Turnovers Cost Devils - Again - Versus Bruins, 3-1 | GAME STORY

Two turnovers ended up in the back of the New Jersey Devils net tonight against the Bruins, almost like a deja vu.
Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron took advantage of a Devils turnover late in the third period, with New Jersey changing to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead, one which they would not relinquish.
It wasn't that the Devils played badly, they had excellent chances they were unable to capitalize on, the margin for error was so slim. But against teams like Boston, they strike on their opportunities, which is exactly what happened tonight.
"It's hard, its just too bad," Erik Haula said post-game. "We played a good game today, we did all the things that we talk about, but then we give them the goal. And then our details are lacking on the second one. It's just a team that, they don't miss too often, so you've got to play 60 minutes. Especially when you play against the best teams in the league."
The Devils had put just about everything on the Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark who came up with the big saves when needed. The only time New Jersey could capitalize on their chance was the captain Nico Hischier in the third period at 6:11, finishing off a play with his linemates Tomas Tatar and Fabian Zetterlund.
The frustration will likely be felt after turnovers were an area of specific focus heading into this game, and turnovers with costly changes as well. That type of play was a direct result of the Bruins taking a 2-1 lead.
Former Devil Pavel Zacha scored the Bruins third goal, an empty netter, to seal the Devils defeat.
"It's frustrating," Haula continued, "it's just, once again we've got to come in here tomorrow, we've got to look at it, the areas where we're making mistakes and we've got to get better."

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Here are some observations from the game...
- There's a fine balance between being too frustrated and finding a way to channel frustration. With the Devils on a 2-7-1 record in their last 10 games, the club will need to find their right balance to get out of their slump.

"We've had a couple of those already, this year," Jonas Siegenthaler said of losses like the one against the Bruins, "but we can just learn from it and look forward. It shouldn't happen, but that's hockey. But we have to play (until it's over), sixty minutes. That's how long a hockey game is." - A very brief moment of panic when Charlie McAvoy hit Nico Hischier into the boards early in the first period. Hischier looked uncomfortable by the hit and subsequently went down the tunnel, but he returned before he could even miss a shift.

Hischier's goal was his 32nd point of the season in his 34th game of the year. - Damon Severson skated in his 600th NHL game tonight, all with the New Jersey Devils. Severson made his NHL debut on Oct. 9, 2014 when he logged 18:39 time on ice. - Tyce Thompson played his first NHL game of the season, skating on a line with Miles Wood and Michael McLeod for most of the evening. Thompson was injured in the second preseason game and has spent the early part of the year with the Utica Comets. - The play that led to the Bruins opening goal was the result of a turnover by Michael McLeod and is likely one that isn't going to sit well. Lindy Ruff talked this morning about turnovers costing the Devils in the Dec. 23rd game against Boston - also in the second period - and history repeated itself again tonight.

McLeod had just collided with a Bruin and from his knees, after spinning around, the loose puck was by him. He elected to shoot the puck, trying to clear the zone but instead, the puck ended up on Trent Frederic's stick in the high slot where he was able to quickly snap the shot past Vitek Vanecek for Boston's 1-0 lead at 8:57 of the second.  

"Mikey loses a glove and falls down, and it turns out and ends up going in the back of our net," Lindy Ruff said, "but I think that was the first play we really gave them in the second period, on a broken type play." - Kevin Bahl had a difficult night staying out of the penalty box, which is always a difficult place to find oneself. Bahl first was sent to the box for five minutes (off-setting with Boston's Trent Federic) for fighting, while he took two minors in the second period less than three minutes apart. (Holding - 13:55, Tripping - 16:19) - Three forwards for New Jersey had four or more shots:

Jack Hughes - 6
Dawson Mercer - 5
Jesper Bratt - 4 - The Bruins did everything possible to frustrate and thwart the Devils opportunities on Linus Ullmark, they had 14 blocked shots after 40 minutes of play, in comparison to New Jersey's five.

The game ended with the Bruins holding the 19-8 blocked shot advantage. - Vitek Vanecek stopped all four shots the Bruins had on their man-advantage. But his biggest save of the night was in the final half of the third period when a flurry of bodies and the puck were all over his crease. Spinning in his net, he reached far back to swipe the puck off the goal line. The puck didn't go very far, remaining in Vanecek's crease. While on his stomach, Vanecek spotted the puck for a second time and swiped it away again to the delight of the Prudential Center crowd who chimed back with Vitek! Vitek! chants.

Tweet from @NJDevils: 🗣��� VI-TEK! VI-TEK! VI-TEK! pic.twitter.com/djZ7e8d1O5 - Here's how Lindy Ruff summarized the game:

"I thought we heavily out-chanced them with our quality chances. You look at the couple of breakaways, Miles Wood in alone, Jesper Bratt in alone, Jack Hughes in alone, 2-on-1 in the first period, we didn't capitalize on (...) I thought we did a lot of good stuff in the game. I thought we had a lot of good play on a lot of lines. We're disappointed in that last play. We probably should have used the wall, get it up ice, but I thought for the most part the effort that we put forth, the job we did on the penalty kill, I thought the team deserved better."