Imagine, if you will, that you are a New Jersey Devils fan that sat down to watch tonight’s game against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. Through the first 20 minutes or so of real time, you witnessed things
going pretty well. After a sluggish start for both sides, you saw the Devils cash in on an early power play, with Timo Meier getting off the schneid with a hard-working rebound goal to put New Jersey up 1-0. Unfortunately, you would then see the Devils give up the tying goal shortly thereafter when Jake Allen attempted to swipe a puck away from the crease, but it went right to Noah Cates who buried a shot into the open net. It’s 1-1, and while you’re annoyed, you’re still encouraged because overall it’s been a decent enough start to the game. Things might just be turning around for your favorite team.
Then, at approximately 7:35pm, you hear an odd sound outside your garage, so you go investigate. You’re not happy that it’s pulling you away from the game, but it should only take a couple minutes to see what’s going on, and how much could you possibly miss in a couple minutes? You flick on the porch light and see some raccoons digging through your trashcan. You hustle over to shoo them away, and watch them scurry into the bushes. After putting your trash in a safer place, you walk back into your living room and turn your attention back to the game.
The time is 7:37pm, and the Devils are now losing 4-1. Your heart sinks as you realize you missed the entire game in those two minutes.
Somehow, someway, the New Jersey Devils gave up three goals in 26 seconds in tonight’s first period on their way to a 6-3 loss. It was tied for the fifth-fastest three-goal meltdown in the history of the NHL. The first of those goals was a breakaway by Matvei Michkov, the second was a one-timer off a rush chance immediately off the ensuing faceoff by Tyson Foerster, and the third was a weak shot by Foerster (again) that inexplicably beat Allen. It was a comprehensive, team-wide failure from Allen giving up soft goals to the team allowing premium chances en masse.
And once that onslaught ended, you just knew the game was over. Don’t let Nico Hischier’s goals in the second and third (the latter coming with the net pulled with about 6:30 left in the third, which shows you how desperate this team is for offense) fool you. Don’t let the Devils looking pretty good on the surface in some stat columns fool you either. This game was over after those fateful 26 seconds. If you didn’t think so at the time, then you surely thought it was over when Allen yielded yet another soft goal to Bobby Brink midway through the second period to make it 5-1. Once it got to that 5-1 score, Philadelphia was more than happy to play prevent defense the rest of the way. Score effects over the final 30 minutes or so is what allowed New Jersey to make things look decent in some statistical categories, not any sort of strong play when they actually had a chance to win.
I suppose if I was feeling generous, I could argue the skaters played a little better than the final score would indicate, and that Allen just never gave his team a chance to win. In fact, I would say that Hischier’s goal in the third and then the next few shifts that followed gave me a spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, New Jersey could put together a late charge to at least steal a point. But that hope was snuffed out after New Jersey just missed putting a fourth puck past Dan Vladar, and Trevor Zegras beat Allen on a breakaway of his own to put the game out of reach for good at 6-3. That breakaway I don’t blame on the skaters, as they were selling out for offense. It would have been nice to get a save from Allen there, but I guess he’s only good for one breakaway save per game maximum, which he gave us on a Travis Konecny breakaway earlier in the game.
But other than the late charge starting with Hischier’s second goal, New Jersey never even remotely threatened. It’s concerning because the Flyers aren’t a particularly good team, and the Devils, as injured as they are, still have more than enough talent to handle Philadelphia. Even if they got league-average goaltending tonight, the Devils still weren’t winning, and that’s what’s concerning.
It’s not even that the Devils lost tonight either, although obviously another loss is not ideal. It’s the way they lost. After a promising start, an offense that was already under fire for not doing anywhere close to enough lately went to sleep once again. As we’ve gone over, New Jersey never even came close to climbing back into this game while it was still up for grabs, as they never strung more than a couple good shifts in the offensive zone together. And in the rare instances that they did get a shot attempt off in the first 30 minutes, it was usually blocked easily by a Flyer defender. Again, only score effects allowed New Jersey to get the late push that they got.
And on the other end, the Devils suffered way too many defensive breakdowns for a team as offensively challenged as this. Multiple breakaways allowed, defensive-zone turnovers, lapses in coverage, countless failed zone clearances, you name it. The one saving grace is that despite the defensive issues, New Jersey did a reasonable job of keeping the Flyers’ chances to the perimeter. Not a perfect job, as Philadelphia still did cobble together some high-danger looks, but reasonable.
Then of course, there was Allen. The ostensible 1B has found himself pressed into 1A duties this season thanks to Jacob Markstrom’s early-season injury and subsequent struggles. Allen made a couple strong saves tonight, but was overall terrible. The fourth and fifth goals in particular were inexcusable, and you could argue the first goal was too as Allen whacked the puck directly to Cates for the easy score. Allen was pretty great in his previous outing against the Florida Panthers, so I’m not saying he’s broken now too. And frankly Allen could have played extremely well tonight and still lost, that’s how bad the team in front of him played before the Flyers took their foot off the gas pedal. Nevertheless, Allen was awful this evening. He was as big a part of the problem as anybody in this game.
