Devils drop Game 4 and lose key player after controversial hit

John Hynes was asked seven questions and answered them in 54 words.

The Devils coach might have an all-world poker face, but the feeling of angst, the feeling of anger — it was all right there to be seen in his awkwardly terse postgame press conference.

And it was understandable, as a 3-1 loss to the Lightning in Game 4 of this first-round series on Wednesday night in Newark put the Devils on the brink of elimination, trailing 3-1 in the best-of-seven series. Now, Game 5 in Tampa on Saturday afternoon could be it for this upstart young club.

It also likely could be played without the Devils’ top defenseman, Sami Vatanen, who was hurt on an unpenalized high hit from Nikita Kucherov late in the first period. Vatanen did not return.

“I do not have an update on Sami,” Hynes said, before being asked specifically about the hit. “I don’t have any comment on it. It does me no good to get into it.”

The same cold stoicism, bordering on a lack of emotion, came from the locker room. It wasn’t that way out on the ice when the hit happened, as Kucherov cut Vatanen off along the right boards, put his shoulder high into the Devil’s chest and then followed through with his elbow, snapping Vatanen’s head back. That sent the Devils’ top minutes-eater down to the ice in a heap, and then into the locker room with what the team called an “upper-body injury.”

It drew the ire of the likes of teammate Brian Boyle in the remaining minutes of the first period, but from then on — and after it was over — the Devils did nothing but toe the line of gentlemanly deferment.

“Live, in person, from my view, it didn’t look great,” said goalie Cory Schneider, who was solid again in making 34 saves for the second straight game. “Timmy Peel and Wes McCauley are two veteran [officials], they’re well-respected throughout the league, and they both agreed it wasn’t a penalty. So I think you have to kind of give them the benefit of the doubt.

“Perhaps, if the league looks at it frame-by-frame, they’ll see something different. But the speed of the game, the pace, I think you have to give the officials the benefit of the doubt until further notice.”

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As hard as that might be to swallow, even worse was that Kucherov had a huge game, scoring twice — the first goal standing as the game-winner at 15:02 of the first period, and the second into the empty net at the end — while adding an assist. His coach, Jon Cooper, said his best player “flexed his muscles.” and he was not concerned at all about a possible suspension for Game 5.

Even in the unlikely case Kucherov is suspended, the Devils are going to need to be better. They generated only five shots in the second period and 28 overall, with Kyle Palmieri’s first-period goal their only tally on six power-play chances.

It was equalized midway through the first by a goal from former Ranger J.T. Miller, who then granted the Devils a great opportunity to tie it when he took a slashing penalty with just over 13 minutes left in the third and the Lightning clinging to a 2-1 lead.

“It wasn’t a great game by us, but it wasn’t terrible. In the playoffs, that’s not going to get you wins,” said Taylor Hall, who was limited after his dominant Game 3 performance. “I thought we had opportunities on the power play, and it really cost us.”

These Devils do not have a lot of playoff experience, and most of them have not been in an elimination game like the one awaiting them Saturday. With or without Vatanen, the task at hand is bordering on insurmountable.

“We had to fight our way to get a spot in the playoffs and no one really believed in us, and now we get to prove ourselves again in going to Tampa,” veteran Travis Zajac said. “Worry about winning one game.”