Schwei's Devils Notes: NJ Gives Up Short-Handed Goals, Kinkaid Struggles

By John Schweibacher
» More Columns

The New Jersey Devils have gone just 6-11-3 over their last 20 games as they face another busy four-game stretch this week that includes games vs. the Flyers and Hurricanes, the two teams they are currently sandwiched between in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Devils dropped their fourth game in a row, a 5-3 loss to the Bruins on Sunday night in Newark.

New Jersey allowed a pair of first-period, short-handed goals, one by Torey Krug and the other by Tim Schaller in the loss.

The last time a Devils opponent scored twice despite being down a man was on March 19 of last season, when the Blue Jackets' Lukas Sedlak and Boone Jenner both had short-handed goals in the first period of a 4-1 victory at the Prudential Center.

The only other time the Bruins scored a pair of short-handed goals vs. the Devils was on April 10, 2013, when Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell each scored while New Jersey was on the power play in an eventual 5-4 Boston win in Newark.

MORE: Lichtenstein: Time For Devils' Shero To Join Buyers' Club At Trade Deadline

Krug also had a power-play goal for the Bruins. The last player to have both a power-play goal and a short-handed goal in a game against the Devils was Roman Josi in a 3-1 Nashville Predators win at New Jersey on Oct. 13, 2015.

Travis Zajac missed on a penalty shot attempt in the first period. The only other Devils' penalty-shot attempt against the Bruins on March 5, 1988, when Aaron Broten failed to score against Boston's Doug Keans in a 7-6 overtime win for New Jersey at Boston Garden.

On Saturday night, the Devils lost to the Blue Jackets, 6-1, in Columbus.

Keith Kinkaid allowed all six Blue Jackets goals, the sixth time he has given up at least that many goals in a game in his NHL career.

According to Hockey-Reference.com, six Devils goalies have had more than six games with six or more goals allowed since the beginning of the 1987-88 season. The others are:
• Sean Burke, 16
• Martin Brodeur, 14
• Chris Terreri, 14
• Craig Billington, 8
• Bob Sauve, 8

Artemi Panarin scored one goal and had one assist in the Blue Jackets' victory over the Devils.

Panarin now has seven points in Columbus' three games vs. New Jersey this season, including a five-assist performance on Dec. 8.

As the Elias Sports Bureau noted, Panarin is now tied with the Capitals' Nicklas Backstrom for the most points by one player against the Devils this season.

On Thursday night, the Devils lost to the Flames, 3-2, at the Prudential Center.

Taylor Hall had a goal and an assist in the loss, his 53rd and 54th points of 2017-18, to tie and surpass his 2016-17 point total from his first season with New Jersey.

Flames center Sean Monahan scored twice in the win and now has eight goals and three assists in his 10 career games against the Devils since making his NHL debut in 2013-14.

Here are the players who have had the most points vs. the Devils since the start of the 2013-14 season:
Sidney Crosby -- 10 goals, 10 assists, 20 points
Alex Ovechkin -- 9 goals, 9 assists, 18 points
Claude Giroux -- 4 goals, 14 assists, 18 points
Brandon Dubinsky -- 6 goals, 11 assists, 17 points
Erik Karlsson -- 3 goals, 13 assists, 16 points
Nicklas Backstrom -- 5 goals, 11 assists, 16 points
Derek Stepan -- 9 goals, 5 assists, 14 points

On Feb. 6, the Devils lost to the Senators, 5-3, in Ottawa.

Eddie Lack made his Devils debut, replacing Keith Kinkaid after New Jersey fell behind, 4-1, midway through the second period.

Lack is the fourth goalie to see action this season for the Devils, joining Kinkaid, Cory Schneider and Ken Appleby.

New Jersey has not used five different goalies in the same season since 1986-87, when Alain Chevrier, Craig Billington, Chris Terreri, Kirk McLean and Karl Friesen all played for the Devils.

Matt Duchene, who had one goal and two assists for the Senators in the win, came into Tuesday night's game with 17 points (eight goals and nine assists) in his first 37 games for Ottawa after being traded by the Avalanche in the three-team deal with Nashville on Nov. 5.

As Matt Loughlin noted on the broadcast, here are the records of the three clubs before and after the trade which sent Duchene to Ottawa, Kyle Turris to Nashville and five other players and three draft picks to Colorado (through games of 2/9):

Before 11/5        Since 11/5

Ottawa        6-3-5  17 pts    13-23-4  30 pts

Colorado     8-6-0  16 pts    22-15-4  48 pts

Nashville    7-5-2   16 pts    26-7-7    59 pts

Plus/Minus:

Plus: Hall of a Run. Taylor Hall has nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in his last 14 games.

Minus: Powerless. The Devils have gone just 6-for-43 on the power-play dating back to January 16th.