Pyrrhic Victory Szn: New Jersey Devils Win the Battle but LOSE THE WAR In St Louis

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Well, the Devils went into St. Louis, the home of weirdly sliced bagels, and really bad pizza, and...

one...

Yay!

You're Lockdown Devils, your daily podcast on the New Jersey Devils, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

Which is Lockdown Devils, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network.

Now, the number one sports podcast network in the world.

And my name is Zach Perman.

And the New Jersey Devils, one.

A hockey game.

I didn't know that was allowed to happen.

But they went into St. Louis, went into the Enterprise Center on Kids Day in St. Louis.

If you are taking your child to watch the 2026 New Jersey Devils play against the 2026 St. Louis Blues,

you should have the Department of Child Services called on you.

That is child abuse, like straight up.

But the Devils rebounded.

And if you're listening, you're not seeing the quotation marks I am making with my fingers.

They quote on quote one, the hockey game against another bad team.

And oh, dear God, the Blues are really, really bad.

Worse than the Devils, significantly worse than the Devils.

The Devils win this game.

Three to one complete the season sweep over St. Louis.

Remember when St. Louis used to be like such a thorn in the side of this team?

Well, that's not a case anymore for better for worse.

And we're going to talk about who played well, who didn't play well.

And all that jazz.

It's a game that, of course, I hate that my first instinct is to go to tankethon.

The Devils are still in seventh as of now.

Five days, 19 hours, 10 minutes, 16 seconds remaining.

Before the trade deadline, I just see the lottery.

The Blues get the first overall pick.

So in the race for Gavin McKenna or Evar Stenberg or whoever you may fancy.

The New Jersey Devils lost today.

But if your Tom Fitzgerald and doesn't and you don't look at the standings.

You'll see, well, I hope he sees the win lost results because they're.

They're not great, but.

This one was good enough tonight.

And I think that is one of the most difficult parts of rooting for a bad team.

Is that you can't even enjoy the rare occurrences where they win.

Because.

A win, especially in.

It means that a.

The odds of them finishing last.

Or pretty low to begin with because we'll Vancouver so bad and.

So on and so forth.

But it's not just that.

It's that with such a dangerous general manager at the helm.

You really have to worry.

About a scenario.

We're even one game against a bad team like St. Louis.

Could be enough to sway Tom Fitzgerald into buying.

That to me is utterly terrifying and it should terrify you to.

And it's such an incompetent loose cannon at the helm who is.

Possibly trying to save his job.

I don't know if he's trying to save his job because I don't know.

If his job is even in jeopardy.

The funniest thing I read today.

Was it was an article by a daily face off featuring one of our.

Devils beat writers.

And the title of the article is.

Are the devils leaning towards making a change general manager.

And.

My first instinct upon reading it was thinking to myself, well,

I certainly hope they're leaning towards it.

The article didn't answer that question.

It just simply restated the obvious.

Well, I.

I sure would think given the situation there in that they would like to fire the general manager.

My sanity is in the hands of Harris Blitzer sports entertainment.

And that is a terrifying proposition.

And I hate not being able to enjoy a win because let's be real.

Devils came in today.

Luke Hughes's first game back.

Outshot St. Louis by a significant margin.

Jacob Markstrom played well.

They actually outshot the blues 33 to 26.

And overall played.

Just about their best game of the month.

In fact, it was the only game they won all month.

I don't know.

Am I a little worried that Jacob Markstrom is going to go on a run here.

And try and screw the devils out of top draft.

Perhaps.

I already voiced to a couple of friends.

Why are there.

I mean.

The NHL is pretty significantly.

Anti openly taken.

But I definitely am a little bit surprised that perhaps.

Igor Shusterkin is being allowed to.

Finish out the season because.

If you don't know that Igor guys pretty freaking good.

And the Rangers today.

They won a game that.

They probably had no business winning.

Three to two and a shootout against the Pittsburgh penguins.

It does the New York Rangers.

Absolutely no good to be winning this.

Winning these games.

As it does for the New Jersey devils.

So under normal circumstances, I'd be overjoyed that.

I don't know what Markstrom the two years six million dollar goalie

whose contract is yet contract extension is yet to have kicked in.

I'd be really happy about him.

Refinding his form and playing well.

Except for where he tried to score a goalie goal.

The puck gets knocked down immediately thrown into the net behind.

And by Pablo Booch, David.

That was funny.

But alas that was the only goal he allowed today.

Otherwise, he was rock solid and.

I want to be happy.

But.

I'm a New Jersey devils fan and happiness isn't really allowed around these parts.

What can I be happy about.

Given the state of the organization right now.

I'll tell you something.

Luke Hughes tonight in his first game back looked very, very good.

First game back from injury.

Luke looked like the guy that we want and hope and pray that he can be on a regular basis.

And the player that I saw tonight, suit up for the New Jersey devils.

Was Luke freaking his.

Now it's just one game.

It's against a bad team.

So hold your horses.

I'm not sitting here celebrating the return of Luke Hughes to.

The glory of the family name here.

But it's a start.

And you take starts.

What else can I be happy about.

Brett Pesci looked really good.

But first game he's looked really good since he came back from his injury to be completely honest.

Pesci has been.

Terrible.

He's been absolutely terrible for the most part.

So it was nice to see Brett Pesci return to what we know he can do.

