Jon Merrill

This was the kind of night Devils defenseman Jon Merrill had in Pittsburgh Tuesday. (Gene J. Puskar/ AP)

(Gene J. Puskar)

NEWARK — After a horrendous loss in Pittsburgh two nights ago, the Devils were bound to make a change on defense.

Adam Larsson will, in fact, return to the lineup. But it will be Eric Gelinas, and not Jon Merrill, who comes out against the Winnipeg Jets Thursday night at Prudential Center.

Merrill was minus-5 in Pittsburgh Tuesday night.

“If you’re asking me do we make lineup decisions based on stats lines? No. You guys (the press) do, we don’t,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer snapped Thursday morning. “It goes a lot deeper than that. It’s a body of work. It’s everything else.”

Was Merrill’s minus-5 misleading?

“I think so,” DeBoer said. “I think he was victimized a little bit. When you look back at the goals, you can’t hang five of those goals on him.There’s no way.”

Merrill agreed, but admitted he played poorly.

“I definitely could’ve been better in a lot of areas. I don’t think I was completely at fault for five goals out there, but there were definitely some mistakes I made that I can learn from and hopefully be better,” Merrill said.

He knew his plus-minus numbers would not look good as the game unfolded.

“You obviously know that you’re minus-5 as the game is going on. You realize you’ve been on the ice (for goals against),” Merrill said. “I knew it was going on. It was just one of those nights where it felt like every time I was on the ice something would go wrong. You just try to put that in the past. All you can do is look forward and bounce back.”

DeBoer said Larsson will replace Gelinas, but not only because of the 8-3 score.

“Not just (because of) an awful loss. We’ve got defensemen here and people here knocking on the door,” DeBoer explained. “Lars, I thought, really handled being out well. He’s looked good in practice.

“He’s made us talk about him every day we’re doing our lineup sheet as a guy who could potentially help us. He’ll go in and Gelinas will come out.”

Not what Gelinas wanted to hear.

"You can't be happy," Gelinas said. "All I can do is work hard. No one wants to sit out. It's not fun. I don't think anyone really played awesome.



"Early in the game I missed a couple passes. I thought as the game went on I felt looser and better, but it's up to hard to work to get back in."

Rich Chere may be reached at rchere@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ledger_NJDevils. Find NJ.com on Facebook.