PHILADELPHIA _ Never mind that New Jersey is at the bottom of the Metropolitan standings.
"They're not having the season they want, but they have some good players over there," Flyers center Kevin Hayes insisted after the morning skate Thursday. "You can't take them lightly. There's guys on that team that are in contract years and guys that are trying to make an impression on their (new) coaching staff."
On Thursday night, the Devils impressed their coaches.
The Flyers? Not so much.
New Jersey scored 13 seconds into the game and never looked back, trouncing the Flyers, 5-0, at the Wells Fargo Center and stopping the momentum they had built with a 6-1-1 run.
Sloppy passing and an ineffective power play drew loud boos as the Flyers lost to the lowly Devils for the first time in their three meetings this season.
Rookie Mackenzie Blackwood, who took a 3.00 goals-against average into the game, made 46 saves to register his second shutout of the season.
The Flyers outshot the Devils, 46-18, but Blackwood had all the answers.
New Jersey secured the win by scoring two goals 3 minutes, 23 seconds apart early in the third period to build a 4-0 lead. Pavel Zacha finished off a two-on-one to score a shorthanded goal with 18:50 left in the third, and Miles Wood (two goals) made it 4-0 by scoring on a breakaway after Shayne Gostisbehere lost the puck at his own blue line.
Wood's goal sent Brian Elliott to the bench in favor of Alex Lyon. Elliott had carried the Flyers recently.
The Devils began the night 19 points behind the surging Flyers. They had lost their previous three games (Nashville, Dallas, and Montreal), but each went past regulation.
So they have been competitive.
You can't look past them, Flyers rookie defenseman Phil Myers, whose team plays at powerful Washington on Saturday, said before the game.
"We can't afford to be flat out of the gate," Myers said. "Everybody's aware of that, so we'll be ready to go right from the start."
The opposite happened, however, and Myers was victimized by Travis Zajac's hustle. Zajac beat Myers to the puck behind the goal line and fed an uncovered Blake Coleman in the slot. Coleman (20th goal) put a backhander past Elliott, and the Devils had a 1-0 lead after just 13 seconds.
It was the first time the Flyers had allowed the first goal in the last seven games.
Late in the period, after New Jersey's Connor Carrick hit the post at one end, Scott Laughton sent Hayes on a breakaway, but Blackwood made a leg save with 3:12 to go in the first.
The Flyers appeared to have gained momentum before they got a power play late in the period, but they nearly allowed a shorthanded goal. Three times.
Elliott kept them within 1-0 as he stopped Kevin Rooney and Zacha in close, and later turned aside Zacha on a breakaway.
Elliott began the night 4-0-1 with a 1.58 goals-against average and .935 save percentage in five starts since Carter Hart became sidelined with a lower abdominal injury.
The Flyers' top two lines did little in the first period as not one of the six forwards had a shot. The players on Claude Giroux's line, which includes James van Riemsdyk and Travis Konecny, each finished minus-3.
The Devils made it 2-0 as Damon Severson's right-circle, power-play shot went over Elliott's shoulder _ the goalie will want that one back � with 18:21 remaining in the second.
Later in the second, Jake Voracek, from the doorstep, had an empty net, but he put a shot off the right post and defenseman P.K. Subban cleared it before it went into the net. A little over two minutes later, Konecny deflected a shot off the post while the Flyers were on a power play.
So the Devils maintained their 2-0 lead, and the Flyers were serenaded with boos as the second period ended.
