As hockey fans, it’s always a special night when we get to see greatness. And make no mistake – watching Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl play hockey means being witness to greatness. That said, there is something brewing on this Devils squad that is starting to look great in its own right. Maybe not greatness in the caliber of the best player of our generation… but something special is happening in Jersey.
We just watched the Devils take down the strongest offensive team in the world.
First Period
The Devils
got the early jump on the Oilers, firing away several times within the first minutes. Jesper Bratt, he of the pass-first mentality of late, was firing on all cylinders tonight. He led the early assault on Tristan Jarry, ultimately getting four shots on net, second only to Jack Hughes for the night. His early push seemed to set the tone for the Devils early – shoot hard, shoot often. That said, the Oilers defense settled in after that, and they were soon outshooting the Devils.
This turning of the tables paid off for Edmonton at 8:29, when Evan Bouchard leaned into a one-timer from the top of the left face-off circle, beating Hellebuyck. 1-0, Edmonton.
Even being down a goal, the first period showed that the Devils could skate with the Oilers. In that first period, even outpacing the Oilers in Corsi with 51.4% in all situations, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Even outside the fancy analytic stats that I know you all love, the Devils seemed to pass the eye test in the opening frame. For the rest of the period, the Devils did a good job of getting traffic in front of Jarry and getting some clean looks from the top of the circles. Alas, none of those shots found the twine, and the Devils went into the locker room for the first intermission down, 1-0.
Second Period
Throughout the opening stages of the second period, it was clear that the Devils were going to push. And man oh man… push they did.
In the first several minutes of the period, the Devils cycled the puck high and low. Took shots from all angles. Hit posts. Hit Jarry in the mask. It was, for lack of a better term, an onslaught. This relentless pressure was eventually rewarded with a power play which, until this game, was pretty toothless. However, Keefe made a few slight changes to the PP1 unit, and at 7:42, Connor Brown (who is fast becoming one of my favorite Devils) went into the muck in the front of the net and got himself a power play goal, 1-1!
About seven minutes later, at 14:50, we saw some offensive prowess from the Devils. The entire play happens because Arseny Gritsyuk was grinding along the boards to win a loose puck to Jonas Siegenthaler, who played the puck back up to Grits who had made his way to center ice. Grits dishes immediately to Jack who makes his way between the hash marks before dropping back to Grits, who again immediately makes a one-touch pass to his left, hitting Bratt.
Bratt, who looked much better in this game than he has in a while (in my humble opinion), shimmies a bit and tries to center the puck, which ultimately finds its way back out to Hamilton on the right-side point. Hamilton makes a sneaky pass across to Jack at the right face-off dot, and he absolutely buries a one-timer. 2-1, Devils!
A short time later, the Devils are awarded another power play that they made excellent use of. Connor Brown was again central on this power play, being left alone and causing all kinds of commotion in front of the net. Eventually, the puck was on his stick very low in the zone, and he somehow managed to hit a streaking Jack Hughes for a power play goal!
To me, this is one of the more impressive goals Jack has scored. Of course, dude has filthy hands and can snipe among the best players in the league. But this was just a strong move to the goal that he essentially muscled to the back of the net. Absolute thing of beauty after his one-timer earlier in the period. 3-1, Devils!
Unfortunately, the euphoria was short-lived. As we are all aware, giving the Oilers a man-advantage is a recipe for disaster, and that’s what we saw here. Just seeing the sheer amount of firepower among the Oilers power play unit is terrifying. And unsurprisingly, they capitalized.
How they capitalized was strange, though. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fired a shot from the top of the circle that hit Connor Brown’s stick and kind of fluttered toward the net. It was a weird, seeing-eye bounce that found its way past Hellebuyck’s glove, and the Oilers claw back in within one. 3-2, Devils.
Even with that power play goal by the Oilers, the Devils absolutely dominated the second period. According to Natural Stat Trick, in all situations, the Devils sported a CF% of 77%. That is borderline unbelievable against a team with the firepower of the Oilers.
Although the Oilers’ late goal took a bit of wind out of our sails, the Devils went into the second intermission up, 3-2.
Third Period
That lead wasn’t to last very long into the third period. After successfully running out the clock on a 2-man advantage for the Oilers, Leon Draisaitl scored a power play goal just a minute into the third period. As you might expect, the goal was preceded by some clinical puck movement and slick handiwork by (surprise, surprise) Connor McDavid.
Other than a few stretches where both goalies played exceptionally well, the third period proceeded evenly. The Devils again had an edge the run of play (CF% of about 55%), but I was fine with them playing carefully. Giving up the loser point against a team in the Western conference doesn’t hurt the Devils at all. So when Luke Hughes decided to stay behind Hellebuyck for the final seconds of the third period, I was fine with it.
