In game 2, a Devils win, they were extremely efficient with turning shot attempts into shots. On Thursday night against Toronto, they were the exact opposite, and it cost them.
If you compare the stats from games 2 and 3 for the New Jersey Devils this season, you will see something quite interesting. First off, to state the obvious, the games themselves were quite different in terms of outcomes. However, they were similar in that in both games, the offense started out slowly, even more so in game 2 than in game 3. In game 2, the offense eventually got it going and scored a bunch, while in game 3, they did score twice, but in the third when they needed to press more, they only managed a measly 3 shots on goal at 5 on 5.
But what I really wanted to discuss today was one stark difference between them. In game 2, the Devils were extremely efficient with their attempts. They had 12 Corsi attempts in the second period at 5 on 5 and turned that into 9 shots on net. That is fantastic efficiency and it shows that the team was generating quality attempts that got through to the goaltender. That is exactly what you want to see. A 75% shot rate based on attempts is fantastic. They continued to be fairly efficient in the third as well with another 9 shots, this time on 16 Corsi attempts. You will take that every day, and it led to 2 goals in the third, so it was a really good, efficient offense.
On Thursday against Toronto, however, it was basically the opposite. In the first period, where the Devils got crushed going down 3-0 quickly before getting that Jesper Bratt power play goal late, they had 19 Corsi attempts leading to 7 shots on goal. That really isn’t a great conversion rate, well under 50% and sitting at 37%. However, it would only get worse, despite the offense needing to do better than ever to catch up and get the team back in the game. In the second period, the Devils flurried with 24 Corsi attempts in only 14 minutes of 5 on 5 action. They were flying out there at even strength and had a ton of offensive zone time to generate attempts. However, of those 24 attempts, only 5 ended up being shots on net. You read that right: the Devils had 24 5 on 5 attempts in the second period, but only came away with 5 actual shots on net. That is atrocious, only a 21% conversion rate.
The third period was only marginally better. Whatever mojo they had in the second to generate all of those attempts, it was not present at all in the third as they ended the period with only 9 Corsi attempts across a little over 12 minutes at 5 on 5. But of those 9 attempts, only 3 made it on net for a measly 33% conversion rate. Yes, that was better in the second period, but in reality, was it? At least in the second period, they were buzzing with 24 attempts. They lost all of that in the third and only ended with 3 shots on goal when they needed to be pushing to tie the game. It was not a good showing.
While that was not the totality of why the Devils lost on Thursday night and beat Buffalo the game prior, it is a notable development. This offense needs way more efficiency than it showed on Thursday night in order to score enough to beat high-scoring teams like Toronto. If they are only turning around a third of attempts into actual shots on goal, or even less than that, they will not beat better teams and might not even be able to beat mediocre teams. They have to be better than that. It is great that they had a ton of attempts in the second period, it coincided with a 61.54% Corsi and showed that they dominated in possession that period, but if it isn’t translating to work for the opposing goaltender, it won’t do much in the long run.
It is super early in the season, of course, so I am not trying to say that a troubling development is occurring. It is just one game, and they did have a great conversion of attempts into shots in game 2, so if they play more like that moving forward, good things will happen. But they will need to make sure they are generating more efficient and quality attempts tonight against Washington to win, and to win moving forward. Let’s see if they can do just that.