And most importantly.

Timo Meyer looked like the guy that devils traded for.

That is the Timo Meyer I wanted to see.

That is the Timo Meyer I look for every game.

We haven't had nearly enough of them.

But tonight.

We got Timo freaking Meyer.

He opens up the scoring 537 into the second period.

And a place set up by Brett Pesci and Luke Hughes.

Great job in the neutrals on by those two.

They chipped it ahead to Timo and he rips it home past Jordan Bennington on the rush.

One nothing NJD.

Now.

What else has been much maligned among devils fans recently?

Power play.

It's been terrible.

Well.

Well, I got a gift for you.

I will go ahead.

Devils converge on a vintage duggy hamilton one time.

In the dying seconds of the second period.

Off a sciss from Jack Hughes and Jacob marks from who that was three more assists on the year that have getting to dodge.

Makes it to nothing.

I talked to you about the bouch David's goal.

Anything else really notable with this one?

You know, it's their first win all month counts for something

Most of the foreheads had good nights are looking at hockey stack cards right now jack looked great

Mercer look great Niko brown Brat Gritschuk all had solid games Dylan and Nemitz were very good

All six defense been worth

quite good and

Now the devils

Originally

We're potentially going 11 and seven with Luke coming back and

That didn't happen

Jonathan Kovacsevich whether he was sick or what not

Goes down in tonight's game as a healthy scratch and

Oh boy

The guy who is making four million dollars for the next four years

Our next three years four years including this one with plentiful no movement

No trade clauses in his contract

One

Less than a year into his deal is a healthy scratch

Tumpet Sheryl's the worst general manager in the national hockey like oh my god

How on earth do you let that happen?

That contract

And I don't I don't think this is an overreaction because a lot of people felt this way

You just knew the moment that it was announced it was an uh-oh

Why are we doing this kind of situation?

Remember he came in second for Dylan Cousins his works not mine from mine too and

His first response was oh dear god I

Have to try and get something done to salvage this deadline because I was I

Remember he was a

Big game hunting

The entire trade deadline

Who knew who knows who he was going after maybe it was me go rantin and mate who knows and honestly who cares

He didn't wind up with any of them and

Especially after

The debacle with the Brian Dumel in situation

There was a big fish that the devils were looking for

Did not get

So right before pencils down

Tump Fitzgerald had to sneak something in

Just uh and admittedly it was a good trade. It was a good process to acquire Jonathan cova Savage

Who was going into next summer as a pending restrict unrestricted free agent

instead

It felt like Tom Fitzgerald had to have that victory lap just so he could prove to himself

To the owners

That hey

I still know what I'm doing news flash Tommy boy. I know you don't

And because everything Tom Fitzgerald turns to crap naturally he immediately well he is in cova Savage immediately tears his AC hell

Like almost instantaneously

After the extension and as a complete shell of himself since then only

Like not only is Fitzgerald a bad GM

No Fitzgerald a bad GM you don't say he's also incredibly unlucky and

Even I mean you got to make your own look

Even if there was sound process

Behind extending Jonathan cova Savage it was a terrible idea

He was having a complete outlier season you don't extend

You don't extend people

Having outlier seasons like that you just don't that's like

It's like a prime rule of smart GMing and Tom Fitzgerald completely broke that rule

And whether it's him long. I hope it's not him

But whether it's him or somebody else

Who has that job for the foreseeable future

Jonathan cova Savage contract is just one more terrible situation

That the next general manager god willing. There's an next general manager

Have to get himself out of

So it's a crappy situation

and

Yeah, that's a

That's about it on the cova stuff

So with that

The New Jersey devils

End the month of February and abbreviated month

In

In which

Their season was already on life support going in

And now

Perhaps the brainwaves are still active, but there's not really much left

they end

This absolute slahog of a month

One

Four and oh good for two measly points

And

And with five days left before the trade deadline

All we have are questions

Questions that whether we like it or not are going to be answered

And I pray we're happy about those answers

On the other side of the other side of the deadline

Of course the two big names

For Saint Louis that are

Being floated around his potential trade targets both by New Jersey and by the rest of the league

Jordan Kairu and Robert Thomas

I'm gonna be honest with you

I wasn't really impressed by either of them. I thought

I mean maybe it's the system Jim Montgomery's running

You can

If you're a blues fan you can maybe elaborate on why

The blues will so unbelievable why these talented Saint Louis blues

Look so unbelievably

What's the right word pedestrian

You

Is that is a pedestrian looking team

With a lot more talent

And I'm confused about it

So

Your blues fan

Let me know what you think

Your devils fan do you want Robert Thomas do you want Jordan Kairu? They're both big flashy names the

If Tom Fitzgerald acquires either or one of the other

It might be enough to save his job

That's so scary to put into words

Of course, this is a bonus episode don't have any reads

We'll get back to

A regularly scheduled programming

In the

I want to say in the morning because I got some more to get done tonight that you'll be seeing

In the not too distant future but

Till then

Let's go devils

Yay

Good win

Yay

This was a 20 minute one taker

Yay

See you guys in a bit fire Tom Fitzgerald too. I can't not say that

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I can't get Jurassic Park back online without...

Oh you just need infinity plug in your gateway and you're good

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Wow

You can even boost speeds to your most important devices

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Exfinity, imagine that

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