The New Jersey Devils ended their trip to Florida and their week with a shutout loss. But the 0-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was a different kind of a frustration. This was very much a team loss, as explained in this recap.
The New Jersey Devils ended a busy week of four games the same way they started it: a shutout loss. On Sunday, the New Jersey Devils were goalied by Mackenzie Blackwood and lost to an unintentional own-goal by Timo Meier in a 0-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks. It was a night where the fans wanted more shots in a game that ended up having 44. If nothing else, the Devils were making spaces and after two periods, got more aggressive at taking them. After two wins against the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the New Jersey Devils went into Tampa Bay and struggled to make spaces for offensive moves. When they did, Andrei Vasilevskiy was either in a great position for a stop or made a great stop. Oh, and the Lightning’s attack hit home a whole lot more. This game ended at 0-4.
Per the headline, this was a different kind of frustration by the New Jersey Devils. Spirits were high after the wins in Sunrise against the Panthers. Much was made about the Devils’ physicality and not being pushed around and how they punished Florida on special teams. All of that did not matter the moment the game started in Tampa. Despite the nasty nature of Nikita Kucherov, the Lightning focused more on being in New Jersey’s way and getting them out of position than to grind them out. This threw off the Devils throughout most of the game.
Take the first period for example. The Devils started off rather well. The first shift was in Tampa’s end. The first few minutes were up tempo. But the Lightning started to clog the middle more, clog their own blueline more on entries, and prey on missed passes and reads by the Devils. This created rushes down ice as well as zone entries leading to open Lightning players. Jacob Markstrom did as well as he could. And he had to. After Dougie Hamilton took a holding penalty, the Devils went shotless for nine minutes. And amid all of the saves, the Lightning would eventually catch the Devils overloaded, puck watching, and too bunched up down low. More specifically, Jake Guentzel went low to high to Nick Paul, who fired a shot through a screen by Erik Haula and Gage Goncalves (another TampaCuse success story in progress) for the game’s opening goal. The Devils’ response: running into the proverbial Tampa Bay wall of skaters. We can agree that the penalty shifted the game in the Lightning’s favor. The issue was that the Devils’ response was, well, not much of one.
Of course, the frustration shifted a period later. A power play did help open up things for the Devils’ offense in the second period. Sure, the Devils conceded attempts, but they got some actual shots on Vasilevskiy. Who became the problem of the second period. A point-blank rebound for Jesper Bratt? Save. Luke Hughes rounding the net and warding off Kucherkov to find Hischier backdoor? Vasilevskiy closed the backdoor. Save. A second power play in the second? Three more saves. And one big one on Dawson Mercer in front. The second period was a positive in that Markstrom stopped all 10 shots and the Devils at least put 14 on Vasilevskiy after 5 mostly harmless shots. The negative was that, well, the Devils did not score. Which obviously continued throughout the game.
While Tampa Bay did not exactly light up the shot count in this one, they kept hitting back in their own ways. Shot blocks to a rush. Denied entries to a rush. And if the Lightning got into a cycle, the Devils needed some kind of heroic backcheck from a forward or stop by a defenseman. Something lacking from the Brenden Dillon-Dougie Hamilton pairing. They even added a faceoff-driven play to strike for a second GA. A miscommunication to Paul Cotter led to an icing by New Jersey early in the third. Anthony Cirelli won the draw, Nikita Kucherov dropped the puck back to Darren Raddysh. He unloaded a onetimer before Cotter could get in the way and the puck was in the back of the net. 0-2 and I’m punching the air about the icing. By the way, Haula went 10-for-20 on draws tonight but 1-for-5 in 5-on-5 defensive zone draws. More on him in a bit.
Still, that goal hurt. Given what Vasilevskiy did in the second period, the sinking feeling of a shutout was forming. At least it was for me. Bill and Ken on the MSG broadcast brought up the Islanders, which yes the Devils blew up their two goal lead in the third period, but those are the Islanders and blowing third period leads is kind of their thing these days. The Lightning are far better coached and in control. They also boosted the score to 0-3 thanks to a bad penalty. Kurtis MacDermid for tripped Kucherov. Victor Hedman finished that power play from the center point on a shot that I did not see much of a screen on. A not-so-good goal allowed on a not-so-good penalty taken by a not-at-all good player. All moot knowing that the Devils had zero goals and it was not likely that the Devils were going to beat Vasilevskiy.
