Takeaways From Last Night’s 4-1 Loss to the Hurricanes

First Period

The real story of the game came in the first period, dooming the Devils from there. I knew in my soul that we were in for a rough one when Frederik Andersen at one point batting the puck out of the air with his paddle. Despite having one of the worst save percentages in the league, Freddy was locked in early, which is par for the course for him against the Devils The Devils were given their first power play of the game when Sean Walker tripped Paul Cotter in the neutral zone. Nico Hischier won the faceoff,

but the Devils were disturbed in the passing lanes, forcing them back to center early. After that, the first unit didn’t really get themselves re-established, and the Devils changed off for their second unit pretty early. They didn’t have any more luck, and the Devils failed to get a single shot in their two minute advantage.

Late in the period, Jack Hughes was unable to score on a short break against Andersen. This time, I thought Andersen gave him the five hole, but Jack just missed it. And to end the period a few minutes later, Keefe pulled Markstrom for an extra attacker on a faceoff draw in the offensive zone, but Andersen made a pad save on Dougie Hamilton. Still, outshooting the Hurricanes 9-4 in the first period gave me some hope that the Devils might be able to pull something off.

Second Period

Sean Walker was called for another penalty for high sticking Timo Meier, sending the Devils to their second power play of the night. Like their first opportunity, they had trouble getting going early, leading to the Hurricanes clearing the puck multiple times. Around halfway through the power play, Timo Meier just missed with a shot before later dumping Aho by the benches. The Devils’ first unit just stayed on a little too long, almost giving up a two-on-one chance, but Nikolaj Ehlers couldn’t bat the lifted pass into the net.

After the penalty expired, Paul Cotter took a penalty of his own. The Devils did very well on this penalty kill in the first minute, with Luke Glendening getting himself a shorthanded break after whacking the puck to center. He backhanded a shot and then got the rebound, but Andersen stuffed him twice. On the other end, Markstrom padded a slap shot out of play. Siegenthaler cleared the puck around the halfway point, after the faceoff. The Hurricanes nearly scored at the end of their power play, though, with a chaotic sequence leading to the puck going through the crease after Markstrom stopped a big slap shot from the point.

Andrei Svechnikov put the Hurricanes up 1-0 when Aho dropped the puck back for him, as Luke Hughes had lost Svechnikov after a bad turnover in the neutral zone. Svechnikov beat Markstrom cleanly, and the Devils found themselves trailing with under seven minutes to play in the second. Luke made a big mistake of passing to the middle of the ice here, but it would have been nice to see Markstrom square up the shooter with both passing options for Svechnikov covered by Pesce and Meier.

It didn’t take long for Markstrom to let it get to 2-0. Again, Svechnikov got a little loose. This time, Markstrom should have had the shot, which went right through him. Siegenthaler and Jarvis might have screened the shot a bit, but there was no real excuse for Markstrom to not come up with the save there.

After a sweet play between Dougie Hamilton and Arseny Gritsyuk to beat the Carolina forecheck, Connor Brown backhanded a pass for Gritsyuk on the rush that led to a K’Andre Miller hooking penalty. The Devils were pushed to center to start their power play, and three re-entry tries failed before they dumped the puck in successfully. They only got one shot from a sharp angle before being pushed out again. With just too little time to work with, Cody Glass fired a shot from the slot that was ended up right outside the blue paint on the rebound. But Meier backhanded it wide just as time was about to expire in the period, leaving a bit of carryover time for the power play.

Third Period

The Devils were not able to do anything with the half minute of carryover penalty time, putting the game back to five-on-five for a few minutes. Evgenii Dadonov drew a slashing call just before spinning out on a wraparound attempt, sending Sean Walker to the box for a third time in the game. This time, the second unit started the power play, but they had similar trouble getting started. On the fourth try, the Devils gained the zone, and they passed the puck around by the point. Timo Meier took a point shot that was blocked by Jarvis, but Meier followed it up with another quick shot that fooled Andersen, pulling the Devils to 2-1 with over 15 minutes to play!

The Hurricanes iced the puck with 14 minutes to play, giving the Devils a chance to get their top six to build on the momentum. However, Timo Meier’s one-timer was blocked by Sean Walker. Dawson Mercer skated ahead for a two-on-one with Timo Meier, but Meier could not convert, and Mercer flung the puck out from behind the net and just missed the trailer as Andersen was still out of the crease.

Nico Hischier took a holding penalty on Nikolaj Ehlers with over 11 and a half minutes to play, but the Hurricanes scored on the rush as Andersen was going to the bench. Ehlers came flying up the wing and beat Brett Pesce with the pass across to Jackson Blake as Dougie Hamilton was coming back behind the Canes’ line change, and the Canes made it a 3-1 game. I think some will be tempted to blame Dougie for this goal against, but I have no idea why Dawson Mercer stepped up in the neutral zone when he was back to cover Hamilton’s pinch. That put Mercer in no-man’s land, doing nothing to prevent this chance against.

