I know Christmas has come and gone. However, due to Santa delivering nothing more than the institution of a ridiculously petty clause to any Devils' player that even thinks about entering the zone a percentage of a pubic hair prior to the puck, I'm keeping a list and checking it twice. Considering there is nothing naughty about possession plays that are broken down to the millisecond in an all-out effort to find fault well after the changing of both possession and lines, it would be pretty fucking nice if any of the gorgeous go-ahead goals the Devils have scored recently were allowed to, ya know, actually count. A strong argument can be made that both Taylor Hall and Marcus Johansson were offsides, but a strong argument can also be made that hockey wasn't meant to be officiated with a fine tooth comb for 45 fucking minutes in the middle of a tightly contested third period. Look, it is what it is. The New Jersey Devils didn't play their best hockey in either of the games that they lost - in part - due to the NHL's decision to treat an uncrossed blue line like those laser alarm grids that you see in spy movies. But you know what? The fact that they are still two points of the division lead with two games in hand after having two points snatched away from them by a rule that's only consistent in it's ability to continuously work against them is a testament to what they've been able to accomplish while having some of their most jean-tightening momentum swings taken off the board. Call me biased, but even a wise-worded player like Taylor Hall has no problem readily admitting that the breaks have been steadily trying to crack this Devils' team...
Credit to them are absorbing them. Even after Jesper Bratt's one-timer was added to the list of forgotten highlights, the Devils still had pointblank chances to beat a strong, systematic, defensive-minded team that - in theory - has the types of players capable of suffocating their speed. Somehow this team already has enough actual victories to avoid trying to tally up those of the moral variety, but - regardless of Marcus Johansson getting ever so slightly ahead of himself - the final 40+ minutes of last night's game were yet another step in the right direction. Hopefully they were also another kick in the dick to a universally despised rule whose reason for creation couldn't be further from it's current use, but I have my doubts.
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