The math still says they aren’t eliminated, but this game was pretty emblematic of all the Devils problems this season, and is probably enough to even snuff out the hope of even the most optimistic of fan. It’s onto tankathon and prospect watch again, good times.
Just more of the same: Inconsistent effort, poor goaltending, odd man rushes against, and not capitalizing until it was too late.
1st Period
The Devils got off to a decent start, but as is the case with this team all year, the controlled the puck, got no
shots, gave up one odd man rush and we are down 1-0 at 5:04. Dillon got left out to dry and Markstrom probably could’ve squeezed that one off.
Not to be outdone, at 9 minutes later at 14:07 old buddy Kevin Bahl, obviously, makes it 2-0 on a slap shot from the point that deflected off Cotter’s stick shaft. This was after getting pinned down in the Dzone for nearly a minute by one of the two teams who score less than the Devils.
We get one back from the new(ish) guys, Bjugstad wins a battle in the slot, dumps it off to Tyspalkov who buries it past Wolf at 16:14, his second of the year.
Jack took a high stick that drew a little blood that sent the Devils on a 4 minute PP toward the end of the 1st, and the PP pushed, Jack got off one good one timer that Wolf made a nice stop on, but the period would end 2-1 Calgary.
2nd Period
We started on the PP looking to even things up but after a braindead exchange between Dougie and Jack, John Beecher picked their drop pass off, came in on the right wing and let a shot go. After getting his own rebound, he somehow banked it off Markstrom’s leg and in, and its 3-1.
We would get one back to make it 3-2 on another PP, after a great center lane drive by Luke. Nemec was sitting on the doorstep hammered it home. He has better netfront hands than several of our forwards. That’s 10 on the season for Nemo.
Calgary would widen the lead again at 16:48. Luke pinched up on Oloffson who had some speed, he found Ryan Strome who was in on a 2-on-1 vs Nemec, with only Jack coming back to help. Strome laid a nice little saucer pass to Sharangovich, who abused Markstrom forehand-backhand and upstairs, and it’s a 2 goal lead again for Calgary 4-2.
Digging through he numbers, you can once again see some alarming patterns – they out attempted Calgary 18-13, but got out shot 9-5, gave up 5 HD chances to our 2, AND lost the xG battle 60/40. It’s just not good enough, they get too many shots blocked, create no traffic, and hang around the perimeter too much, and get caved in the Dzone too easily. This is Calgary! They are awful!
3rd Period
The 3rd started out with Bryce Salvador talking about Calgary’s 3rd game in 4 nights, how this was a scheduled loss and its a deep home run to center field and Backlund scores to make it 5-2. Ho hum, just a mother unblocked writer from the slot that sneaks through Markstrom’s arm and body. This game should’ve been 2-2 at this point.
We made a semi admirable late comeback that was not enough, again, just too little too late. Just like this season.
Jack and Bratt connected on a beauty to cut the lead to 5-3 at 9:38:
And Luke buried one with 3.7 seconds left to cut the lead to 5-4, but they ran out of time, just like this season.
Some Scattered Thoughts
Didn’t like a couple body language moments from Jack, particularly after the missed stretch pass that was turned back on Yegor’s goal and how he reacted after Beecher’s 2nd (the shorty off Marky).
No idea why Markstrom got a 7th straight start here, but we do have another option – do the coaches know that?
After a nice couple of debut games, Lenni hasn’t had the best time. I have confidence in him, but he’s had some tough moments, particularly in the Dzone.
I love Grits, seemed like the only guy that had a motor going all night.
Our 4th line might’ve been our best tonight, strung together some good minutes and Ozone time, and generally didn’t get caved in all night like it was earlier this season. Unfortunately the 3rd line had a rough go tonight.
What do you think gang? Who’s holding out hope, any of you still out there?
LGD
