First Period
The third line had the first good chances of the game, with Ondrej Palat firing a one-timer that was fought off by Arturs Silovs before Cody Glass came cutting down the left side for another good shot
that Silovs froze. The Devils had the better run of play early on, but the third pairing of Dennis Cholowski and Colton White was quickly shown to be subpar, and not because of the freshly-called up Colton White. Cholowski turned the puck over on his very first shift, causing the Jack Hughes line to get stuck in the defensive zone yet again before a hit by Noesen in the neutral zone led to a Penguins icing.
Stefan Noesen had Jack Hughes on a two-on-one almost eight minutes into the period. Noesen passed it back to Hughes after drawing Silovs low, but Hughes tried making a move to the backhand and lost the puck. Near the halfway point, Dennis Cholowski completely missed an easy puck by the boards, forcing Jake Allen to make a big save on Ville Koivunen with White rushing over to defend the unexpected one-on-one.
Play was stopped a minute later when Brenden Dillon threw a giant hit in the offensive zone on Tommy Novak as Novak was reaching for a puck by the blueline, leading to a fight between him and Anthony Mantha while Blake Lizotte went off on the rush. Allen stood strong, fighting off the shot before Dillon punched Mantha’s face a few times. No minor penalties were called on the play, and the Devils had to manage themselves without their top pair defenseman for five minutes. Meanwhile, no instigator penalty was called on Mantha.
Timo Meier took a crosscheck while firing a slap shot with over six and a half minutes to play, leading to him slowly getting off the ice, but no penalty was called. The Penguins proceeded to put a lot of pressure on the Devils, with a deflection chance for Crosby going just wide after Rust took two shots on goal, but the Devils kept the game tied. Meier, however, returned for his next shift a minute and a half later, after a TV timeout.
Jake Allen made a huge save on Ville Koivunen with under two and a half minutes to play. Siegenthaler had his back turned to him, and the puck came off Malkin’s skate right to Koivunen, who shot it into Allen’s glove. This freed Brenden Dillon from the box, with the Penguins putting up 8 shots on goal in the time he was unavailable. Then, Arseny Gritsyuk went rushing and chasing Kris Letang back into his own zone in the last minute of the game, sneaking behind and stealing a pass. He went to the forehand and roofed the puck! The Devils took the lead on their first shot in five minutes.
Second Period
Nico Hischier was hooked at the offensive blueline by Erik Karlsson, leading to a penalty call in the first minute of the period. Timo Meier joined the first wave of the power play to begin this afternoon, and the Devils set up after winning the puck from a faceoff loss. A bad pass from Luke Hughes to Bratt forced them back. Bratt regained the zone but was hit into the boards by Letang, and the Devils managed to keep possession for a Meier one-timer that was saved. Jack Hughes later looked for a redirection for Meier, but the deflection went wide. The rest of the power play was not noteworthy, and Paul Cotter went figure skating with open ice to shoot, not shooting and circling the zone instead, wasting their possession afterwards.
Arseny Gritsyuk slipped up at the blueline off a faceoff draw almost eight minutes into the period, and Anthony Mantha went on a partial breakaway with Colton White backchecking as fast as he could from the far side. Allen came out to challenge with White cutting down the angle, and Mantha’s shot went wide.
After Dennis Cholowski was unable to clear the defensive zone while paired with Luke Hughes, the Penguins tied the game with a high shot from Ryan Graves that deflected off of Ondrej Palat’s shoulder. The Penguins almost took the lead when the fourth line got utterly hemmed in on the following shift, but Jake Allen came up big with a glove save just a minute after he was run over to no call by Benjamin Kindel.
The Devils had a chance to retake the lead in the final minute of the game, as Luke Hughes found his brother for a chance below the faceoff dot with Silovs out of position to make the stop. Silovs still dove over for the glove save, and the game remained tied through the end of the period.
Third Period
The third period started off slowly, with some wide-angled attempts by Timo Meier and an icing by Pittsburgh. After Siegenthaler fought off Anthony Mantha on a rush, Stefan Noesen set up Jack Hughes after Jesper Bratt fell down, but Silovs made the save. Then, Stefan Noesen was sent off for slashing for two minutes, and Connor Clifton got away with a hit on Noesen after the whistle.