Adding insult to injury, Svechnikov got a hat trick through the largest five hole ever seen from Jacob Markstrom, as he was unable to get across and stumbled, allowing Carolina to make it 4-1 with four minutes to play. This made it pointless for the Devils to pull the goalie, pretty much sealing the game right there.

Takeaway Number One: Jacob Markstrom Should Not Be Starting Big Games

It is tough to win if you can’t score. It’s even tougher to win if you can’t score while your goaltender ends up behind the net after stumbling around on simple rush chances. That’s the kind of goaltending Jacob Markstrom gave the team tonight, flailing around on the few high-danger chances that Carolina got while letting some easy shots beat him.

Going down 1-0 to the Hurricanes was bad enough at the end of the second period. But Jacob Markstrom, continuing to have the terrible season he’s having, let another puck go right through him to make it 2-0 in short order. Forget the Devils having issues of their own coming back from deficits this season. What teams in the NHL are able to pull off multi-goal comebacks against the Carolina Hurricanes? By losing his composure, allowing a second goal on the 15th shot against of the game, towards the end of the second period, Jacob Markstrom all but killed the Devils with 26 minutes left to play.

Maybe, if it remained 1-0, and Timo Meier scored — maybe the Devils would have had a chance. But against Carolina, you cannot give up weak goals.

Nico Daws has NHL experience and has a .945 save percentage in his seven NHL appearances over the last two seasons. Jakub Malek has flipped his bad start around and now has two shutouts since being called back up to the AHL, with an .894 save percentage in 12 games. When was the last time a Devils goaltender gave them a shutout effort in a close game?

Lenni Hameenaho Should Be Playing Over Fourth Liners

Before the game, it was widely reported that Lenni Hameenaho would be making his NHL debut against the Carolina Hurricanes after being called up in place of Colton White.

Then Juho Lammikko played instead.

Lammikko did not shoot the puck once. He had 0 individual expected goals. The team had a 17.52 expected goals against percentage with him on the ice, being outshot 8-2. He played just over six minutes.

I think Lenni Hameenaho could have done that. But where does this rot start on the fourth line?

Luke Glendening is the worst five-on-five player I have ever seen in my life. I never thought I would have to write about a player who negatively impacts the game more than John Hayden. No penalty killing prowess — and Glendening doesn’t really have all too much of that left, either — is worth keeping him in the lineup. It sucks that his NHL career is coming to a close, but the Devils cannot continue to expect different results with him on the fourth line. It makes them too easy to beat, and it puts too much stress on the top two lines to play all situations. It’s time for Glendening to be waived, just as Lammikko and White were.

But perhaps, if Hameenaho played the game, the Devils might have had a trick up their sleeve. In the AHL, Hameenaho has been hot with 21 points in his last 24 games, playing for a Utica team that really does not score that often. Maybe Connor Brown could have been on the fourth line last night.

Onto the Next One

The Devils will next play tomorrow against the Calgary Flames, kicking off their western Canada and Seattle road trip. It’s their last trip far west of the season, with their farthest opponent after the Olympic break being Dallas in late March. For what it’s worth, though, the schedule becomes very easy after this.

The problem is that the Devils are in 15th in the Eastern Conference without games in hand. They have played more games than the teams above them. This does not mean that the Devils can’t come back in the standings, though. But:

Their skaters have to give the same efforts they gave over the last three games
They cannot trust Markstrom to play
They have to try new fourth liners

Over the next five games, I see one I expect to lose: on Tuesday against Edmonton, on the back-half of a back-to-back. It would be really nice if the Devils pulled a surprise off, like they did in a similar situation against Minnesota. But I think the Devils can beat Calgary, Vancouver, and Seattle on the road before facing Winnipeg at home. They also don’t have a choice. If they do not win seven of the nine games they play before the break, they will be in very poor position to make a playoff run after the Olympic break.

Still, the standings cannot be viewed in an extremist lens based off of single games. The Devils won’t be perfect for the next 33 games, though they probably need to win 22 of those games. And over the last three, they have two wins and one loss. So, roll with it, knowing the goalie didn’t give them a chance to win tonight, and start making corrections to the roster where the real faults lie.

If the Team Benches Hamilton…

Dougie Hamilton has four points in three games since returning from his healthy scratching, while also having a total four-game point streak. Per Evolving-Hockey (Natural Stat Trick is down), Hamilton generated the most individual expected goals from the blueline with 0.44 last night, third among all Devils behind Mercer (0.47) and Meier (0.89). Before Markstrom’s stinkers killed the team’s effort down the stretch in the third period, Hamilton was the only Devil defenseman I saw making plays against the Carolina forecheck, and I only felt like they were a threat to score when he was out there. That’s reflected on the team’s impact card from last night, where Dougie is the only defenseman with a positive offensive play-driving impact (marked by the orange bars). The rest, except Luke Hughes, were…extremely negative.

If you’re looking for a way to improve the team’s performance, start with the guys who regularly have the lowest scores on here, like Luke Glendening. And with Pesce regularly at the bottom of these since returning from his injury — perhaps he wasn’t ready! Just a thought.