First Period
The New Jersey Devils and Vegas Golden Knights started this evening’s game a bit slowly, feeling each other out for a few shifts without a shot on goal. This all changed when the third line hit the ice after the five-minute mark, with Jesper Boqvist making moves through the neutral zone to set his team up. The Devils got the puck low in the zone after Boqvist’s continued his hard work, allowing Anthony Mantha to pick up Luke Hughes cutting down, feeding him a one-timer chance. And he scored! The Devils took
a 1-0 lead again before Connor Hellebuyck had even touched a shot.
A couple minutes later, Noah Hanifin took a rare illegal equipment penalty when a puck off Arseny Gritsyuk’s stick broke his. Hanifin immediately played the puck with his shaft, perhaps not realizing the blade had popped off. The first unit of the power play had a rather strong shift, with Adin Hill robbing Nico Hischier in front early before stopping a Jack Hughes one-timer at the end of their shift. The second unit got 42 seconds to work with after the following faceoff, but they did not generate anything in their time.
Towards the end of the period, Luke Evangelista took a tripping penalty on Mitch Marner. This one hurt them. Glass won the draw, but Mark Stone got to the puck first and sent it to the point before redirecting the shot past Hellebuyck. It was a high deflection that was set to go wide before Stone tapped it to make it 1-1.
Right after the goal against, Connor Hellebuyck made a huge glove save on Tomas Hertl after Jesper Boqvist made a careless turnover in the defensive zone. The Devils would not learn. Hischier and Meier both went to block a shot from the point, forcing Dougie Hamilton to cover two Knights in front. He couldn’t get across to stop a shot from Ivan Barbashev, and the Knights took a 2-1 lead.
The Golden Knights would return the defensive favor. The Knights were skating like a school of fish, all in the same spot as Bratt and Hughes were sprung on a rush. The Knights blocked the initial chance, but Arseny Gritsyuk was left all alone with too much time, sniping a shot past Adin Hill to tie the game back up.
Second Period
The Devils went back to the power play early in the second period when Marner went to the box for crosschecking. The power play struggled a bit again, but Timo Meier had a chance at the end when he shot on Hill from the side of the cage.
Jack Hughes got going after the man advantage, though. Jack Hughes took the puck away at center ice and went into the offensive zone, dancing around Mark Stone and putting the puck through Stone’s legs, beating Adin Hill in a beautiful move! The Devils retook the lead just 3:49 into the period! Thankfully, Braeden Bowman allowed the Devils to keep the lead when he had a wide open net and shot the puck straight through the crease a few minutes later.
Adin Hill made the save of the game a bit past halfway through the period after he came out to stop a Dougie Hamilton wrist shot. Well out of the crease, Hill had to scramble when Jack Hughes got the puck back in the left faceoff dot and fired on the open net. Hill went old-school, cartwheeling and making a shoulder save on Jack.
The Devils shut the Knights down from there on. By the end of the period, the Devils were outshooting Vegas at one point by a near-two-to-one margin, but this wasn’t the team’s highlight of the second half of this period. Right after the Hischier line flubbed a three-on-two with a bad pass to a trailing Dougie Hamilton, the Hughes line came on. Arseny Gritsyuk, not to be so easily outdone by his linemate, came down with a head of steam and backhanded a shot on Hill. Before the Knights could react, Gritsyuk backhanded his rebound through to make it 4-2!
Third Period
The New Jersey Devils nearly got their fifth of the game less than three minutes into the final period when Amadeus Lombardi beat his man on the rush and sent a pass across for Cody Glass. The pass was just a touch too late, as Glass came crashing down on Hill, forcing the puck to sail the net.
A bit past the halfway point, there was a shaky moment for the Devils when Jonas Siegenthaler fell flat on the ice in a two-on-two, forcing Dougie Hamilton to defend the net alone. Ivan Barbashev got a nice shot off, but Hellebuyck came up with a mask save to keep it out. Play continued, and Jack Hughes made a perfectly time intervention in the slot to stop a wide-open scoring chance later in the sequence.
As the period came to its final minutes, the Devils continued to enforce their defensive will on the Golden Knights. After Luke Hughes caused a stoppage by losing an edge and taking the net off the moorings, the Knights pulled Hill for a six-on-five. On Vegas’ 20th shot of the game, Connor Hellebuyck made a cool glove save. After the following stoppage, the Devils continually disrupted the Knights’ puck movement. Doug Hamilton (this is what I’m starting to call him sometimes when he makes big defensive plays) saw a loose puck in the crease and cleared it up the wall, forcing Vegas back to their defensive zone for a breakout. Unfortunately for them, they passed right to Jack Hughes in the neutral zone, who came in and backhanded the empty net goal to ice 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 | The Post Hockey Game Stats | Hockey Game Bot
Great Response
To be honest, I was not very big on the defensive effort that the Devils were giving in the first period. It felt like, once the Knights got one chance, the Devils just started forcing things out on the ice. That familiar sinking feeling came to me when Barbashev scored Vegas’ second goal of that period, as I wondered whether the Devils would have a good response in the second period.
As it turned out, we would not have to wait, for Arseny Gritsyuk was there to tie the game before the first intermission struck.
From then on, the Devils looked like a completely different team — the one that had a big winning streak through that Dallas game. What was a collection of individual efforts at the end of the first period turned into true team defense, and Vegas just looked like they were deflating with each passing minute. This is what these Devils can do to good teams: how many Eastern teams are going out west and putting up 16 shots in the second period?
And once the Devils went up multiple goals, they went into shutdown mode. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Golden Knights had nine shot attempts in the third period. If you are wondering if you read that right, and if I typed that correctly, never fear: these Devils are a team that truly know how to shut a game down.
Moving On
After the Devils’ three-day Halloween break, the team is going to take Edmonton on at home on Tuesday night. It is an ESPN+ game, so it is technically a national game without a local broadcast. Aside from the Devils’ two games against Colorado, this is going to be their best test yet: Edmonton is 9-2-2 right now, and they are playing two-way hockey for seemingly the first time in forever.
Given the way the Devils played tonight, I feel good about the coming matchup. The Devils are a team that can handle top matchups, and their offense is clicking at a blistering rate: they have not scored fewer than two goals since October 17 against the Capitals, and they have scored four or more in four of their last six games.
Believing in Keefe’s Style
While last season left a difficult taste in a lot of our mouths, it is really good to see the team executing what looks like the Sheldon Keefe gameplan with increasing efficiency. I don’t think that everyone was at their best tonight by any means, but it’s a lot easier to hide those warts when the team sticks together and frustrates the opposition. So while there are some lingering areas to improve in, such as special teams, I am personally back to feeling confident in the team before the puck drops each night.
I would think that Connor Hellebuyck is feeling pretty good about the defense he’s seeing in front of him, too! Through two games, Hellebuyck has only had to face 39 shots. That’s good — he’s going to need that rest for Tuesday night.
Until then…
Your Thoughts
What did you think of tonight’s game? Did you feel good about the Devils’ effort? What did you think of the highlight reel goals? Which was your favorite? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.