The Devils won the defensive zone draw and cleared the puck. An offsides delayed the Penguins from setting back up, but Pittsburgh won the neutral zone draw and gained the offensive zone. Evgeni Malkin had a shot saved by Allen, but Luke Hughes shot the puck off Brenden Dillon, allowing Sidney Crosby a chance from the point that was frozen by Allen. Simon Nemec blocked an Erik Karlsson shot attempt after the following draw, but the Devils could not clear the zone until Luke Glendening averted a scoring chance with Allen diving around by backhanding the puck from the crease to center ice. The Devils survived the penalty.
Stefan Noesen had a great shift, forcing Silovs to make a couple big saves while Noesen fought off two Penguins by the crease to get some whacks in. The Hughes line came back and had a good shift, but Dennis Cholowski could not bury his backhand try. Then, Nico Hischier left the game after diving to block a shot with his head. I don’t even know what commentary to add to that — that’s just what happened.
Cody Glass was cross checked in the head with a bit over seven minutes to play, and Evgeni Malkin was very angry about being called for it. Dawson Mercer had a chance early on and shot the puck for a rebound, but nobody was around to clean it up. The Devils cycled without many shot attempts until a one-timer by Luke Hughes was deflected out of play at the end of the first minute. As Nico Hischier returned to the bench, Timo Meier ripped a one-timer off of Silovs and the iron, but it stayed out. After the power play, the teams went back and forth but were unable to score a winning goal.
Overtime
The Devils took possession to start three-on-three, and Hischier had a shot blocked early. The Devils kept possession through the first change, though, and Jack Hughes entered the zone and shot from a sharp angle. Silovs stopped it, and Luke Hughes blocked a shot by Novak on the other end. The Penguins continued to pressure, preventing the Devils from changing, and Jake Allen had to make three outstanding stops on Ben Kindel, including a diving poke check.
A generous change by Evgeni Malkin cut down a chance for Timo Meier while four Penguins were on the ice. The Devils kept possession, though, but they had to go back to center. Luke Hughes later spun a backhand pass to Paul Cotter on a rush, but Cotter was unable to finish. A desperate last-second slap shot by Jack Hughes (after a great dive by Simon Nemec) was saved by Silovs, sending the game to a shootout.
Shootout
Paul Cotter went first for the New Jersey Devils. He made a great dipsy-doodle fake to his forehand to score!
Bryan Rust followed, and Allen stuck out the pad to stop him!
Jesper Bratt went second, and he slickly put the Devils up two!
Sidney Crosby tried to save the game for Pittsburgh. He went wide, and the Devils won on Allen’s pad stop!
Woof.
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
JAKE ALLEN
The Devils did their best today, I think, considering the circumstances. They are now missing Dougie Hamilton while Brett Pesce, Connor Brown, and Evgenii Dadonov are still out of the lineup, and they had to run a pretty rough defensive lineup as a result. They pulled this off thanks to the outstanding, steady performance of Jake Allen. He was never in the wrong spot today, and could have had a shutout if not for an extremely unfortunate bounce off of Ondrej Palat.
The stats say that Allen only faced 2.32 expected goals against. It felt like a lot more, and when you consider how much offensive zone possession time the Penguins had, I’m sure Sheldon Keefe and the Devils felt like it could have been three or four goals for Pittsburgh on the 34 shots they had on goal. He had to be locked in for the majority of the game, as the Devils were just playing to limit the danger that Pittsburgh sent his way. It worked — they kept this game going long enough to get the shootout win, even if I was dreading a heartbreaking goal against after Pittsburgh’s fluke of a game-tying goal in the second period.
Paul Cotter’s Redemption
I was blasting Paul Cotter’s performance throughout today’s game on account of him seeming to hold the puck too long, hurting some possessions and causing turnovers while the fourth line was repeatedly hemmed in. I have written before that Cotter has incredible skill, and I still believe that, but I think he has again gotten too into his own head when he has the puck. Shoot it! Dump it! Do something!
