The NHL regular season is a little more than three weeks old, but the New Jersey Devils and Los Angeles Kings are already well aware of how quickly momentum can change — for the worse as well as for the better.
The Devils will endeavor to snap their first losing streak of the season on Saturday night when they continue their west coast road trip by visiting the Kings.
Both teams were off Friday after suffering defeats Thursday night. The Devils trailed wire-to-wire in a 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks while the host Kings fell to the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 in the shootout.
The loss was the second straight following an eight-game winning streak for the Devils, who have yet to hold a lead during their four-game trek while being outscored 13-6 by the Sharks and Colorado Avalanche.
The Devils gave up just 16 goals during their winning streak, when they also scored eight power-play goals and collected two short-handed tallies. But the 13 goals over the past two games are the most surrendered by New Jersey in a two-game span since Oct. 22-24, 2024, when it gave up a combined 13 goals in consecutive losses to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Detroit.
The Devils found it challenging to slow down the Sharks and Avalanche no matter who was in goal. On Wednesday night, Colorado scored the first five goals of the game as well as the final three — all against Jacob Markstrom.
With Jake Allen in the Devils’ net Thursday, San Jose’s William Eklund scored 42 seconds after the opening faceoff to spark a three-goal first-period flurry. The Sharks put the game away by scoring twice in a span of 1:40 late in the middle period.
“We talked about pushing past one the other night, can’t push past this one — this is two now and that’s unacceptable,” said Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe. “We got away with some things in the early going of the season and wins went our way and special teams carried us through. But the reality of the league is it’s hard. And if you don’t embrace hard things, it opens you up to be able to lose on any night to any team.”
Like the Devils, the Kings have struggled to minimize damage on defense. The Red Wings scored three straight goals in a span of 21-plus minutes bridging the second and third periods Thursday, which forced Corey Perry to score twice in 40 seconds late in regulation for Los Angeles to reach overtime.
Two nights earlier, the Sharks overcame a three-goal deficit by collecting a trio of goals over a stretch of 9:15 between the second and third periods. The Kings’ Brandt Clarke scored with 6:40 left to enable Los Angeles to escape with a 4-3 win.
Despite the defensive inconsistency, Los Angeles has won four of six (4-0-2) since opening the season with five losses in the first six games (1-3-2). The Kings haven’t lost in regulation since Oct. 16.
“There’s been a lot of games where it’s been maybe not our best periods and we still come out with a point here and there,” said Kings center Quinton Byfield, who had a pair of assists Thursday night. “So that’s saying a lot when we’re not at our best (that) we can still muster up those points.”
