The New Jersey Devils suffered a 4-0 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena. It marked the fourth time the Devils have been shut out this season.
Midway through the first period, Stefan Noesen was called for an offensive zone tripping penalty against Easton Cowan. With 19 seconds remaining on the man advantage, Ondrej Palat failed to clear a bobbled puck along the boards, leading to Bobby McMann scoring to give Toronto a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.
The Maple Leafs extended their lead to 2-0 in the final five minutes of the second period. At the tail end of Toronto’s third power play, Nicolas Roy tipped the puck past Markstrom. McMann and Robertson each picked up their second point of the game.
At the 6:22 mark of the third period, Nico Hischier dropped the gloves and fought Matthew Knies. It was a quick tussle and marked Hischier’s second career fight. His first came on Dec. 10, 2021, against Mikael Granlund, who was a member of the Nashville Predators. Seconds after the fight, Toronto extended its lead to 3-0 when Calle Jarnkrok scored his fifth goal of the season.
Despite any and all efforts from the Devils, the Maple Leafs left Scotiabank Arena with two points after handing New Jersey a 4-0 loss.
Watching the Devils during this recent stretch leaves one in disbelief as the entire forward group has, in essence, gone cold at the same time.
"It has been a tough stretch,” Keefe said after Sunday's practice. “When you see a guy like (Jesper) Bratt get two goals, you get 5-on-5 goals, a power-play goal as a team, you hope that is a positive trend that we are going to start to finish here, but you can't sit back and expect it is going to snap back. We know we have generated more scoring chances and opportunities to score than we have actual goals. But the actual goals are the ones that matter the most. We have to find a way to get these over the line. We are working on the mental side of it with the guys. Showing clips, getting reps in practice, reinforcing the habits and details inside of finishing, where to shoot, when to shoot, traffic, all those details are where we have to do the job as coaches."
The Devils will conclude the 2025 calendar year Wednesday night against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.
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