No, the Devils aren’t making any excuses, but if Ilya Kovalchuk isn’t the light at the end of this dark and morbid tunnel, then there is no light at all this season.
It was last night at the Prudential Center where the Devils laid their latest egg, a 5-4 loss to the Bruins, sinking them deeper into the depths of the conference standings as their playoff hopes dwindle with each game Kovalchuk is forced to sit out.
This is now eight in a row that the Devils’ do-it-all winger has missed with his right shoulder injury, and during that span the team is 0-4-4. Now at 15-15-10 going into tomorrow night’s home match against the Senators, the Devils last won a game on March 23, when they had 36 points and were in seventh place.
Now, eight games later, they have 40 points, are in 10th place, and are four points behind the eighth-place Rangers.
“When you look around the room and he’s not there, you maybe lose a little bit of confidence,” forward Ryan Carter said before the game. “He’s a guy that can change the game in a moment, and we miss that.”
Kovalchuk skated yesterday for the second day in a row, saying he had a “good skate,” although it’s highly doubtful he’ll play tomorrow.
“For sure I want to be back as soon as I can to help the team, whatever I can to win the games because it’s a crucial moment of the season now,” Kovalchuk said. “I think the playoffs start for us from [last night’s] game.”
If that’s the case, the playoffs for the Devils might be ending before the tournament. They have to hope Kovalchuk can come back and be effective before he’s back to 100 percent, as he’s still not taking full-bore slap shots but is able to engage in some physical contact.
“We did definitely more shots and a little battle there at the end, so it’s good,” Kovalchuk said. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
The Devils did take some steps in the right direction last night, fighting back from a horrid first period when the Bruins (26-9-4) were up 3-0 just 8:12 in behind two shorthanded goals from Greg Campbell and Daniel Paille. The Devils finished the period having played 6:26 with at least one extra man on the ice — 1:34 with two extra men — and getting less than nothing.
“For them taking penalties, it cost us the game,” said goalie Martin Brodeur, left lonely in making 13 saves on 18 shots while his team went 0-for-8 over 12:28 of total man-advantage time. “Today it was just a matter of making mistakes.”
It was also that for almost all of the final 25 minutes, the Devils played with four defensemen, as captain Bryce Salvador took a Zdeno Chara slap shot to the right wrist and Anton Volchenkov was tossed from the game after elbowing Brad Marchand in the head. Neither returned, and Salvador will be re-evaluated today while Volchenkov will likely be suspended.
“Close is not good enough,” said coach Pete DeBoer, whose team fought back behind goals from Patrik Elias, Travis Zajac, Andy Greene and Matt D’Agostini, cutting the lead to 4-3 early in the third but giving way to Tyler Seguin’s game-winner with just over 12 minutes remaining.
“You know the spot you’re in,” DeBoer said, “and you have two choices: You roll over and you die or you get up tomorrow and find a way to turn one win into six or seven or whatever it’s going to take.”