But Cotter almost finished the game in overtime, and probably would have if not for a great backcheck against the feed he got from Luke Hughes. Then, his shootout move was absolutely disgusting. And I’m not someone who likes to give shootouts much attention (I would still prefer a longer overtime at four-on-four), but this was for the Metropolitan Division lead. Had Cotter and Bratt not scored there, Pittsburgh might be atop the board right now.
He also had the best quote of the post-game:
I’m not sure Nico is necessarily the guy who should be blocking pucks with his head, but I mean that’s the type of stuff that’s happening.
Some faster decision making from Cotter during the game would turn him into a regular 20-goal scorer. He has the hands to be a net-driving power forward, and he has even more speed than hands.
The Elephant in the Room
Dennis Cholowski had another bad game today. Let’s see some breakdowns on his with-or-without-you’s (WOWYs):
- Jack Hughes: 20.55 xGF% with Cholowski, 73.23 xGF% without Cholowski
- Luke Hughes: 73.49 xGF% with Dillon, 0.00 xGF% and a goal against with Cholowski
- Cody Glass: 15.56 xGF% and a goal against with Cholowski, 83.08 xGF% without Cholowski
- Think it’s Luke Hughes’s fault? Glass had a 66.82 xGF% with Luke on the ice, including Cholowski’s drag.
- Juho Lammikko: 31.29 xGF% with Cholowski, 53.97 xGF% without Cholowski
You can say that you don’t believe in advanced stats, but no matter who you look at, Cholowski makes them perform worse on the ice. The Devils’ options are limited, but I think today’s game showed how essential it is for them to find a better stopgap on the third pairing. He missed pucks left and right, had a few turnovers, and just looks too slow out there.
Nico Hischier
Nico Hischier means everything to the New Jersey Devils, but he needs to be a lot more careful about (literally) throwing himself into danger like he did in the third period today. He has already been looking a little slower than usual, probably fighting through something nagging, and the team cannot afford him missing time due to an injury. I thought his line was a little disappointing again today, though it seemed like they were largely deferring to Timo Meier, who almost had a third period goal when he wrapped around the net. In Hischier’s case, I do not think it’s enough that teams don’t score against him. He’s not a 35-year old defensive center. If Hischier or his linemates are not scoring, the team will have a tough time winning games. They pulled this one out, but I wouldn’t count on too many wins with a scoreless top six. That said…
Give Gritsyuk More Ice Time!
Arseny Gritsyuk is now regularly near the top of the board in terms of expected goals percentage, Devils shots on goal, and other indicators of offensive threat. With his fantastic goal today, he showed again why playing a tick under 14 minutes a night is not enough for him. I did like how Noesen worked with the Hughes line today, but the Meier-Hischier-Mercer line has not been as good since Mercer moved to center and then back to wing. With the fourth line in desperate need of a makeover, I think it might not be a terrible idea to have Mercer center a third line, using Glass as a fourth-line center (and he’d probably be the best 4C in the league). This would allow Arseny Gritsyuk to get top six minutes again.
And it’s not a linemates thing. I think Ondrej Palat and Cody Glass have looked very good with Gritsyuk. Maybe it’s a fourth line overusage thing, preventing that line from getting enough looks. But whatever it takes, I would like to see Gritsyuk playing more. He had a bit over 16 minutes today, which draws his season average up closer to 14 minutes a night, but that needs to be the consistent approach.
Stick Taps for Nemo and Luke
You might not have been impressed with their game today, but they made a lot of defensive plays (such as the dive by Nemec in overtime) and ate up a lot of minutes for the Devils tonight. Luke Hughes led the team with 29:39 tonight, while Nemec played 26:39. In the future, Brenden Dillon should probably strive to avoid five-minute fighting majors while the team is already down multiple defensemen, but these guys playing a breakeven game while playing overly-inflated minutes was one of the things that needed to happen for the Devils to win today.
Your Thoughts
What did you think of today’s game? Did you think the Devils would pull it off? Who were your top players of the night? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
