Despite scoring two early goals, the Devils just did not have the finer details nailed down tonight.
First Period
Starting the second line, the Devils took possession early, after the Penguins turned it over. Erik Haula, fresh off a practice-time facial injury, was wearing a fishbowl under his visor. He used Dawson Mercer as a shield for him to take a pass and zip down the middle of the ice right to Tristen Jarry. Haula shot and scored! He hit the top corner to make it 1-0 just 15 seconds into the game. Brett Pesce got the secondary assist for making a nice play to interrupt the Penguins’ attack.
Ondrej Palat drew a hooking penalty from Kevin Hayes a few minutes later, giving the Devils a power play while already up a goal. Nico Hischier was kicked from the faceoff draw, and Tim Meier did enough to get the puck back. Hischier’s shot from the point was disturbed on its way through, and the the Penguins temporarily pushed the Devils to center ice before they came right back in. Jesper Bratt took a shot on goal after circling, collapsing the Penguins’ penalty kill and creating a battle for the puck in the crease. Stefan Noesen came onto the ice after Jarry froze the puck to replace Dawson Mercer on the first power play, getting a chance to dig away at the puck off a Bratt shot right away. Jarry, again, made the stop. This was the best chance for the remainder of the power play, which was solid but failed to convert.
However, the Devils’ third line stayed on the ice with the puck in the offensive zone. Seamus Casey shot the puck wide of goal while there were still four forwards on the ice, but the Devils kept possession as Noesen went off for a change. Daniel Sprong went cutting down the right side, and Casey chose to slide the puck left to Cody Glass near the point. Glass’s slap shot boomed off his stick, getting a handy deflection from Ondrej Palat to make it 2-0!
The Penguins got their first shot on goal past seven and a half minutes into the game, with Evgeni Malkin banking a shot off Jake Allen’s pads. However, they did not muster a ton of offense over the next several minutes. The game instead took on an even nature, with Pittsburgh mostly relying on long-range shots to get rubber on Allen. Not lapsing in their game, the Devils were on a good run of defensive hockey until Johnny Kovacevic fell backwards and tripped Malkin up with under six minutes to play in the period.
On the penalty kill, Dawson Mercer cleared out an early rebound from the crease and then rushed to the blueline to get the puck out of the defensive zone. The Devils then repelled the Pittsburgh entry and got a line change on the following clear. Bratt made a lot of trouble at the top, and Pittsburgh failed to get another shot on goal until the final 30 seconds of the power play, after the Devils had changed their penalty killers again to get Glass and Noesen out. The Devils successfully killed the penalty, but they would fall victim to another goal in the continuation of offensive play. Jake Allen was trying to stop the puck from trickling in from the side with his skate, and Luke Hughes played the puck into the goal, making it 2-1. While Luke played it into the net, though, Allen did not really do him any favors with the way he tried to keep the puck out of the net.
After Jarry denied Palat on a dangerous chance, Allen came diving out to poke a loose puck away from a speeding Bryan Rust, allowing Brett Pesce to send it away. The Devils took their 2-1 lead to intermission, with the officials missing a clear trip on Bratt with New Jersey threatening in the dying moments of the period.
Second Period
Brett Pesce took a hooking penalty, sending Pittsburgh to the power play a minute into the period. Evgeni Malkin blasted a shot off Allen, and the puck deflected off Valtteri Puustinen into the net to tie the game at 2-2.
After losing the lead, the Devils pushed back against Pittsburgh. Ondrej Palat drew another penalty from Matt Grzelcyk, who took him down as he tried to get juke around the Penguins defenseman on a transition play. On this power play, the Devils kept possession in the offensive zone for much of the first minute, but missed their best chance when Meier whiffed on a potential one-timer from Bratt. The second unit was unsuccessful, as well.
The third line had another excellent shift, performing an excellent cycle in which Luke Hughes tried to label two shots for the far post, missing one high and ringing the second off the outside of the iron. Luke then made a wicked play under pressure to trickle the puck into the slot, and Paul Cotter reached his stick through his legs to bank the puck off Jarry’s pad. The Devils later iced the puck after Pittsburgh got it out, but the Devils continued to pressure after they won the puck and got new lines onto the ice.
Stefan Noesen tried to enter the offensive zone for an opportunity with under five minutes in the period, but he was tripped by Conor Timmins. On this power play, Dawson Mercer took a Timo Meier shot up high, having to go off for Noesen. Bratt tried to slap a pass to Noesen at the side of the net, but the puck deflected off of Hischier and away from the goal. The Devils again failed to convert on the power play. At the very end of the period, Brett Pesce made a bad play to slash the stick out of Bryan Rust’s hands, as the puck got past Pesce at the blueline with under three seconds to play in the period. Not realizing the period was expiring, Pesce went too far to prevent a chance that never could have come to pass. Rust had far too much ice to cover in the time left on the clock.
Third Period
The Devils did much better on this penalty kill, keeping Pittsburgh from registering a shot for the whole first minute. Jake Allen ended up making two shots on Sidney Crosby and one on Letang in the second minute, with the Penguins keeping their scorers on for the length of the advantage. A couple minutes after the penalty expired, Allen made a huge stop on Rickard Rakell to keep the game tied, and the Penguins iced the puck about 15 seconds after the following faceoff. The Devils were denied on a few faceoff plays after this, and it took the Penguins about a minute to get possession of the puck back in their offensive zone.
