Keefe seems intent on continuing to rotate the primary roster players every other game, with a mixture of players filling things out. Tonight was no different as the boys took the bus out to UBS Arena for game 3 of the pre-season.
There was nothing very notable about the actual lineup up front, but the coaching staff continues to tinker with pairings on the back end, giving Dougie a look with Edwards, Siegenthaler with Nemec, and Cholowski with Casey. This was the pre-season debut of Seamus Casey after dealing with an injury sustained during the prospects challenge.
On the Islanders side we got a pretty good look at the bulk of their forward corps: Barzal, Horvat, new addition Drouin, Duclair, Gatcomb, and Cizikas all dressing for the fishsticks. Devils fans also got a look at 1st overall pick in the ‘25 draft, Matthew Schaeffer.
Casey made his presence felt early, sending a nice little flip pass to Glendening on a rush chance, at 2:01 of the first period. Employed Luke corralled it nicely and in one motion gave Sorokin a shimmy and went top shelf. 1 shot, 1 goal is pretty good – they should try and do that every time. Casey was in on everything early offensively and had a couple of good play break-ups defensively. The Devils were on the front foot most of the period, controlling shot attempts 22-15, scoring chances 9-7, and high danger scoring chances 6-2, while veteran Jake Allen was a perfect 8 for 8.
The ice started tilting the Islanders way in the 2nd and their NHL-heavy lineup decided to show up, even thought he Devils had to slog their way through Long Island traffic on a Friday night. The Devils fumbled their way through a couple of Power Plays, where the only chances came on two Gritsyuk one-timers and a nice feed from Cotter to Lammikko on the doorstep, who proceeded to bury it in Sorokin’s chest. After an extended shift that trapped the Devils on the ice for nearly two minutes, the Devils got 2 bad breaks – literally – as Rooney and Hardman were stickless. Allen kicked out a shot from Barzal, but Gatcomb was sitting on top of the crease and finished it off. Jakub Malek took over with 8:30 left in the 2nd and was tested on a nice cross crease play but otherwise closed out the period clean. The Devils gave a lot of the fancy numbers back, handily getting out chanced 9-3 and out shot 7-4 with an ugly 22.9% xGF.
We headed to the 2nd intermission tied 1-1, in a mostly uneventful game. But the Devils came out buzzing in the third, with Nathan Legare putting them up for good with a nice individual play, stripping the puck from aforementioned 1st overall pick Matthew Schaffer at the blue line, then keeping a strong stick getting through Ethan Bear and ripping one home past Sorokin at 8:44. Welcome to the league, Matthew!
Only a few minutes later at 12:21, Gritsyuk intercepted an errant puck at the top of the zone, barreled in on a breakaway, burying a second chance opportunity on Sorokin, after his first shot was stopped. Credit to Casey for his second assist of the game while taking a big forecheck hit to move the puck up in the D zone to Cotter.
The Isles answered with 16:50 left, as Angus Crookshank failed to clear it, leaving it for Schaefer who fired a pass deep to Duclair who turned and roofed it over Malek. Angus quickly made up for his transgressions buy burying the empty netter to seal the game for the good guys.
Quick Notes
Malek looked very good in his real NHL debut, stopping 12 of 13, including a sick glove save on a cross slot one- timer, and helmet save on a short side attempt. He looked composed and swallowed up rebounds. More of him please.
The battle for 4C continues between Lammikko, Glendening, and Rooney. Glendening seems to be the current leader in the clubhouse (in my opinion, followed by Lammikko and then Rooney).
Casey is so fun to watch.
Edwards continues to have understated, yet solid games. Very Andy Green (h/t Devils Insiders). That being said, the Ethan propaganda seems targeted to an audience of 1.
Halonen had a hilariously bad PP shift in the 2nd, where he ate it 3 times, including putting himself in a cartoon pretzel at the blueline. Aside from his goal in the first game, he hasn’t really been doing himself any favors.
I really liked Legare’s couple of games last season, great type of player to have as a first call-up option.
Pre-season game 4 (and 5?) is a split squad at 3pm on Sunday, with one team going up to Quebec to face Ottawa, with another group staying home to face The Caps.
LGD