgotten that if there is one goaltender in the NHL that can makes changeups look like 125 MPH fastballs it's Marc Andre Fleury. 

In actuality, last night was a reminder of much, MUCH worse days. Days when the Devils would control the game out of the gate, fail to score, and fall victim to some unbearable brand of hockey the rest of the way. Obviously this team is very different then the teams of the Peter De-bored era, but you certainly couldn't make the distinction last night. You want to spin that stinker into a positive? Treat it is a reminder of how far this team has come since last year. Use it to appreciate where they currently are in the standings. The Devils -just months after fully committing to a rebuild- are in a position to potentially make the playoffs. The postseason is a pipe dream if they continue to play as they did against the Penguins, but if the Devils have been good at one thing this season it's avoiding nightmarish scenarios. It obviously wasn't the greatest final scene before the All Star break, but don't forget that this movie has a much happier ending than the ones we have grown accustomed to.