Devils Home Woes Continue | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The Devils lost their fifth straight game at home and sixth of their last seven overall following a 8-4 setback to Tampa Bay at Prudential Center Thursday night.

The Lightning scored three goals in the opening eight minutes and five of the game’s first six goals to build a 5-1 lead early in the second period and never looked back. A combination of sloppy play, unforced errors, bad breaks and tough goals allowed lead to the team’s ultimate demise.

“They got some pucks that went in early it was uphill right from the get-go,” forward Jesper Bratt said. “Obviously, not the start we wanted.”

“We were outworked, outcompeted, outclassed in lots of ways,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “There are some real lessons in this one.”

Nick Paul, Darren Raddysh, Pontus Holmberg, Jake Guentzel, Oliver Bjorkstrand (2), Brandon Hagel and Brayden Point scored for Tampa.

The Devils received goals from Luke Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Angus Crookshank and Paul Cotter.

New Jersey finishes their three-game homestand with afternoon games over the weekend against Anaheim on Saturday and Vancouver on Sunday.

“Tonight, we came out flat and just didn’t play very good to a man,” Luke Hughes said. “We have to regroup and bring the high heat on Saturday.”

"We're confident we'll be able to bounce back," Keefe said. "We have lots of examples to show our team to show what it takes to be a real competitive and consistant team in the leauge in terms of the standard of play and standard of competitiveness."

Following the game, the team had a long conversation in the locker room before the media entered.

“We had to be vocal. Most of the things we talked about I’ll let that stay here in the locker room,” Bratt said. “We have a good practice day tomorrow and two really hard games coming up (this weekend) that we’re excited for. It had to be an honest conversation, man-to-man, and I think we did a good job.”

Here are some observations from the game:

• Luke Hughes scored his first goal in 13 games with a beauty. He had the puck above the far circle with pressure coming from Scott Sabourin. Hughes did a spin-o-rama to shake off Sabourin and get a free lane to the faceoff dot. Upon arriving at the circle he ripped a shot far side that found its way into the net.

• Another player that broke a goalless drought was Bratt, who scored his first goal in 17 games. He collected a pass from Simon Nemec to head in on goal for a breakaway. He faked backhand before pulling to his forehand for the easy deposit as goaltender Jonas Johansson was stuck floating.

Bratt: “It’s always nice to score but it’s hard to talk about that now after a game like that.”

• Crookshank picked up his first goal as a Devil early in the third period. He went unchecked and set up at the side of the Lightning crease. From there, Colton White fed him a pass and Crookshank re-directed the puck into the net for the tally.

• Late in the first period, Sabourin drove Luke Hughes into the boards from behind and smash him face first into the glass. Sabourin was given a boarding penalty for that. But immediately after the play, defenseman Brenden Dillon dropped the gloves and went after Sabourin. Dillon absorbed a lot of blows from Sabourin, though most connected witih the helmet. Dillon finished the fight with a tackle. But it was great to see an immediate reaction on the ice and team support for each other.

• Cody Glass picked up his 100th career NHL point with an assist on Cotter's third period goal.

• Goaltender Jacob Markstrom was pulled from the game at the 7:56 mark of the first period after allowing his third goal on seven shots. There were two goals that Markstrom will want back (though knowing his competitive mentality, he’d want back all three). Raddysh’s goal was scored from the blue line on a play that Markstrom lost track of the puck. Holmgren scored on a backhanded bouncing puck from the low circle that eluded Markstrom through the five-hole.

Markstrom: “It’s 3-0 after five minutes. That can’t happen.”

• Devils forward Xavier Parent made his NHL debut in the contest. He skated 9:42 minutes.

• The Devils were without forward Timo Meier, who has taken a leave of absence for personal family reasons.