The Devils took a point from the Oilers. Happy days.
But… we’re not done yet. Bonus hockey!
Overtime
I’ll be honest. I was terrified over overtime. When an opponent can put McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard out with that much open ice, it wouldn’t take much to spring one of them.
That said, the Devils did an admirable job of keeping them bottled up. Toward the end of overtime, McDavid played give-and-go with his teammates leading to a high-danger shot on Hellebuyck that he managed to turn away.
Even with their firepower, the Devils skated stride-for-stride with Edmonton and held them to a stalemate in overtime.
Onto the shootout.
Shootout
I’m torn on the shootout in the NHL. On the one hand, I don’t think an extra point should be earned on the basis of a skills competition. Or, if the shootout is going to remain, they should change the point structure of the NHL so regulation wins earn more points… but that’s another post.
But, I really enjoy seeing what some players can do when they have the space to show off their creativity, and tonight in the skil-… ahem… shootout, we saw some creativity.
First up for the Devils, Jack Hughes tried to deke a few too many times and ended up running out of real-estate to Jarry’s left, allowing the netminder to close down the angle and make a relatively easy save.
DEVILS – NO GOAL. Devils 0, Oilers 0.
Next up was McDavid. It went about as expected.
OILERS – GOAL. Devils 0, Oilers 1.
Next up for the Devils was Jesper Bratt, who, for all the grief he’s caught in the comments sections lately, is pretty consistently sick in the shootout. Tonight was no different. He came in with significant speed and stick handled directly in on Jarry before flicking a backhand riser over his shoulder without even breaking stride. Filthy.
DEVILS – GOAL. Devils 1, Oilers 1.
Up next was Leon Draisaitl who came in with a bit of speed and tried a slick wrister from the hash marks, but uncharacteristically missed the net.
OILERS – NO GOAL. Devils 1, Oilers 1.
Evan Rodrigues was next, and he actually made a pretty slick move. He came in a little bit from Jarry’s right before breaking inside at the last minute. At first, I thought Rodrigues beat Jarry. And it did look like if Jarry didn’t put out his stick, Rodrigues would have scored. But, Jarry got enough of the puck to poke it away.
DEVILS – NO GOAL. Devils 1, Oilers 1.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins came in on Hellebuyck relatively simply and tried a quick snap shot from just below the hash marks. Hellebuyck trusted his angle and stayed high in the crease to stop Nugent-Hopkins’ shot with almost no movement. This save is why I love Hellebuyck’s game. He is always in position and doesn’t need to do anything flashy to stop the puck. It was a huge save at a huge point in the game.
OILERS – NO GOAL. Devils 1, Oilers 1.
Arseny Gritsyuk (my X-factor, and yes I’m going to keep saying so as long as he is tearing it up) put an absolutely filthy move on Jarry to deke him completely out of position. Grits’ fake to his backhand sent Jarry somewhere over the Hudson River, leaving Grits to bury a forehand into an open net. Just textbook stuff from Grits.
DEVILS – GOAL. Devils 2, Oilers 1.
The final hope for Edmonton was Kasperi Kapanen, who came straight in on Hellebuyck. Once at the hash marks, he tried to beat Helle high to his glove side. Unlike the previous save, this one was all reaction time and skill. Hellebuyck flashed his glove out, getting enough of the puck to knock it wide and sealing the win for the Devils.
Devils win!
Random Impressions
I’ll be honest. I’m out of breath. I don’t have any random impressions tonight.
Even if I did, I’m not sure I’d want to write about them. Watching this Devils team skate stride-for-stride with the Oilers, cough up a lead, buckle down and compete in overtime, and then come back from behind in the shootout to win has me walking on air and you all deserve to enjoy it in its purest form.
I leave you all, Devils Nation, with this: it looks like it’s starting to click… and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to watch.
It feels good to finally be able to say that.
A Note From Chris
(This section is from Chris, not Kurt): Tonight was the first game I had decided to attend in person, as I figured once Hellebuyck faced the Stars that he would make his home debut against the Oilers. I sat in the upper bowl, pretty much straight on the goal line in the Devils’ end for the first, third, and shootout. So, it turned out that a lot of the action happened on the side I had a perfect view of, which turned out to be a nice stroke of luck. But I will say: if you have not been to The Rock yet this season, please make every effort to get to a game. I found myself screaming my heart out several times throughout this game, but no moment any more intense than the final shootout save by Connor Hellebuyck.
It’s electric in the building this year. Go be a part of it.
Up Next
At home against the St. Louis Blues at 7:00 PM EST
Let’s go, Devils!
