As is the case with most things in life, the Devils' dispiriting performance against the Flyers was much easier to predict in retrospect. Afternoon games have long been the bane of the franchise's existence, and heading into the most unforgiving of environment for their first road game of the season while shorthanded (without Zajac, Lovejoy) only made that trend all the more likely to continue. Add in the fact that the Flyers, despite all their failures, have proven capable of offsetting the offensive excellence of Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, and Kyle Palmieri when they have the benefit of the last change, and a second straight loss wasn't a totally shocking outcome. I say none of that to let them off the hook, for my eyes are still recovering from what was their most unsightly showing of the season, but to bring some perspective to a game they played the vast majority of with five defensemen after Steve Santini's stint in the lineup lasted mere minutes before he left with a broken jaw. The truth is, the Devils' execution was about as god awful as their face-off percentage, but the same can't exactly be said about their effort. The Flyers had about as many shots on goal as they did powerplays halfway through the game, so at the very least New Jersey was dominant in damage control...
When you're sacrificing your body at such an alarming rate it typically means you're trying, and the Devils - led by the black and blues of Andy Greene - did just that in attempting to make up for their inability to create any offense whatsoever or stay the hell out of the penalty box (the latter being an extremely discouraging recurring theme just six games into the season). That effort, however, was just a step slow in almost every other facet of yesterday's game. I hate to do it to Nico Hischier, because he almost always makes up for his slight stature in working his balls off in his own end. Unfortunately, his half-second of air-headedness that allowed Nolan Patrick to make a weak case that he's anywhere near as good as the player selected ahead of him in the draft is the perfect example of the lack of focus and was much fewer and further between during the Devils' 4-game win streak...
As Brian Boyle was quick to note, there's no room for complacency as the Devils' talent level doesn't allow them much margin for error...
That's especially true when that error is as inexcusable as getting caught flatfooted in allowing a 2-on-1 while mere minutes away from picking up a (largely undeserved) point...
The most noteworthy positives of yesterday's game were that Pavel Zacha, the first round pick who is still looking for his first point, was incredibly active defensively, and that the second powerplay unit finally got on the board with Damon Severson's first man-advantage tally in 546 minutes of trying...
I say that to that to say this. Even a desperate search for the good in their game returned bad reminders, which is perfectly fitting of a performance that made Philadelphia look a lot better than they've been prior to yesterday. There's no reason to overreact as they are still 4-2 and circumstances certainly didn't help their cause yesterday, but it would be nice if they end the series of hot and cold streaks that made last season a bi-polar test of my blood pressure. It's encouraging that their coach knows exactly how important it is nip it in the bud, so hopefully heed is taken to his words during what is sure to be a couple loud practices prior to their game against Nashville.
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