WASHINGTON — The Devils’ season is almost irretrievable, only getting worse, and grim reality has set in. There’s no way for the players to ignore the consequences.
Their leading goal-scorer says his prime concern is helping the Devils turn this disaster around. But Jason Arnott admits he has wondered whether he eventually will ask to be traded to a contending team.
“Like go to a playoff team? I’ve thought about it,” Arnott told The Post yesterday, before the Devils lost their ninth straight road game, 5-1 to the Capitals. “We’re not quitters. Mathematically, we’re not out of it yet. When I decided to come here, the chance I wanted was to be in contention to win this year. It just hasn’t gone that way.
“I don’t know. We’ll see later on. I’ve thought about it, no question. Right now, I still want to see if we can turn this thing around and make the playoffs.”
That road looks nearly impossible. They must go 34-15 the rest of the way just to reach 88 points, usually not enough. They have lost three straight by a combined 15-3 score, and eight of nine by 38-16. They are on pace for 50 points, which would be the worst season-to-season point drop (from 103) in NHL history.
“It’s not getting better,” embattled coach John MacLean said.
“I don’t know if it can get any worse,” said Patrik Elias, scorer of their only goal last night.
When they do decide that they will miss the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons, there will be teams looking for their players.
Arnott can become an unrestricted free agent July 1, making $4.5 million this season. The Devils and a renting team would both benefit from a deadline deal. So would Arnott, 36, leading New Jersey with nine goals despite an eight-game drought, with a chance to add more playoff luster to his unrestricted-free-agent value.
The way they have been losing is hastening that day of capitulation. After they tied the score early in the second last night, they gave up three goals in a span of 6:31 before the period ended, raising their season-long second period deficit to 46-20.
“We’re looking for an easy way to win hockey games, and there’s no such thing,” Jamie Langenbrunner said.
The Devils fell behind at 16:41 of the first after Marcus Johansson darted behind rookie defenseman Mark Fayne at the left boards. Andy Greene came over to try to cut off Johansson but couldn’t stop the pass to the front of the crease, where Andrew Gordon outraced Elias to swat home his first NHL goal.
Elias responded by ripping home Langenbrunner’s slick touch feed for a power play goal at 4:56 of the second to square the score. Then came the collapse, started by Anton Volchenkov’s boards hit on Matt Bradley that left David Steckel free to cruise the right corner to set up Jay Beagle in front.
Jason Chimera made it 3-1 by outracing Fayne for a one-step break, scoring over Martin Brodeur’s glove at 12:39, and John Carlson slapped home the puck Colin White poked off Alex Ovechkin’s stick at 16:32 of the second. Mike Knuble completed this night’s carnage by steering in Tom Poti’s feed at 12:01 of the third.
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The Devils are conducting an online charity auction of the Pat Burns memorial jerseys they wore earlier this month. Each jersey with the black “PB” patch is autographed by the entire team. The auction is being conducted at auction.nhl.com to benefit La Maison Aube-Lumiere. . . . D Mark Fraser has been cleared to join practice today from broken hand suffered Oct. 13.
The Devils have scored power-play goals in eight straight games. . . . Anssi Salmela sat out last night, with Matt Corrente returning to the lineup. . . . Ilya Kovalchuk saw his five game point streak (3-4-7) end last night, tied with Dainius Zubrus (Oct. 16-27, 1-5-6) for the longest on the team this season. Kovalchuk saw Ovechkin after the game, Ovechkin wearing towels to meet him en route to the Devils’ bus.