The bottom line is, this team is way too easy to play against right now. The Devils are wholly incapable of generating offense without Jack Hughes, which is deeply troubling. Yes Hughes is a gigantic loss, but it should not cause the offense to malfunction as badly as this. There is still a ton of talent left on the active roster, so these offensive woes are puzzling to me. Meanwhile, as getting quality looks at the opponents’ net is like pulling teeth, the other team doesn’t have a whole lot of trouble getting their fair share of looks themselves. Again, I would not go so far as to call the defense outright bad, as while New Jersey is getting pinned in their own end way too much, they are at the very least doing a halfway decent job of keeping things to the outside. But the defense has not been lockdown either, which they have needed to be considering how much of a chore it has been to score goals.
Based on my own personal eye test (not worth all that much, admittedly), I really don’t think this is an effort issue. I don’t see players not hustling out there. Rather I see a team that is out of sync and not playing smart hockey. Players out of position both offensively and defensively can be devastating, all it takes is a couple inches one way or another to make a huge difference. I also see a team that is collectively squeezing the stick. The Devils have had so much trouble doing things as simple as connecting on passes and hitting the net on shots lately, it really does look to me like a team that is playing tight. And I would also say that the Devils’ puck luck has been pretty bad lately. For all the good bounces they got during their eight-game winning streak, that luck has swung to the other side since then.
Not playing smart hockey, playing tight, and bad puck luck. And tonight, shoddy goaltending. That’s a pretty insurmountable combination.
If I had to take the optimistic viewpoint, I would say that the Devils are still 13-7-1, a very strong record. That eight-game heater allowed them a cushion to go through a slump like this. And now that this five-game road trip is over, New Jersey can return to, well, New Jersey, where they have been a much better team this season. Perhaps playing at The Rock again helps this team regroup. And I’d also say the puck luck should regress back to the mean again soon, though it’s obviously impossible to predict that.
All is not lost of course, and there are positives to look at. But tonight, a catastrophic 26 seconds was all it took for New Jersey to lose yet another 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 Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com
Is Markstrom Actually Healthy?
After Allen gave up his fourth goal of the night, a particularly alarming one to allow, it seemed like a logical time to pull him. Four goals on seven shots is certainly bad enough to warrant an early hook. But head coach Sheldon Keefe kept Jacob Markstrom planted on the bench. It made some wonder, myself included, if Markstrom is actually fully healthy. After all that’s a spot where we would probably expect the goalie to be pulled about 90% of the time. Yet Allen carried on in the crease.
We all know how badly Markstrom has struggled this season. What we don’t know is how much to attribute that to less than 100% health. As of right now, we have not heard anything from Markstrom or the team about him being compromised. But if he is not fully healthy, the Devils really need to put him back on IR and give Nico Daws some run with Allen. New Jersey needs to get Markstrom right.
Big Guns Heating Up?
Nico Hischier scored twice tonight. Timo Meier opened the scoring on the power play. It came in a losing effort, but it would be really nice if those tallies get Hischier and Meier going.
One of the big stories of last season was the offensive ineptitude of the bottom six. While the bottom six has not been producing lately for the Devils either, the top players have gone cold too, which is a bigger problem. Hischier, Meier, Bratt…in Jack Hughes’ absence, these are the players that really need to start scoring again. Well, Hischier and Meier accomplished that tonight, and Bratt contributed with three assists.
It’s cold comfort in a game like this, but while it obviously didn’t help the Devils this evening, the hope is that it sparks the big guns and they can start producing in bunches again soon.
We Might Have Something Here
I hesitate to say they played a good game, because I don’t really think anyone on the Devils played an outright good game, but I will say I saw a lot of promise out of the pairing of Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec this evening. We have seen the youngsters paired together in the past and it hasn’t gone well, but tonight was at least a little different.
According to Natural Stat Trick, at 5-on-5 the duo played 12:21 together. In that time, New Jersey out-attempted Philadelphia a whopping 26-7, outshot them 12-4, actually managed to break even in goals 1-1 (on a night where New Jersey was outscored 6-1 at 5-on-5), and they posted a combined 69.95 Expected Goals For%.
As I went over up top, score effects played a HUGE role in making everyone’s numbers look better than they actually played, so take those gaudy statistics with a grain of salt. In fact I would say Hughes in particular was pretty bad defensively tonight, though I also thought he did generate a good amount of offense. Still, score effects don’t entirely explain a 26-7 edge in shot attempts and a 70% xGF%. We’re going to need to see more that just one lopsided game, but if New Jersey’s young building block defensemen can produce more nights like tonight, that would go a long way toward stabilizing this team.
Next Time Out
The Devils finally return home from their road trip on Monday when they host the Detroit Red Wings at The Rock. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.
Your Take
What did you think of tonight’s game? Have you ever seen anything like that 26-second stretch in the first period? What is your overall level of concern with this team? What about the goaltending specifically? Are you optimistic they can turn it around soon? As always, thanks for reading.
