NEWARK, N.J. _ This could only be seen as a regression. A serious regression.
The Devils thought they were building toward something positive after the way they played this weekend. But, in a rare home game, the Devils dropped their seventh straight with a 5-1 loss to the Predators on Tuesday night at the Prudential Center.
The score indicated their play as they extended their losing streak to the organization's longest since the Devils opened the 2013-14 season in an 0-4-3 rut.
The Devils (12-13-7), now 0-6-1 since Dec. 8, were outskated, outworked and, at times, kept hemmed in their end for too long as they had trouble completing passes. They gave up a short-handed goal and allowed a power-play goal. Too many of the Predators' shots were from close range. Too many of the Devils' shots were long range.
Coach John Hynes often talks of the team's "compete level," and that has been one of the Devils' deficiencies during the early stages of the losing streak.
But in Saturday's 3-1 loss at Ottawa and Sunday's 3-2 shootout loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden _ Derek Stepan sent it into overtime by tying it with 1:13 left in regulation _ the Devils were skating and working and possessing the puck much more as they had during their impressive 9-3-3 start to the season.
Instead, the Devils wound up allowing at least four goals for the 12th time in their last 16 games.
Cory Schneider made 27 saves for the Devils, while Juuse Saros also made 27 saves for the Predators (15-12-5), a team that won a 2-1 shootout at Philadelphia on Monday night.
"I think we've been more satisfied with the way we've played the last few games than, obviously, the previous few, but at the end of the day, it's about the results," Schneider said before the game. "The plan here is to continue to build and stick with the process and build up to two points."
The Devils beat the Predators, 5-4, in overtime on Dec. 3, rallying from a 4-1 deficit after two periods as they scored twice within the first 55 seconds of the third period, with Michael Cammalleri getting the winner with his second goal of the game. The Devils returned home after that game and beat the Canucks, 3-2, on Dec. 7.
They haven't won since.
And for all the cautious optimism generated through the weekend's games, the Devils were sluggish to start and trailed 1-0 within 7:15.
James Neal finished a two-on-one feed from Viktor Arvidsson with a one-timer from the right circle at 5:43 after Devils defenseman Damon Severson got caught in the offensive zone as the puck was pushed past him.
Then, Neal scored on a sharp-angle shot from low in the right circle that Schneider probably should have stopped.
Saros, meanwhile, robbed Hall, who did not elevate the puck, at the right post with a sliding pad save.
Mattias Ekholm, with a blast from the blue line that went over Schneider's right shoulder, making it 3-0 at 5:55 of the second period. It stayed that way into the second intermission despite the Craig Smith and Ryan Ellis of the Predators both hitting the post.
Filip Forsberg's power-play goal at 8:12 of the third period made it 4-0 and Ryan Johansen's shorthanded goal, the fourth the Devils have allowed this season, made it 5-0 at 13:40. Sergey Kalinin deflected in Andy Greene's slap shot to break up Saros's shutout bid at 14:11.
