First Period
The Carolina Hurricanes took the lead right off the jump, as Nikolaj Ehlers tipped an early shot off of Jake Allen. It would have stayed out, but Luke Hughes redirected the puck right into the net, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead.
Mark Jankowski left the game just a couple minutes into the period, as he blocked a shot by Timo Meier while being struck by the follow-through of Meier’s shot. Jankowski bled profusely and went immediately to the Hurricanes locker room. Dawson Mercer got his stick caught up in Shayne Gostisbehere’s hands not even a minute later, sending the Hurricanes to the power play.
Nico Hischier had a nice play early in the penalty kill when he banked the puck off the wall and back to himself to beat two Hurricanes for a clear after the three other Devils had gotten caught up on the other half of the defensive zone off the faceoff. Hischier later relieved the Devils with another clearing play at the end of his shift, while also coming up with a blocked shot on the kill.
The Devils nearly caught Bussi out of the net when Dawson Mercer forced him out of the net to play a potential icing play behind the net, and Timo Meier set up Arseni Gritsyuk for a one-timer that Bussi got back in time to save. The Hurricanes temporarily forced the Devils to center, but Mercer went to the front of the net and beat Bussi after Arseni Gritsyuk made a play behind the net to tie the game at 1-1!
The Hurricanes controlled the pace of play down the stretch in the first period, but Jake Allen had an excellent period. Stopping 12 of 13, Allen kept the Devils together after the 10-minute mark. The Devils seemed to lose some of the speed they were playing with in the opening minutes, continually getting hemmed in their own zone because of poor passing and excessive reversals behind the net. Still, it could have been worse.
Second Period
The Devils did not have a good start in the second period, and Dougie Hamilton took an interference penalty for a shove by the Devils’ net when the team was under pressure. The Devils did a good job of getting the puck down the ice on this kill, doing so twice in the first minute. In the second minute, Jake Allen had to make a couple saves, while Jesper Bratt came up big later on to send the Hurricanes back one last time.
The Devils had a bad start, but things did not get better. Luke Hughes was skating back with the puck in the defensive zone, and Taylor Hall reached around him to poke the puck past Jake Allen, giving the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead.
Sean Walker took the first penalty of the game for Carolina when he was called for high sticking in the neutral zone, as Walker high sticked Jack Hughes as Hughes skated by. Luke Hughes rang a shot off the crossbar to start the power play. The first unit did not do much very well after that, though the second unit had some more life to it. The Devils would not have to play at five-on-five for long after the penalty expired, though, as Cody Glass was tripped up into the boards by Logan Stankoven. The Devils had an extended six-on-five opportunity, but Ondrej Palat was barreled over after having trouble with the puck at the blueline before the Devils could get a shot on goal.
The Devils’ second power play was terrible, with the second unit playing most of the time after Jack Hughes was hit hard into the boards by Jordan Staal. Shortly after that penalty expired, Stankoven was called again for another penalty. This time, he high sticked Nico Hischier in the neutral zone, leading to an extended freakout by Stankoven where he fired the puck down the ice before shouting at Nico Hischier. He probably could have gotten an unsportsmanlike for it, but the Devils went back to the power play.
Third Period
Jordan Staal airmailed the puck over the glass not even three minutes into the period. On the power play, Jack Hughes sent the puck to the net, and the Devils scrambled in the crease. The net came off the moorings, but the Devils celebrated as if Stefan Noesen pushed the puck into the net. The officials did not make a call on the ice, but they went right to the video review, but they did not award the Devils a goal. To me, it looked like Sean Walker knocked the net off and the Devils would have scored a goal, but the officials ruled no goal.
The Devils had another chance to score off the next draw, as Luke Hughes had his shot deflected by Nico Hischier. Stefan Noesen batted at the puck, but the Hurricanes kept the puck out. The Devils had a decent power play, getting six shots on goal, but they failed to score, and Ondrej Palat took a hooking penalty after their opportunity expired. Thankfully, their penalty kill looked a lot better than their power play, and they were able to kill it.
The Devils were looking better until Jake Allen played the puck one too many times. His pass was broken up by Taylor Hall, who found Logan Stnakoven in front before Allen could get back and down to stop the five-hole goal. That made it 3-1.
Sheldon Keefe pulled Allen with four minutes to play. The Devils did not really up their pace, but they took a couple shots before the Hurricanes sent the puck out of play, off the glass to give them a TV timeout with three and a half minutes to play. After the break, the Devils were able to get some more chances, but the Hurricanes were tough to crack. Then, Luke Hughes was tripped down as he spun away from Andrei Svechnikov with 1:33 to play, leading to the Devils going on the power play.
Keeping the net empty with the power play, the Devils had more trouble keeping the puck in the offensive zone with Carolina able to ice the puck freely. Dawson Mercer had one big chance to pull the Devils to within one off a feed from Timo Meier, but Jalen Chatfield was on him and Bussi made the stop. The Devils then called timeout with under 30 seconds to play. But the Devils couldn’t beat Carolina, falling 3-1.
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
Poor Team Effort
Yes, Luke Hughes had a bad game. His two plays giving the Hurricanes goals are unacceptable. But they’re just a mask for the reason the Devils lost tonight.
For just a short span of time in the first period, it looked like the Devils were actually playing to match Carolina. By halfway through the first period, I thought each of the Devils’ lines had put in a good shift. But then — right at that halfway mark through that first period, it looked like the Devils stopped playing a game, reducing themselves to scrimmage speed. The pace of their puck movement slowed. They started playing more from a standstill rather than staying in motion. They just did their best to keep the game in front of them, seeing how long they could survive without Jake Allen giving up a goal.
To Allen’s credit, he did never get beat by a clean shot in one of these extended defensive zone shifts for the Devils. But that doesn’t excuse the poor play. The Hurricanes controlled their defensive zone, as the Devils never forechecked. Then, they controlled the neutral zone for most of the game because the Devils let them build up speed to move it through, skating in unison. The Devils just sat back, back, and back, until it was all too easy for the Hurricanes to deny them counterattacks.
By the third period, the only group that looked like it could score was the top line of Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Jack Hughes, looking best on their shifts with Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes. But they didn’t score, and the Devils had trouble keeping the puck in the offensive zone in the third period with any other line on the ice. So, combining that with a power play that has been awful since the first couple weeks of the season, the Devils had one of their more pathetic offensive performances.
In the end, Luke Hughes’s mistakes are only the tip of the iceberg for why the Devils lost today. They could have taken the lead on their various power plays, but they have not had a good power play system this season. They could have tried generating five-on-five offense in the first 40 minutes. Instead, they stayed glued to passive, defensive, unskilled hockey for most of the game and only got pressure on Bussi by the time Carolina was free to just clog the middle of the ice.