On Tuesday night, veteran Jake Allen sat near his team’s bench at UBS Arena in a black New Jersey Devils hat and watched the red light behind his goaltending partner, Jacob Markstrom, go off nine times.
With a stoic expression, he saw his team get humiliated by the New York Islanders despite firing 44 shots on opposing netminder Ilya Sorokin.
“We definitely had our chances, our looks,” Allen told The Hockey News on Wednesday. “Obviously, it is not a good look for the group, the end result. You could lose 1-0 or 9-0; it is still a loss, but it is the details within our game. I think we did a lot of good things. (Head coach Sheldon Keefe was) right that we did a lot of good things. We talked about that this morning. We also did a lot of things where we beat ourselves. I don't know how many 2-on-1s and breakaways we gave up. Ultimately, we never had any of those either. So realistically, we played hard, but it is not acceptable for our group.”
It marked the worst Devils shutout loss since March 31, 1986, a 9-0 loss at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers.
Allen has played 66 games for the Devils after being acquired on March 8, 2024, from the Montreal Canadiens. Over his 13-season career, he has seen many things, and his extensive experience makes him an ideal candidate to speak about confidence.
“You know, I have been on really good teams,” he shared. “I have been on teams that have really struggled. I have been on mediocre teams.
“I think there is a lot of internal belief (here),” Allen continued. “We just have to focus internally, individually, on ourselves. If we do that individually and then collectively, we are going to have success. I think once we start to worry about the other team, the opposition, and other things, then your attention to detail in the game slips a little bit.
“Right now, we are at a spot where we played some good hockey, but also we have played some not-so-good hockey, and that is just the reality of it. We are just a little bit inconsistent.”
In the spirit of transparency, I will acknowledge that I have used the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde” to describe the Devils and their overall performance. For many, it is baffling to witness the team’s struggles over the last month after seeing the club kick off the season with an eight-game win streak.
Any player will say that consistency is the most challenging thing to achieve in this league, and according to Allen, it is a long process to achieve that steadiness.
“To find that consistency, it is all about details, habits, and working on yourself every day,” he explained. “It is not an easy thing to fix right away. Consistency takes a long time to build. That is why you see a lot of good teams have been good for a long time. It has taken a while to get there, but when they are there, consistent habits sort of find a way to get through the playoffs and things like that.
“I think right now our goal is really to try to finish this busy stretch here,” Allen continued. “14 games left to the break, and we need to be on the right foot and build momentum. We don’t need to be perfect. We don’t need to go 13-1, but we just need to find a way to build our game to a point where we can go into that break on a good mental note.”
At the time of publication, Nathan MacKinnon has scored a league-leading 35 goals. There are 27 players in the NHL with 20 or more goals, and by comparison, the Devils' leading goal scorers (Timo Meier and Nico Hischier) have 12.
On paper, the Devils have a talented roster. Many teams wouldn’t think twice about adding Dawson Mercer or Bratt to their own rosters. This led to asking Allen if he is surprised by the team’s inconsistency with the amount of talent within this group.
“Talent has nothing to do with it,” he said. “We have a lot of talent, no question, and I am super fortunate, but talent has nothing to do with it. You saw a team like the Islanders last night, who are missing a lot of key bodies. Still have some talent in the lineup, but they just work. They work for their chances. They work for their success. We played a team like the Toronto Maple Lealfs (also) missing their stars, and they just worked. The goals will come; every player in this league can score. The fourth line isn’t like the fourth line when I played my first game in 2011.
“It is not about the talent,” he continued. “It is the mindset, the compete, and just bringing it every day. Once we get those things, our talent will shine through, because we have some of the best offensive talent I have been fortunate to be part of in my NHL career. It really disregards the talent; it is just about a mindset and work. I think when we do have that here, it is special. It is special to watch for me in net, and we have a special group.”
The Devils are currently three points out of a wild-card spot with 39 games remaining. By no means are they out of it, but Allen is right. The players within New Jersey’s locker room will need to change their mindset and improve their compete to turn things around ahead of the Olympic break.
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