We are now 20 games though for the Devils in the 2010-2011 season and it appears as if the Devils are heading for their first non-playoff year since 1996. Tonight, the Devils showed desperation at times, but the offense continued to fire mostly blanks in a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. The Devils had a 1-0 lead on a Clarkson goal seconds into the game, but the Blues tied the game on an Alex Pietrangelo goal, which probably should have been whistled down, but the referee did not lose sight of the puck and the Blues stuffed the puck in. The Devils took a 2-1 lead on a Mattias Tedenby breakaway, but the Blues used the boards to their advantage as another weird goal but the Devils as it deflected off the end boards and hit McKenna's back and bounced into the net on an Eric Brewer goal. Brad Winchester's deflection sealed the game for the Blues 3-2.
Jaroslav Halak was shaky at times, but managed to make 35 saves as the Devils outshot the Blues 37-27, but yet could not get the bounces the Blues did. McKenna played well and his reflexes were good, but it was not enough for the Devils. The Blues had a very good defensive 3rd period and the Devils could not get anything generated. It was the Devils 3rd straight regulation loss and the trends seem to continue this year as it has been 1 win followed by 2-3 straight losses, so now the question is do the Devils panic and blow the roster apart and how safe is John MacLean? According to Mark Everson of the NY Post, Lou Lamoriello insists MacLean's job is safe for now, but thats only the NY Post reporting.
It will be interesting to see how Lamoriello will evaluate his team coupled with mourning the death of Pat Burns. Many Devils fans are calling on Lou to fire the coach and it might just happen, but the question in when? The Devils are now 5-13-2, probably their worst start in franchise history through 20 games. What a sad time to be a New Jersey Devils fan right now, but on the bright side you finish in the bottom 5 of the NHL, you get a lottery pick, which the Devils could use. It seems that for at least year one, the Kovalchuk contract is bad omen for the team, but Kovalchuk will explode in my mind, but the Devils do need to trade for a viable center to play alongside Kovy as Zubrus and Zajac are failing miserably.
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