As William Shakespeare once wrote, “Now my charms are all o’erthrown” (The Tempest, Epilogue).

On Thursday night, February 5, 2026, the New Jersey Devils hosted the New York Islanders at Prudential Center for the fourth and final game of the season series between the two franchises. The final score, a 3-1 loss for the Garden Staters, gave the Islanders a season-sweep of the Devils and all but put the final nail in New Jersey’s coffin. (It also meant that the Islanders had swept BOTH the Devils AND the Rangers this year, which is the first time in history that any one of the three local teams had done that to the other two in the same season). 

“Not the way we wanted to end up going into break,” Jake Allen said after the game. “It’s gonna be a tough three weeks.”

With the loss, the Jersey sextet fell to 11 points back of the Isles for third place in the Metropolitan Division and 11 points back of idle Boston for the second wild card. With just 25 games left in the regular season, the Devils’ playoff hopes are done (barring a miracle turnaround). Plus, the loss drops them below .500 with a record of 28-27-2 (which, essentially, is 28-29). They are 20-26-2 since their eight-game winning streak. 

“You can’t think that way,” Allen explained. “We need to have a certain standard of the way we approach the day, regardless of our situation. But obviously, we understand that over these three weeks, we’ll have a lot of time to reflect on a lot of different things and (hopefully) we get to go on a hell of a run. That’s what it comes down to.”

Jake Allen was opposed by Ilya Sorokin in net. New Jersey’s veteran netminder stopped 11 of the 13 shots he faced. At the other end of the ice, the Isles’ Sorokin, who leads The NHL with six shutouts so far this season, saved 23 out of the 24 shots the Devils sent his way. 

The first period was fairly low-event hockey as the Devils outshot the Islanders 5-2. However, the Isles were credited with five high-danger chances compared to the Devils’ one. In total, the Islanders held the edge in possession stats with a CF% of 51.43% compared to the Devils’ 48.57%. 

Things almost got exciting in the first minute and 21 seconds when Jonathan Kovacevic was initially called for putting the puck over the glass in his own zone, resulting in a delay of game penalty. However, Devils’ Head Coach Sheldon Keefe challenged the call, claiming the puck was deflected. A brief video review confirmed Keefe’s claim and thus the call was reversed and the teams played on. 

Timo Meier was called for high-sticking Scott Mayfield at 14:04 of the first period, but the Devils held the Islanders without a single shot on goal during their power-play for the successful penalty-kill. 

The second period started much like how the first ended, with neither team mustering much in the way of offense. Then, 6:30 into the middle period, Marc Gatcomb, Kyle Maclean and Casey Cizikas drove to the net. Allen made the initial save, but the rebound went straight to Cizikas in the low slot, who banged home the puck to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. 

“It’s hockey,” Allen said. “You’re gonna go through stretches that way. The guys are trying, they’re working their tails off. It’s just not going our way right now. We can’t take our foot off the gas, obviously. We’re trying our best. The boys are putting all the effort in. It’s just the puck’s just not going into the net. As a goalie, sometimes you feel like you fill up the whole net and then they sometimes feel small. It’s the same for players. It’s just, it is what it is. They’re putting all their effort in. It just hasn’t gone our way. So, hopefully, that’ll turn off the break.”

MacLean was sent to the box 34 seconds after Cizikas’ goal, for high-sticking Paul Cotter, thus sending the Devils to their first power-play of the game. And much like how New Jersey stifled the Islanders’ man-advantage unit in the first period, the table was now turned as the Isles prevented the Devils’ power-play from scoring. 

The Devils appeared to find their legs as the middle period went on, flipping the script on the Isles in terms of their possession metrics. New Jersey had an all-situations CF% of 68.57% in the second period compared to Long Island’s 31.43%. And this time, the Garden Staters were the ones with five high-danger chances, compared to the Islanders’ two. 

Eventually, with 1:34 left in the middle period, Jesper Bratt found Nico Hischier with a cross-ice pass that New Jersey’s Captain one-timed from the right hash marks to beat Sorokin clean and tie the game 1-1. 

Then it was onto the third period and the script got flipped once again as the Isles out-possessed the Devils for much of the final 20 minutes. New York’s CF% in the third period was 59.26% while New Jersey’s was 40.74%. However, both teams generated three high-danger chances, so the opportunities to break the tie were certainly there. 

Eventually, with 3:27 left in the third period, Bo Horvat, right off the face-off in New Jersey’s zone, barreled through the Devils and backhanded the puck through Allen’s legs to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead. Mathew Barzal salted the game away with an empty-net goal with 24 seconds left in the period, 3-1 Islanders.

For the Devils, it’s the 19th time this season they’ve been held to one goal or fewer, which is 33.33% of the games they’ve played. 

“It sucks,” Hischier said during his postgame media availability. “We were right there again too many times this season. That’s very, very frustrating.”

“It’s always so frustrating,” New Jersey’s Captain continued. “I think we did a lot of good things during this game, but at the end we come up short again…It sucks to have that as our last game, but I mean (the) break is there to flush everything and hopefully come back and everybody with a fresh mindset…but definitely sucks right now.”