With their playoff hopes already slim, the New Jersey Devils headed to Ottawa with the hopes of grabbing two points at Canadian Tire Centre for the second time this season. Unfortunately, a lack of offense came to bite them again as they fell 4-1.
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Special Teams Hold Devils Back
In 2024-25, head coach Sheldon Keefe called the Devils’ special teams his “baby” — their 28.2 power play percentage (PP%) and 82.7 penalty kill percentage (PK%) were second and third in the league, respectively. This season, that’s been far from the case.
Since Oct. 29, while their 22.2 PP% (11th in NHL) is solid, it hasn’t been good enough to consistently bail the Devils out of rough even-strength showings, like last season. Furthermore, their 79.6 PK% has been as average as it gets (16th in NHL).
Both those percentages went down after an abysmal showing tonight. The Senators scored their first two goals on the man advantage (2-for-3), moving to 5-for-6 against the Devils in their own barn this season.
To make matters worse, the Devils went a whopping 0-for-5 on their own man advantage. In simpler terms: last season, their special teams goal differential was plus-25; this season, it’s plus-5. That doesn’t bode well for a team whose 1.93 goals-per-60 at 5v5 is the worst mark in the NHL. (via Natural Stat Trick)
State of Eastern Conference Makes Devils’ Life Harder
While 95 points on a season is generally a comfortable target to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the parity of the Eastern Conference isn’t doing the Devils any favors. As it stands, every single playoff team in the conference is on pace for 98+ points.
After the Devils’ regulation loss tonight, they’re now sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, seven points behind the New York Islanders for the third Metro playoff spot. They’re even further away from the second Wild Card spot — nine points behind the Boston Bruins.
With just 58 standings points, the Devils would have to go something like 20-6-1 the rest of the season in order to hit 99 points. Yikes.
Timo Meier Gets Monkey off His Back
Since returning from a December leave of absence to tend to a family matter, Timo Meier hadn’t quite been himself; he had just two goals and two assists in 19 games — a ~73% decrease from his previous production. That included zero goals in his last six games.
Set the clocks in Ottawa to Timo Time. pic.twitter.com/yCzthgFGfd
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) February 1, 2026
Finally, Meier’s quick release in the first period got past Senators netminder Linus Ullmark. Even on the man advantage, he seemed much more assertive and like he had an extra pep in his step. The reason this is so important?
Especially if Jack Hughes is going to be out for any more games, one of the Devils’ only hopes to climb back into the race is if Meier regains his game-breaking form that we’ve seen spurts of, but not enough consistently. When he’s on, though, he can reach a level of dominance that not many can.
Moving Forward
The Devils — now 28-25-2 — will look to bounce back in front of a presumably restless home crowd on Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets (7:00 PM EST).
