New Jersey Devils’ woes continue with 3-0 shutout loss to the Boston Bruins
No team in the National Hockey League has struggled as much as the New Jersey Devils have. From a large wave of injuries to their inability to score goals, the Devils have had many problems
since the 2010-11 season began. Their woes continued as the Boston Bruins shut them out by score of 3-0 on Monday 15 November.
How it happened
The Bruins drew the first blood in this game, as Michael Ryder opened the scoring at 15:26 of the first period with a power play goal. He took a pass from Patrice Bergeron, and used a
wrist shot to put the puck behind Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. Mark Recchi earned the other assist on the play.
Boston struck again when Nathan Horton potted his eighth goal of the season 43 seconds into the second period. The assists went to Milan Lucic and captain Zdeno Chara.
In the third and final period, the Bruins scored again to make it a 3-0 game. Blake Wheeler scored his third goal of the season at 0:43 on a snap shot, with Recchi earning his second point
of the game on the play. Rookie Jordan Caron was credited with the other assist.
Despite having narrowly outshot the home team by a margin of 28-24, the Devils failed to get any pucks behind Tim Thomas, who made 28 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season. The
Bruins would go on to win this game 3-0.
What they’re saying
Thomas may have earned yet another shutout when he and his team handed the slumping Devils another loss, but the Boston goalie approached the game as a must-win situation for the Bruins.
“I personally approached it as a must-win, and I think the team did, too,” Thomas told reporters after the game. “We needed to get back on track. We needed to show some urgency.” Boston
was 1-3-1 in the last five before beating the Devils.
“We faced a team that’s been playing better but has struggled this year, and we needed to come out with a win so that we could start building and getting back to the game we were playing
when we were having success.”
Devils counterpart Martin Brodeur said that the loss was yet another tough one for the Devils.
“It’s tough because when you’re a competitor and you’re a team, you want to do well,” Brodeur said. “You win one game, lose two, win one, and lose two; eventually, it will get harder to
get back at it. Definitely, it’s a tough situation for everyone. Hopefully, we’ll get out of it and laugh about it, but right now, it’s not much fun.”
New Jersey will attempt to regroup before visiting the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, 18 November. Boston will do battle with the Florida Panthers on the same day.
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