NEWARK, N.J. _ The objective, as always, is wins.
But those have been extremely rare of late for the Devils, so now other goals come to the forefront. And beyond evaluating players for next season is a simple one: Pride.
The Devils showed some in their latest loss, a 4-3 shootout defeat to the Jets on Tuesday night at Prudential Center despite blowing a two-goal lead. Things might have been different had Taylor Hall been awarded the overtime penalty shot he thought he deserved.
The game was a makeup after the teams were snowed out on March 14 and the Jets, eliminated from the playoffs on Monday when the Blues defeated the Canucks, 4-1, had to travel cross-continent to sandwich this game in between home games on Sunday and Thursday. The crowd was predictably small, announced at 12,315.
Rookie sensation Patrik Laine scored the only shootout goal for either team for the Jets (35-35-7) as Connor Hellebuyck (20 saves) turned aside Pavel Zacha's final attempt.
The Devils (27-35-14), who have lost four straight, are now 2-12-4 since Feb. 19 and were coming off Sunday's 2-1 overtime loss to the visiting Stars when they could not add to their first-period lead, meaning coach John Hynes again was stressing the importance of getting that next goal.
The Devils actually got the next three after falling behind quickly. And still struggled.
"We have to show something here the last games of the year," said goalie Cory Schneider (33 saves), who looked absolutely disgusted as Nikolaj Ehlers beat him over the glove and under the crossbar from close range just 52 seconds into the game as the Jets took a 1-0 lead. "We'd only won two out of our last how many games and it's not acceptable, no matter what your situation is.
"The guys who are here and who are hopefully going to be here in the future, we've got to turn that around here toward the end and play with some pride and get a little embarrassed or (ticked) off about how things have ended here," Schneider added.
The Jets completed their rally from a two-goal deficit on Joel Armia's short-handed goal to Schneider's short side to tie the game at 3 at 2:40 of the third period. It was the 11th short-handed goal the Devils have allowed this season, tied with the Stars for the most in the NHL.
Even as the Devils will continue to seek wins over their final six regular-season games, they can gain from losing. Last in the Eastern Conference, right now they have the third fewest points in the NHL. In the NHL draft lottery, that would slot them fourth in terms of odds of getting the first overall pick, with the expansion Vegas Golden Knights automatically getting the third slot.
If the Devils continue to struggle to get points, the Coyotes have a small chance of passing them, thus slotting the Devils second in the draft lottery.
The Devils tied the game at 1 at 8:10 of the first period as Beau Bennett dove toward the crease to knock in the puck as it was free on the goal line. Hall's breakaway as he was sprung by Travis Zajac gave the Devils a 2-1 lead at 12:07. Hall was furious he wasn't awarded a penalty shot with 30.8 seconds left in overtime when Blake Wheeler tripped him on the way to the crease.
Stefan Noesen extended that to 3-1 at 15:27 of the second period despite the Devils being outshot 13-0 in a span of eight minutes, 46 seconds following Kyle Palmieri's shot at 4:08 of the second period.
The Jets, though, cut the deficit to 3-2 at 16:36 as Wheeler deflected Julian Melchiori's wrist shot from the slot over Schneider's glove. It was the first NHL point for Melchiori, a 25-year-old defenseman.
