Yes indeed, Cory Schneider was definitely the problem in New Jersey. Just send him out on waivers and we’ll be just fine.
That may hav been the Devils’ thinking but t has hardly worked as plan. On Monday night, the Devils surrendered five goals in the first period to Sabres in Buffalo on the way to a 7-1 drubbing.
Conor Sheary struck for two goals in the outburst.
“The last couple of weeks, we think we’ve been playing pretty good hockey,” Sheary said. “We haven’t gotten a lot of results, and part of that is because of secondary scoring. The other part is special teams, and both of those were good tonight. Hopefully that will give us confidence moving forward.”
The Devils have lost five of their last seven games.
“I’m running out of things to say as to why we’re playing like that,” Devils forward Taylor Hall said. “It’s hard. It’s a tough pill to swallow, and it’s everyone in here. It’s too bad. We have the players in here to play a lot better than that. We’ve got to step it up.”
Linus Ullmark made 44 saves in the win.
Nico Hischier scored the lone goal for the Devils.
Jack Eichel opened the scoring for the Sabres, Jeff Skinner up the second goal for the Sabres.
Rasmus Asplund added the fifth goal in the first period.
“The first period was not close to being good enough in any area, and obviously the scoreboard said it and it’s unacceptable,” Devils coach John Hynes said.
Victor Olofsson made it 6-0 in the second period before the Devils got on the board.
“I thought they did a good job of managing it with 5-0,” Buffalo coach Ralph Krueger said. “We haven’t been in that position before, and Linus did a good job too. It was nice to see the guys explode. [It was] nice to see Asplund get his first goal, good to see Sheary get a couple, [Jokiharju] on the power play. Just a lot of things happening today that we can build on.”
Henri Jokiharju added the final insult with less than eight minutes left in the middle frame.
“I think the coaches, they’re able to give us confidence throughout the lineup,” Sheary said. “Game in, game out, they have the same message no matter what happened the game before. We’re never looking too far ahead, we’re staying in the moment and I think that could be helpful for me.”
[WATCH: All Devils vs. Sabres Highlights]
Louis Domingue got the start and lasted 20 minutes. He was given the hook in the first intermission after giving up up five goals on 15 shots
“Mistakes, miscues,” Hall said, “That’s really what it comes down to. I don’t know if we’re trying too hard or if we’re not competing hard enough. It’s hard to say. But right now we’ve got to find some kind of edge, and right now we don’t have it.”
Mackenzie Blackwood made 15 saves over the final two frames..
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