The Devils dropped their second consecutive game at the Rock tonight, by a score of 5-3 to a faster, more resilient Mammoth team. Utah manhandled the softer Devils all night, controlling pace, all three zones, chances, special teams, the boards, behind the goals, in front of the goals – basically everywhere for large swaths of the game and the Devils had no answer. All of the concerns about a bad d-corps and weak goaltending are rearing their head early this season, and it can get late very early if
they don’t figure somethings out between now and Saturday.
Utah was led by an elite power paly that cashed in twice, and were led by Sergachev who had 3 assists and Nick Schmaltz who had a goal and two assists. The Devils were led by strong games from Both Lukes, with Evagelista potting two goals, becoming the first Devils forward to score a goal in regulation this season, and Hughes showing poise and control all game until the final goal against. After 3 games now, with a record of 1-2, the Devils have yet to hold a lead at any point this season.
1st Period
Utah got the early jump with a power play in the first 10 seconds as Timo high sticked Jack McBain. Frankly, I hadn’t even sat down yet with my dinner and Utah was snapping the puck around. It’s probably not a good idea to give the best unit in the league a chance that early and they made it look pretty easy with Gold Medal winner Clayton Keller ripping a one-timer through Jake Allen from the right flank off a feed from Segachev.
I’d love to see Allen get a pad on this one as it snuck underneath, but the subtle hesitation form Sergachev froze Allen for a split second before sliding across and he wasn’t as clean and structured as he could’ve been.
The Devils were largely outplayed until finally breaking through on the power play at 12:23 as Luke 2.0 tipped in a Jack Hughes shot from the top of the circles on a 5 on 3. He almost cost them a good opportunity by overpassing, as he wasn’t properly positioned for a bumper shot, but was able to cash in a few seconds later:
The period would end knotted at 1-1 , and while a little sloppy for the Devils they hung in there, down on shot attempts 18-15, virtually even with a 49% xGF, but up in shots 11-8 and HD Chances for 5-3.
2nd Period
The Mammoth got their lead back early in the period (again) at 1:42 on a scramble in front, after a failed clear by the Devils. Jesper Bratt lost a puck to Logan Cooley in the slot, it comes back around to a point shot, Anders Lee jams it off Allen, and Weeger picks it up at the side fo the net and was somehow able to sneak it in under Allen.
The Devils would answer back less than 5 minutes later, on some strong work below the goal line by Timo Meier and good netfront presence from Luke 2.0. It was pretty innocuous after 5 minutes of some uninspired play – but goes to show you that throwing the puck at the net when things aren’t going well does wonders. Also, credit to Evangelista who gets his stick free even though he is basically sitting in Sergachev’s lap:
That would last only a little over 5 minutes as the Mammoth got back on the board at 12:05 on the period on the power play. Soft call on Timo as Marino tripped himself, but you gotta have your stick in a better position there.. and I’m gonna tap the sign again: “Don’t give a power play that is at 70% more chances.” This goal is pretty smart scheming by Utah by pulling Guenther up really high and slipping Schmaltz low, but also a terrible read from Dillon – he has to respect Guenther’s shot and get in the lane, but he gives Schmaltz enough time to pull up a chair in front and wait out Allen. He also didn’t get any help from Siegs who did one of his trademarked “dive in front and flail around” defensive moves.
What would turn out to be the nail in the coffin in the final minute of the second came off an abomination of a sequence from Siegs and Lombardi. It starts with a terrible pass attempt from Siegs to noone, and ends with Lombardi not covering for him and having his controller turn off on the backcheck and THEN he takes a terrible route that let’s Schmaltz waltz on by him in the slot. Allen losing the rebound is just icing on the cake.
That is how the second would end, with the Devils trailing 4-2, and losing the xG battle (41%), HD Chances battle (8-4) and shots battle (14-10) by decent margins. ON to the 3rd.
3rd Period
The period started a little frisky, as McBain buried Chisholm deep int he Devils zone, and Dillon took exception to it. With Sigs just having left clutching his shoulder, it probably wasn’t the best idea to take yourself out for 5 minutes, but really didn’t have anything to lose at this point. After his phantom roughing penalty was killed off, the Devils probably had their best run of play culminating in Jesper Boquist burying a loose puck on a nice spin around move:
Just for old time’s sake it turned out to be our famous fake comeback, and the Mammoth would putt he game out of reach on Vinny Trocheck’s first goal on his new team:
Pretty tough turnover from Luke here, but Schmaltz is a world class pest and got in front of Jack on this one. That would be in kiddos, 5-3, we move on to Vancouver on Saturday.
Some Scattered Thoughts
It was interesting to see a team like the Mammoth who are similarly built to the Devils, who just make it look easy while everything looks hard for us.
Don’t be fooled by “play controlling” metrics, a lot of score effects went into the Islanders game and the Devils did the same thing tonight.
Intent to blow the whistle is dumb. I had intent to shoot a 75 this past weekend, but it didn’t happen now did it?
I’m not hitting the panic button yet, but everything that was a concern before the season looks to be a problem, name the D group and Goalies.
Issue 1a: Dillon looks absolutely cooked. He has been practically unplayable, and if/when Kovacevic comes back he should be the odd man out. It’s no coincidence their best stretch in this game was when he was in the box for fighting.
Issue 1b: Siegs looks equally cooked, slow, lethargic. Not sure what happened to him injury wise, so we will wait and see.
Issue 2: Goalies. They have been getting left out to dry but some better goalie play would really help weather the storm here. Allen is certainly better than Daws at the moment, frankly Nico hasn’t shown any reason why he should still be here.
Issue 3: Mantha was already swapped for Gritsyuk as of the 3rd period. Not sure if they’ll go back to him by next game, but he looks bewildered out there.
Issue 3b: New guys not gelling. A shortened pre-season has led to some sloppy disconnected play, and with new guys on every line, the only one who has seemlessly fit in so far is leading scorer Evagenlista.
On the positive front, Luke Hughes has looked exceptional our first three games and has easily been our best player. Unfortunately, we need him to be our 3rd or 4th best player. Speaking of which, where you at Jack, Jesper and Nico? You guys gonna show up one of these days? Not only have all three been basically invisible at 5v5 they are the engine of our 1 for 14 power paly. Need these guys to get it together.
I liked what I saw in the brief Dougie-Chisholm pairing, could be a wild adventure but also puts Chisholm back on his natural side where he looked like a different guy.
Sorry was trying to be positive: Timo was a beast tonight. I know this may be wishful thinking on my part, but can this guy play like that every night? He was big, mean, a menace and was creating all over the ice.
Welcome back Boqy!
LGD
