OVERTIME: Blue Jackets 3 – Devils 2

COLUMBUS – They thought they’d risen from rock bottom the other other night, but it was just a bounce. The Devils are dredging the depths, still.

“A fragile team,” Jamie Langenbrunner said. “As soon as something goes bad, we don’t collect ourselves and play like a team that knows how to win. And most guys in here know how. That’s a hard thing to understand.”

They still haven’t come to grips with being mediocre at best these days. Last night’s 3-2 OT loss to the 9-20 Blue Jackets here was the latest example, as they failed to hold two leads in losing their fourth straight (0-2-2). This was only the ninth of 233 times anyone lost to the Blue Jackets after taking a lead into the third.

“This is definitely a team we should have beaten, and we didn’t,” said Martin Brodeur after Columbus defenseman Bryan Berard scored with 13.6 seconds left in OT.

Once more, the Devils’ power play failed them. They were zipped on seven chances, including a vital 5-on-3 early in the third that could have given them insurance. Shortly after that chance evaporated, Columbus erased New Jersey’s last lead – on the power play.

“We can’t let games like this slip away from us,” Larry Robinson said. “The last few games the difference from us having wins and one point tonight is the inability of our power play. Our power play let us down.”

The Devils have scored only twice in their last 46 power play chances, going back seven-plus games. On the other hand, New Jersey has allowed its last three foes six PPGs on only 12 chances. They’re not nearly potent enough 5-on-5 to overcome that.

“We have the guys that can turn it around,” said Brian Gionta, whose 18th gave the Devils their last lead. “We’ve shown that. If we hadn’t shown flashes, there’d be a little bit of panic.”

Perhaps it’s time to push that button.

They had hoped to build on Friday’s comeback for a point (shootout loss) from a three-goal deficit to Colorado. While they never trailed until the final shot, they never looked strong, even while leading.

Paul Martin put New Jersey in front with his first of the year 10:36 into play, but Columbus answered in the second on Nikolai Zherdev’s first of two. Gionta put the Devils back in front at 16:54 of the second, but Zherdev tied the game again at 4:35 of the third, while top penalty-killing center John Madden was in the box for shooting the puck of the rink.

In overtime, Sergei Fedorov wove magic as he sent Berard right wing to cut inside of Martin and score under Brodeur and they’d missed 6-of-8 points.

“We’re not back to square one,” Robinson said, “but it certainly has been a roller coaster.”

They’ve been on the downward leg for a while. Their few signs of climbing are only bumps.

*

With GM Lou Lamoriello saying cryptically “sometimes decisions have to be made,” the Devils left defenseman Dan McGillis in New Jersey for yesterday’s game, bringing only six defensemen, without an emergency spare in case of warmup accident.

McGillis sat out his fifth straight, and the Devils could use the $2.2 million in cap room his salary represents. Lamoriello did say that McGillis has not been placed on waivers.