That’ll just about do it for the 2025-26 New Jersey Devils.
We’ve all known this season has been over for a long time now, but tonight’s 5-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers all but sealed the deal. New Jersey is still not mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, even after tonight’s no-show. But that will come very soon, and honestly I might welcome it at this point. Put us all out of our misery sooner rather than later.
In their first game after general manager Tom Fitzgerald was fired,
the Devils had a chance to show some fire and pride. Not just as a show of respect to their former GM, not just as a way to show they feel bad they got someone fired, but also because they had a chance to put a major dent in a hated rival’s playoff hopes. Philadelphia came in having won 14 of their last 20 games, which has vaulted them into playoff position for the first time in a while. Their hold on a postseason spot is very tenuous though, and a loss this evening would’ve caused some damage. Instead, Jacob Markstrom allowed a goal on the second shot he faced, then allowed another one in the blink of an eye, and it was all over from there.
To the Devils’ credit, after they went down 2-0 in the opening minutes, they really turned it on and smothered the Flyers through the rest of the first period. They pulled to within 2-1 thanks to a Cody Glass deflection goal off a Jonas Siegenthaler shot. But that was as close as they would get. New Jersey went to the man-advantage early in the second period, couldn’t score, then managed to get Jesper Bratt on a breakaway on which he missed the net, and the Flyers followed all that very shortly after with two quick goals. It was the perfect microcosm of this game and this season. The rest of the game was muddy and messy and uneventful, just like the Flyers wanted it. An empty-netter in the dying minutes was the final dagger.
If there’s one bit of cope I can offer, it’s that Philadelphia might learn all the wrong lessons from this run that they’ve found themselves on since the Olympic break. Despite the fact that they may play postseason hockey this year, this is still not a particularly good team. They have some young talent for sure, but aside from maybe Matvei Michkov, no one that I think is truly elite. Meanwhile their coach, Rick Tocchet, is a pretty bad head coach. The only reason they are in this position is because journeyman Dan Vladar has put up a wildly fluky .908 save percentage since the break. Does anyone truly believe that Dan Vladar is that good? So instead of continuing their rebuild – which I admit is starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel – they might let a random hot stretch from a career backup goalie influence them to cut corners and accelerate their rebuild to the detriment of their long-term ceiling.
But that’s about all I can offer you tonight, and really, how sad is that? The Devils started this season so well, then spent months stuck in a slow-motion car crash, then frantically tried to climb back into the playoff race after the Olympics, only to fall short when it mattered most.
On a night where this team was playing its first game after their general manager got fired, there was a chance to show some professional pride. Sadly, that didn’t happen. The Devils are in a transitional period at the moment, the liminal space between one general manager’s vision and another’s. In between, in this one-game sample size, we have been treated to some thoroughly uninspired hockey. It’s what we’ve become accustomed to this season.
We can only hope that next year will be different.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com
The Wrong Kind Of History
Thanks to the loss tonight, the Devils have officially been swept in the season series by the Flyers. If you just read that and thought to yourself “Huh, that seems rare. I wonder when the last time that happened was”, then I can tell you you’re not alone. I thought the same thing. So I did a little digging, and based on my amateur research, I found that the New Jersey Devils have not been swept in the season series by the Philadelphia Flyers since…
…1983-84.
Anyone is welcome to fact-check me on this, but I believe this to be correct after going through the historical stats on Hockey Reference. Granted, this season’s sweep comes with a bit of an asterisk because they only played three games against one another. In many, many seasons, the Devils and Flyers would play upwards of five times per season. In that 1983-84 campaign, they matched up seven times. Going 0-for-7 is true ineptitude.
But so is this. Even in the worst of years, the Devils could always count on getting at least a win against the Flyers. Not this time. Better luck next year.
Backbreaking
I can’t imagine how mentally taxing it must be to play in front of Jacob Markstrom. He has an uncanny ability to put his team behind the eight ball as fast as humanly possible. Since he came to the Devils, Markstrom has allowed a goal on the first shot he’s faced a truly unnerving amount of times. Tonight he allowed a goal on the second shot he faced, which is morbidly hilarious progress I suppose. Granted, the goal he allowed on that second shot tonight was way more on Jonas Siegenthaler than Markstrom, but he still failed to rise to the occasion and make a big save when his team needed it.
In addition to his penchant for handing opposing teams an early lead, his style of play is just so chaotic as well. He flops himself out of position so frequently that I’m beginning to suspect he has a phobia of blue paint. It’s tough to play in front of a goalie when you have no idea where he might be at any given second.
To me, it’s so reminiscent of Mackenzie Blackwood. I know it’s popular to look at his success in Colorado and conclude that New Jersey gave up on him too quickly. I disagree, though I might agree with the argument that New Jersey’s goalie coaching and organizational development ruined him to a certain extent. But while Blackwood was in New Jersey, he had a knack for allowing the softest goals you’ll ever see. It was a common joke that New Jersey would outshoot a team something like 40-18 but lose the game 4-3 when Blackwood was minding the net. He might not be a perfect stylistic match for Markstrom, but their abilities to put their teams in bad positions is almost one-to-one.
I would not be surprised if the skaters in front of Markstrom feel an extra mental burden playing with him. Squeezing the stick, walking on egg shells, sitting on pins and needles…whatever your idiom of choice, it probably applies. The feeling of dread and emotional defeat that sets in when they see Markstrom allow another soft, early goal must be overwhelming.
Don’t Get So Defensive
Since the heights of the 2022-23 season, the Devils reworked their blue line in a big way. Former general manager Tom Fitzgerald made a concerted effort to move away from speedy puck movers like Damon Severson and John Marino and move toward hulking stay-at-home defensemen like Johnny Kovacevic and Brenden Dillon. Jonas Siegenthaler belongs in that latter camp too, but his acquisition came long before this shift so I can’t get on Fitzgerald too much for that.
Still, the difference is clear, and it’s cost New Jersey a ton of offense over the years. This wouldn’t be a huge problem if all these defensive defensemen were, you know, good at defending. But the truth is, they haven’t been able to defend anywhere close to good enough. Siegenthaler embarrassed himself on the first goal tonight. Kovacevic was torched on the fourth goal. Dillon was reasonable tonight, and he’s probably been the best of the three, but locker room leadership aside, Dillon just doesn’t provide much value at this point in his career.
In today’s NHL, it’s very hard for a defenseman to provide value as solely a defensive stopper. It’s even harder to do that if you’re a defensive ace in name and reputation only. Whoever the next GM of the Devils is, they need to find a way to jettison the offensive anchors on the blue line. Tonight was example number one billion of why they need to go.
That’s Baseball Hockey, Suzyn
One random thought that occurs to me after tonight’s mess:
The Devils currently have 40 wins. They have four games remaining. As poorly as they played tonight and as disappointing as this season has been, I think there’s a reasonable chance they win two of their last four to get to 42 wins on the season…the exact same amount as the playoff-bound 2024-25 New Jersey Devils.
Last year’s team finished with 91 points and secured third place in the Metropolitan Division. This year’s team can max out at 91 if they run the table, and even if they do, they will still finish way out of the postseason picture. Funny(?) how things work sometimes.
Next Time Out
The Devils are back at it on Thursday when they play host to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It will be the final division game of the year. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.
Your Take
You know what to do. Leave your comments below. As always, thanks for reading.
