Stars 4, Devils 1: Bad things come in threes

The Devils played the Stars tough but were unable to snap their mini losing skid.

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A few notes following New Jersey’s season crushing loss to the Dallas Stars:

Sound the alarm

Quick, everyone panic!! The Devils dropped their third straight game on Tuesday night, signalling the end of their season.

A miraculously dominant couple of months had everyone fooled into thinking this team was good. But, no, they are not.

Throw all the wins and all the great underlying metrics out the window and focus on this one thing. They have lost three games in a row. A good team would never lose multiple games in a row.

The No. 1 seeded Boston Bruins? They would never drop two of three, including a game to the Arizona Coyotes. Simply wouldn’t happen.

The No. 3 seeded Toronto Maple Leafs? They would never lose three in a row, let alone four; especially not when games against powerhouses like San Jose and Anaheim were mixed in.

The No. 4 seeded Vegas Golden Knights? There is simply no chance they’d lose three of four, with a shootout win over Columbus being the lone victory.

The No. 5 seeded Dallas Stars? Well I’ll be damned if they ever dropped five in eight, with the wins coming against Chicago, Anaheim, and St. Louis.

And the No. 6 seeded Carolina Hurricanes would never lose *checks notes* five games in a row. Not now, not ever.

Oh, all of those things happened? You mean to tell me that even the league’s best teams hit bumps in the road? My god, that is shocking.

I was under the impression a good team would never lose multiple games in a row or – get this – play pretty well and have the other goaltender steal a game.

It doesn’t matter if that team was dressing a backup goaltender who has out-performed their marquee starter on the season.

No, there is no excuse for a backup who is playing extremely well to play well because that backup is not a name brand netminder!!! I don’t care if that backup ranks ahead of Jake Oettinger, Juuse Saros, Darcy Kuemper and Vitek Vanecek in GSAx. He is a backup and, thus, sucks!

A true good team outplays its opponent every night *and* wins every game; especially against a terrible goaltender like Scott Wedgewood. There are no hiccups. They are not susceptible to a bad bounce or an opposing goaltender being the difference in a game.

No, they win 5-0 every night with +30 shot differentials and – get this – don’t even concede a scoring chance along the way. There are no breakdowns defensively and every chance is converted at the other end. Good teams play perfect hockey, every night.

Thus, it is time we call it a season and find a new hobby. This Devils team just isn’t it.