It's hard to know whether tonight's better performance was because it was one of the last home crowd games, or whether players are playing for future employment, or whether the Steelers were poor.
Bownsey had a great game, solid and focused when called upon. The Team's powerplay organisation is still woeful though. On one occasion, they actually took 1 minute and 10 seconds to set up properly after repeatedly retrieving the puck (powerplay is 2 mins!)! Cant get away with that in the Playoffs. Will anything change? Gone are the days of slick pp systems under Lord, when there was always a plan to change up the tactics in pinch situations.
Steelers might well have been playing in 2nd gear, saving something for next week. This game would not have changed their league position. Or was it because after defending several penalty kills, including a 5 minute one, they were probably knackered! And the Devils had a lot of puck possession, especially in p1.
Let's hope for a confident, determined, focused version of our Team over 2 important games next weekend. That performance and compete is in there somewhere.