They did not. Not after going down three with 12 minutes and change to play. Not after getting Brandon Hagel back in the box for slashing penalty. Not after pulling the goalie on said power play that got them to 10 shots in the period. It was not the Devils’ night and their performance spoke to that. Of the 17 attempts that led to those 10 shots, only two were high-danger chances. None of them were in 5-on-5 play.
Almost fitting for the theme of this recap and the theme of the team’s performance in Tampa Bay, Luke Hughes saw Hagel passing a puck to Anthony Cirelli for an empty net shot after the power play ended. He threw his stick at the puck. That made the empty net goal automatic. A move made out of frustration. And it ultimately did not matter much. Losing 0-3 or 0-4 still counts as a loss in the standings and a shutout loss.
The overall takeaway from this game was that the Devils were either unable or thrown off by Tampa Bay just taking away spaces and trying to catch the Devils out of sorts on counter attack rushes or changing the points of attack when set up on offense. Jon Cooper had his squad prepared and clearly saw enough of the wins against the Panthers to know that they cannot let the Devils get behind them positionally. They did that. They also knew that if you can get the Devils confused in their own end, then shots will open up for them and enough of them will yield goals. They did that. Tampa Bay fully deserved the 0-4 win. That also means that this was a team loss by the Devils. Not just getting goalied by Vasilevskiy, the Lightning out-performed the Devils as a whole. I did not like writing that. You probably did not like reading that. It was a frustrating night all the same. Different than Sunday’s loss to San Jose but still the same emotion.
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
The Game Highlights: From the NHL’s Youtube channel, here are the highlights. Which are not favorable for the Devils given the 0-4 final score.
Another Sign of Frustration, Shifting Lines: Throughout the game, as I’ve noticed in the second period in particular, the forward lines were mixed up a bit by Sheldon Keefe. Which was understandable as the lines the Devils have been running for weeks now did not get much going in Tampa Bay. Consider:
- The Nico Hischier line generated 10 attempts and allowed 9 in 5-on-5 play. The shots were even at 4-4. But the expected goals were 0.19 to 0.46. While Tampa Bay did not exactly light them up, the Hischier line generated very little. Stefan Noesen was particularly ineffective for a change this evening.
- The line of The Big Deal, Jesper Bratt, and Ondrej Palat had similar results. 10-8 in attempts, 3-4 in shots. 0.26 to 0.44 in expected goals. The Big Deal tried but failed to make much happen with the puck. It was not such a good game from Jack Hughes. Bratt was not effective after a hat trick night on Thursday outside of a few power play moments. Palat was a ghost for the most part.
- The line of Mercer, Haula, and Cotter was where the damage happened in 5-on-5. They created not much at all with just six shot attempts worth 0.13 expected goals combined with two shots on net. The Lightning did not run totally over them (this is a theme), but the line was beaten on the Paul goal and suffered the icing that led to the Raddysh goal. And the provided little fight back on offense. No, not a literal fight, a metaphorical one.
- The fourth line – well, MacDermid played 4:28 and his main contribution was a tripping penalty that led to . Tomas Tatar and Justin Dowling did not do much of value, although Dowling was at least hustlng a bit.
A quick scan of the 5-on-5 numbers overall show that the on-ice numbers were better for Palat, Noesen, The Big Deal, and Hischier. That was a function of different lines with a little carry over after special teams. It was clear in the first period that their main game plan was not working. Shifting lines a bit helped in the second. It did not continue into the third. I can understand Keefe doing so. But if any line changes for next Thursday, then it may not be a direct result of this since the shifted and unshifted lines scored a combined zero goals tonight.
