Whipped Cream Difficulties

Tom Fitzgerald out as general manager of the New Jersey Devils.

Although the Devils (40-34-3) entered Monday still mathematically eligible for the playoffs, they were seven points out of the final Eastern Conference playoff spot with five games left.

The way I read the ESPN article, they actually started out okay this season. But they lost a key player (Jack Hughes) to a “freak hand injury in mid-November that kept him out for 18 games”.

Missing Hughes was only the beginning, with the Devils losing five straight to end November and begin December. It was the first of four separate four-game losing streaks that made it difficult for them to attain consistency in a challenging Eastern Conference landscape.