Tuesday night at Prudential Center, one team was playing as if it was desperate for its playoff lives — but it wasn’t the Devils, who find themselves in that position.
Rather, it was the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins dominating the Devils from start to finish in a 4-2 victory that gave the Devils about as much of a chance to make the playoffs as Charlie Brown has of kicking that football.
“You make your bed in this league and the teams that earn their way into the playoffs get there, and right now we’re not giving ourselves a chance to earn one of those spots,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said.
The Devils lost their third straight after winning five of seven, leaving themselves with almost no margin for error if they hope to avoid missing the playoffs for the third time in four seasons.
The Bruins — who played Monday night — had 15 shots in the first period, including the game’s first nine before Travis Zajac’s backhand was credited as the Devils’ first official shot on goal nine minutes into the game. Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins late in the period and the Devils were lucky to escape the first 20 minutes only down 1-0.
“If it wasn’t for Marty [Brodeur], the game is over in the first period,” Patrik Elias said. “It’s up to us to execute and we haven’t been.”
It briefly seemed as if the Devils would make it a game when they had a 5-on-3 power play and Elias one-timed a Zajac pass past Chad Johnson to tie the game at 1, but two minutes later, Brad Marchand scored a shorthanded goal which gave the Bruins a 2-1 lead and a minute later, Jarome Ignila made it 3-1.
The Bruins outshot the Devils 31-24 for the game and won their 10th straight.
“I know they’re a good team and they won 10 games in a row, but they were there to get beat also,” Brodeur said, “and we just couldn’t take advantage of it.”
Chris Kelly put the Bruins up 4-1 midway through the third period. Zajac scored two minutes later, but that’s as close as the Devils would get.
The Devils remained five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference as the Blue Jackets lost Tuesday. The Rangers and Red Wings won, which was no help to the Devils. The homestand won’t get any easier with games against the Wild, Rangers, Maple Leafs and Coyotes — all current playoff teams.
“Our effort is just not at the right spot for the urgency that we need to make that push to make the playoffs,” Brodeur said. “It’s not easy to go through a losing streak like that when you know you can’t afford to lose.”
Ryane Clowe — who drew the most cheers from the home crowd all night when he fought Milan Lucic in the first period — was baffled by the lack of effort showed by the Devils in such a huge game.
“At this time of year when you play so many games, you have to motivate yourself, you’ve got to be ready,” Clowe said. “I don’t know what that takes … we just had no urgency no compete. It was very strange. We played like horse—-.”