What Change I Do Want: Tampa Bay utilized 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, something that Cooper has been more than comfortable with for years. I would like Sheldon Keefe to do the same. MacDermid has given the Devils diddly squat on the ice. Yes, the Devils have a great record when he has been in the lineup this season. That is the equivalent of crediting a lucky sock for why you have been doing well at your job/school/training. The sock is not doing the work and neither is the Mr. Single Digit Shifts. His lack of ice time means that Keefe is effectively icing 11 forwards and 6 defensemen for most of the game. As busy as the schedule has been, that has only added additional fatigue. Failing that, call up an actual winger from Utica. Dowling has not done a whole lot but he has been trying and has yet to take a costly penalty. It is not entirely hopeless despite the everything happening to the Comets on the ice.
A Break is Now: The Devils have played more games than anyone else in the division by multiple games. The broadcast did note that the Lightning were playing just their second game in the last nine days. They kind of buried that the Lightning, yes, did have a week off after their shootout loss to Philly. They returned to play on Thursday and beat the supremely hot Winnipeg Jets 4-1. Yes, they were not as fatigued as a Devils team finishing up four games over the last seven days and five in their last eight. But that is not going to garner too much sympathy in this league where everyone’s schedule is going to be unbalanced until the end anyway. The large number of games played did not seem like a factor in Sunrise.
That written, I can understand if the Devils’ intensity was dulled a bit with the knowledge that they have no games for four days in a row. It is a very welcome break before another busy week and a half to close out this month. It could have seeped into some of the players’ heads that they know they have a break, they are tired, they have not had a full practice or a lot of time to adjust or look at tape, and so forth. I do not think that excuses or explains a 0-4 loss as a whole. But I think it was a bit of a factor as to what happened tonight.
Praising the Opponent Some More: I might as well given how this happened While he ultimately fell in the red for shots and attempts, both Nikita Kucherov and Jake Guentzel were Problems for the Devils. The former has been a top scorer (and a top jerk) for years and we saw exactly why. He finished the game with two shots, five attempts, and two assists. He could have had more if it was not for breaks and Markstrom. Guentzel set up Paul’s goal with a fantastic read that caught the Devils in no man’s land, he created other rushes, he led the Lightning with four shots on net, and he got a freebie of an assist thanks to automatic empty net goal. Obviously, Andrei Vasilevskiy was crucial in tonight’s game for Tampa Bay. Those two forwards appeared to give the Devils the most problems.
As did Erik Cernak on defense. Not to take away from Hedman or Ryan McDonash, but Cernak played 15 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time and conceded just one (1) scoring chance and zero (0) high danger chances among the nine attempts by the Devils. This included getting stung on a one-timer by Timo Meier. It was an excellent defensive effort that symbolized how the Lightning frustrated the Devils’ offense repeatedly this evening.
Oh, and sure, I will repeat the obvious. Andrei Vasilevskiy was fantastic tonight. When the Lightning did show weakness or got caught out of sorts, he bailed them out. In the process, he made a one-goal deficit seem like seven.
The Part Where I Write About Jacob Markstrom: Markstrom made tough saves, flashy saves, quick reaction saves, and still gave up three goals. Am I worried again about him? Not really? Two of the goals were screened. The Hedman PPGA was not so screened by my eye but it was also inconsequential as it turned a 0-2 game into a 0-3 game and the Devils never got one past Vasilevskiy anyway. If it starts to happen more often, then sure, let’s get worried again. But I do not think Markstrom was really the problem for the Devils in this one.
One More Thing: Yes, I understand you may not like reading some of this. I did not like writing this. Or watching this game. It is what it is.
Your Take: The Devils lost a frustrating game with a frustrating performance. But a different kind of frustration than just getting goalied; the Lightning as a whole played a very decisive game against the Devils in this 0-4 loss. Now that you know what I thought of this loss, I want to know what you think. What could the Devils have done differently to get even a goal tonight? Does this loss negate the two wins in Florida? (Personally, it does not for me.) What do you want to see the Devils do or set up differently on Thursday against Carolina after some much needed days without a game? Please leave your answers and other thoughts about this defeat in the comments.
Thanks to Jackson for writing up a preview of the game. Thanks to everyone who commented in the Gamethread and/or followed @AAtJerseyBlog on X during the game. Thank you for reading.