As the period went on, the two teams played very tight hockey. It looked like the Devils were finally going to get a break for Sidney Crosby holding Cody Glass’s stick, but Glass was the one actually called for high-sticking Crosby. So, with eight minutes, the Devils went to the penalty kill. Nico Hischier worked hard to get the puck down the ice, but nobody got off the ice, leaving the same penalty killers on the ice for the second minute. Sidney Crosby tapped in a go-ahead goal with 6:39 with the Devils’ penalty killers tired and slow, chasing behind the play.
After falling behind, the second line tried to create a chance to tie the game. They created chaos, but did not score. That second line stayed on for an extended shift that came close to two minutes by the time they got off. Keefe then sent out a few bottom sixers, and Seamus Casey leveled Ville Koivunen in the defensive zone. With Bratt and the defense’s extended shift, the clock ran too fast for them to get Nico Hischier back onto the ice, who was dealing with an equipment issue.
The Devils had possession with Allen going off for the final two minutes. They got the cycle going for a minute, but Bryan Rust sealed the game at 4-2 after Luke Hughes’s shot was blocked.
After Sheldon Keefe called timeout, Jake Allen again left the net with 1:30 to play, down two. The Devils failed to keep the offensive zone, forcing him back into the net for a neutral zone faceoff before he could get to the benches again. The Devils put some more rubber on Jarry, but still lost the game.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
When the Puck is Down the Ice on the PK, Change!
In what I have felt has been a recurring theme in penalty kill breakdowns of late, the Devils again had the puck in the offensive zone while down a man, only to keep personnel on the ice. This led to Sidney Crosby’s game-winning goal tonight, as Nico Hischier gave Dawson Mercer, Johnny Kovacevic, and Brenden Dillon plenty of time to get off the ice. I don’t know what was going on there, but Ryan McGill’s unit has to be a lot better about keeping their defensive shifts short. One bad play can lead to tired legs being hemmed in, and it happened tonight.
I am most frustrated with Brenden Dillon here, who went way out of position on the goal against, but Brett Pesce also put the defensemen in a tough position as a guy taking a lot of penalties. Still, Dillon and Kovacevic already should have been off for Pesce and Dumoulin about 30 or 40 seconds before the Crosby goal was scored, as that goal came on the Glass penalty.
Some might question the effort tonight. But, the Devils outshot the Penguins in the first and third period. Each teams only had four shots on goal in the second period. The Devils took nearly twice as many attempts at the net as Pittsburgh. Not a single one of Pittsburgh’s second, third, or fourth goals came off of especially dominant play by Pittsburgh.
Natural Stat Trick
If these games are about getting fundamentals in check and staying healthy, a great way to do that would be not extending shifts long beyond what they need to be. You can see the shift chart above. What do they do right after that disastrous marathon PK shift? The defensemen and Bratt stay on way too long, killing much of the remaining time left to tie the game.
Eh
The best positive I can pull out of today is that nobody got hurt. Nobody was really gaining anything out of winning today, except for, perhaps, the Devils worrying about home ice against possible opponents if they can win the round against Carolina. To me, though, it seems this team is not putting their eggs in that basket. The goal for this team is to stay healthy and work on details.
I get it, but it’s going to be occasionally frustrating. A game focused on the little things could have used more of the little things. A bit of desperation from Curtis Lazar or Luke Hughes to keep the puck out with Allen trying to freeze it with his skate? Allen even trying to freeze pucks with his skate? Taking reactionary penalties, under no threat, with seconds left in periods? The Devils again failed to get their details in order.
I did like the third line of Palat, Glass, and Sprong today. Palat, in particular, had a vastly improved game from his performance against Boston. Sprong continued to be a noticeable puck mover in the offensive zone, but they really need to open him up for some shots. And Glass, of course, with the big slap shot leading to Palat’s goal, had another nice even strength game — and he performed well in over six minutes matched up with Crosby. He needs to keep his stick down, though.
Hockey for Ray
This was the first game for the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils since the news broke that Ray Shero passed away at the age of 62. It would have been really, really nice if the broadcast showed any of the on-ice tribute for Shero. You can see an unofficial video of it below.
As far as the Shero style of hockey goes, this game had a bit of it. He always wanted to build skilled rosters above all else. Unfortunately, the Penguins were a bit reliant on the power play, so it’s not like this was a shootout by any stretch — Crosby was held to a 15.00 CF% at five-on-five — but there were not a ton of extra-curriculars in today’s game. It was pretty hockey-focused, and I can only think of a third period exchange between Kris Letang and Timo Meier as a negative moment between the teams. So, I’m happy this game was kept pretty respectful.
The Penguins are pretty much a relic team at this point, and, honestly, there is about as much worth keeping from the past 10 years or so as there is from the Shero years. Malkin, Crosby, and Letang can still turn a game on its head. As can Bryan Rust, a Shero draftee. And Tristan Jarry, who was in Shero’s final draft class in Pittsburgh, seems to have completely turned it around. He was excellent in net for them yet again.
I still believe the Devils have plenty of hope for the playoffs. And honestly, I think a better-run Penguins team over the past few years would still be a yearly playoff team. They have the talent and experience at the top to do it. Ray did leave both teams with a lot to work with.
Your Thoughts
What did you think of tonight’s game? What did you think of the finish? When did things go wrong, in your opinion? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.