The Devils were missing several key pieces in the second half of a back to back and came out flat against a very good opponent.
The Devils were without Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, and Ondrej Palat last night. Mid way through the game, Jonas Siegenthaler suffered a broken foot when blocking a shot. Dougie Hamilton has been missing for weeks and will very likely miss the rest of the regular season at least. Vancouver has been one of the NHL’s best teams so far this season and they are right there in the race for the presidents trophy, so it would be easy to just say the Devils just had too much going against them before the puck even dropped. However, even with key pieces missing, the Devils were capable of a better showing than what they put on for the first two periods.
The most positive story to come out of last night was Nico Daws. The 23 year old goalie made 36 saves on 41 shots and kept the Devils in the game for as long as he could. The Devils allowed 17 shots on goal in the first period alone and Daws stopped every single one, giving his teammates a chance to regroup at the intermission and come out ready to match Vancouver in the second period. Unfortunately, that is not what happened and Vancouver continued to out play the Devils in all areas of the game for much of the second period, out shooting New Jersey 32-16 by the end of the second period and leading 4-2 on the scoreboard.
The Devils showed some fight in this game. After a dreadful first period and after allowing three goals in the first five minutes of the second period, the Devils got into the game a little more. They started finding ways to shut down the Vancouver attack, and finding way to put pressure on Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko. The last ten minutes or so of the third period looked like a much more even game and the Devils fought their way back into it…. Briefly…
Almost immediately after Erik Haula got the Devils back into the game, setting up a very exciting third period, the Devils allowed Connor Garland to give the Canucks some breathing room. This just cannot happen. Look at Michael McLeod on that play. He is just gliding after Garland in the defensive zone. McLeod literally only take two strides between the blue line and his own goal line. If McLeod moves his feet just a little bit, he would have been able to stay with Garland and prevent Garland from getting around the net. There were only 11 seconds left in the period and this was right off a face off. McLeod has had a great year so far, but we need more effort out of him there. The team just fought their way back into the game and is about to go into the locker room on a high note. Skate for the last 15 seconds of a period and give you and your team a chance to go into the third period feeling good with all the momentum.
Despite all the injuries, being dominated in the first half of the game, despite giving away all the momentum they had at the end of the second period going into the third, the Devils still came so close to at least getting a point in this game, if not winning outright. This could have been a massive confidence boost for the Devils. Had they been able to come out in the second game of a back to back, missing multiple key players, against one of the best teams in the NHL, and get the win, that could have been huge for this team that is barely hanging on to the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference right now. People want to complain about the refs missing the obvious trip of Luke Hughes in the games final minutes with the Devils down a goal and trying to tie it up, but the Devils dug their own grave last night and one missed tripping call is not the reason they lost.
The Devils wont play again until Thursday night in Tampa so the team has some time to rest after playing three games in four days. Hopefully some of the injured players will be able to come back by then and the Devils can be a more complete version of themselves. The Devils are barely hanging onto the last playoff spot right now so every point is going to be huge from now until the end of the regular season.
The Morning Skate 