The New Jersey Devils went into Calgary with one goal: leave with two points.
Some Good News: Hameenaho and Defense
I had been beating the drum on the fourth line for a few weeks, leading up to yesterday. So I was thrilled to see that Sheldon Keefe scratched Luke Glendening and Juho Lammikko to reinsert Ondrej Palat while having Lenni Hameenaho make his NHL debut. On a line with Cody Glass and Arseny Gritsyuk, the Devils had one of their best bottom six lines of the season. According to Natural Stat Trick, this line led the Devils with a 65.00
CF% (13 shot attempts), outshooting the Flames nine to five. Hameenaho might not have gotten onto the scoresheet, but this was an outstanding first look for him in real NHL action. They might not have ended up being the true fourth line (I would say that was Dadonov, Cotter, and Brown), but Gritsyuk and Hameenaho were more than willing to use their speed to mount an aggressive attack — with a working forecheck! In the future, Hameenaho might want to shoot a little more often, rather than look for extra passes, though. I saw two instances in the third period where Hameenaho made a pass instead of shooting where I was unsure of the utility of the extra pass. On one chance, Hameenaho had a chance to wire a shot to the blocker side, but he passed it back across for a Jack Hughes one-timer. Maybe at the start of the season, Jack might have been able to hit it, but his hand still seems limited.
Hameenaho’s chemistry with skilled linemates aside, the defense was outstanding last night. Yes, Jacob Markstrom had to make some tough saves, but the Devils allowed a total of 1.47 expected goals against. Per Natural Stat Trick, only one of the 22 shots against Markstrom were of the “high-danger” variety, while only five were of “medium-danger.” So, yes, a defense featuring Dougie Hamilton and Simon Nemec can shut down other teams if they play the game the right way for their skills. The Devils did, however, fare much worse in the run of play after Luke Hughes got hurt…but more will be said on that later on. Just see how many of those dangerous shots came in the third period, when Hughes was in the locker room.
More Good News: Hamilton and Nemec Keys to Victory
You can’t win if you can’t score, and the two of the Devils’ most talked about defensemen were at the center of both goals last night. Dougie Hamilton, who has been mentally shipped out of New Jersey by a chunk of the fanbase already, expanded his point streak to five games when he set up Dawson Mercer, seen below:
When Dougie Hamilton is on the ice, he makes other defenses look at him. He opens up all kinds of space for these redirections and deflections. Look at how Zach Whitecloud goes to step up on Hamilton, only going halfway because of how hard Dougie can shoot it. This opens up that lane to the side of the net for Mercer to work with, and this play earned the Devils their first point of the night.
But what is better than having one right-handed defenseman who can create goals? Why not have two? Simon Nemec had a decent enough game throughout the 60 minutes of regulation, and he was in the perfect spot yet again to score the game-winning goal in overtime.
Is this play high risk? Sure. If Bratt isn’t able to kick this puck off to Jack Hughes, the Flames would have been off to the races for an odd-man rush on Jacob Markstrom. But Nemec goes to the front of the net and just chips the puck over Devin Cooley before the Calgary goaltender could jump on the puck. This was Nemec’s eighth goal of the season and his third game-winner. So, Dougie Hamilton got point number one, and Nemec got point number two.
The Bad News: Luke Hughes is Hurt
In the second period, Luke Hughes was skating through the neutral zone and got a bit tangled up, holding his arm as he went in heaps of pain to the bench and then the locker room. Hughes, who had shoulder surgery in May, seems to have suffered a similar injury to the one he dealt with throughout last season.
While the team has not confirmed these concerns, Amanda Stein has said that Luke Hughes will miss time.
I do not know if the Devils will recall Colton White to play a balanced defensive lineup with three righties and lefties, or if they would rather dress four right-handed defensemen. For what it’s worth, Brett Pesce and Dougie Hamilton have a history of playing on and off with each other going back to their time in Carolina, so they might be a good bet for the immediate future.
Regardless of how they deal with the immediate impact, though, the Devils will miss Luke Hughes. Yes, Luke makes mistakes with the puck, especially in transition, but his speed and passing ability are hard to come by among defensemen — particularly in the Devils’ system. And if you look at the way his injury took place…it does not really look good. Low or no-contact injuries are pretty common when it comes to lower-body injuries, but this one was really odd to see for what is supposedly a shoulder injury. But the way he’s holding himself, and the amount of pain he’s visibly in tells me this might not be an easy one for Luke to come back from.
Final Thoughts
I hope the Devils front office now sees hat a skilled bottom six can do for the team. The goals have not come yet, but good things will come if the Devils have a third line that can actually outshoot opponents convincingly. On the other hand, I think the fourth line can still use some tinkering. Perhaps Evgenii Dadonov and Ondrej Palat can swap spots, giving Hischier a better scorer on his left while Palat goes off to do hard work with Cotter and Brown.
I was also intrigued by the look of the Meier-Hughes-Bratt line last night. Due to Jack’s hand injury, Timo Meier took the faceoffs, winning five of eight draws (62.5%) in the dot. But more than his faceoff ability, I thought Timo Meier just looked natural in the middle. He has played a solid defensive game under Sheldon Keefe’s regime, and while we are desperate to see some better offense from him, this spot of interchanging with Jack in the middle and on the wing might be perfect for Meier for the foreseeable future.
But what did you think of last night’s game? Did you stay up to watch? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
