Jack Hughes and Devils Pull Through With Entertaining 5-3 Win Over Canadiens, Despite Exhausting Officiating Performance

The game was a demo in officiating incompetence, but wins are usually fun to watch, anyway.

First Period

The New Jersey Devils got off to a fast start in tonight’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, with Jack Hughes playing off a give-and-go with Dougie Hamilton to create space for himself in the offensive zone. Hughes skated towards the net, drawing defenders to him, as well as the attention of Sam Montembeault. Hughes moved the puck across the crease on the backhand, giving Jesper Bratt an easy shot to shovel into the net! The Devils took a 1-0 lead only a minute and a half into the game.

Johnny Kovacevic took a tripping penalty in the corner when he was defending Nick Suzuki as the Canadiens forward tried to take the puck down low, sending the Devils to the penalty kill less than four minutes into the period. The Canadiens won their offensive zone draw, with Mike Matheson ringing a shot off the outside of the post before Montreal was sent back to retrieve the puck. Late in the penalty kill, Jonas Siegentaler blocked a pass and a shot to keep Montreal off the board.

After the officiating crew did not call a pick play that prevented Stefan Noesen from skating freely on the penalty kill, they called an interference penalty on Jesper Bratt when he collided with Mike Matheson as Hughes crossed over on a scoring chance. The Devils were solid again in their own end, with active sticks largely fending off the Canadien attack. The Devils pressed well after Bratt came out of the box, but were just unable to keep the puck in the offensive zone at the end of a lengthy possession by the Hughes line, giving Montreal a chance to change lines.

In a wild sequence for Ondrej Palat, the veteran forward went speeding up the ice with the puck, sending it across on the offensive zone entry, trying to find Bratt or Hughes. The puck deflected off a Montreal Canadien to Hughes, who struggled to control it. Palat, on the forecheck, knocked the puck back to Hughes, who waited for Palat to set up for a one-timer, which was ripped past Montembeault! The Devils took a 2-0 lead on Hughes’s second point of the game.

With play back underway, Jacob Markstrom saved a one-timer attempt off the stick of Juraj Slafkovsky about a minute and a half after the second Devils goal. Late in the period, the Devils went to the power play when Kaiden Guhle was called for interference. This initial Devils power play did not go amazingly, as their puck movement was just off enough to keep them from getting rubber at the goal until Jack Hughes had a last second try that went through a maze and wide. The Devils, though, took a 2-0 lead to intermission, along with 50 seconds of carry-over power play time.

Second Period

The Devils had a chance to take the offensive zone, but they were too loose with their passes around the net, leading to Montreal killing the remaining time of the power play and getting a shorthanded chance for Jake Evans before Guhle was released from the box. The sloppy play continued on for a few minutes, culminating in a goal five minutes into the period by Alex Newhook, off a drop feed from Jake Evans. 2-1.

Jacob Markstrom went sprawling to make a stunning svae on David Savard, kicking out the rebound from his side. The Devils went the other way on a three-on-one, but Paul Cotter could not make a play, with Hughes and Haula to his left — his shot was stuffed. Keeping up the pressure, Jonas Siegenthaler snuck down to the faceoff circle and fired a shot past Montembeault! Erik Haula found him from below the goal line! 3-1, Devils.

Sam Montembeault made some big saves down the stretch in the second period, including a great shot by Paul Cotter and a deflection off of Kurtis MacDermid. Completely leaving their sloppiness behind them, the Devils ramped up the intensity of their play as the intermission grew nearer. With two minutes left in the second, the Devils pulled off a beautiful passing play to give Jesper Bratt space on the rush into the offensive zone with Ondrej Palat on his left. Bratt showed off his skating and deferred the shot to Palat, who was just denied his second of the game thanks to a dramatic save by Montembeault.

The Canadiens would not go quietly. After Jacob Markstrom made a save on a one-timer, Jack Hughes and Dougie Hamilton were caught watching the puck too long, allowing Brandon Gallagher to bury the rebound. 3-2, with under a minute to play in the second period. With Hamilton trying to block the initial shot, Jack needed to make a play on Gallagher.

Third Period

The objective for the Devils was very simple to start the third period — get the two-goal lead back. While they had some good offensive zone shifts in the first few minutes of the final frame, they were impeded by some more officiating work, with Hamilton being held up by Anderson as he was trying to get open for a shot not long before Cotter was high-sticked to no call. Still, the Devils finally broke through when Jesper Bratt slipped a backhand pass through to Jack Hughes on the rush, and Hughes beat Montembeault’s blocker as he slowed up at the crease! The Devils got their fourth goal of the game here.

The Devils would not hold onto the two-goal lead again. Right after Stefan Noesen went crashing into the boards, under pressure from behind, the Devils lost possession and allowed a quick counterattack the other way. And just like that, Alex Newhook canceled out the insurance goal as the Devils were about to be called for a penalty. It was a funky shot that got past Markstrom, making it 4-3 with under 12 minutes to play in the game.

The officials finally saw it fit to call the Canadiens for a penalty, with Juraj Slafkovsky going off for holding Nico Hischier in the neutral zone. Between Nico Hischier being taken into the net to end a Devils opportunity in the first, Lane Hutson diving to drag Pesce down from behind in the second period, the myriad high sticks that Timo Meier and Paul Cotter took, and the clutching and grabbing committed by Montreal all game, this was one of the weakest moments they could have given the Devils a power play. Nonetheless, the Devils sent out their first unit, which again struggled to get set up in the offensive zone. On the second try, they had three shot attempts, as Bratt missed the net in traffic before Noesen hit the outside of the post. After a third attempt from Bratt was gloved and frozen, the second unit came out and immediately found themselves defending in their own end. Coming back for a final rush, Dawson Mercer laid out a near-perfect chance for Erik Haula as the Devils crossed the blueline, but Haula could not beat Montembeault on the partial break.

The referees missed yet another potential penalty as Cole Caufield ran across Timo Meier as the Devils forward tried to enter the offensive zone, sending him down to the ice. The Devils got a call shortly after when Mike Matheson was tagged for hooking Brett Pesce. With 6:03 to go, the Devils sent out their second unit with Hamilton in place of Hughes. Dawson Mercer was rocked behind the net off the draw by David Savard, but the game kept on. After just 30 seconds, the first unit’s forwards came onto the ice. Nico Hischier had the puck down low and sent it back towards Hamilton, who ripped a wrist shot into Montembeault’s outstretched glove.

Back at even strength, Nico Hischier was boarded by Nick Suzuki in the neutral zone, and Timo Meier was crosschecked into the boards in the corner. No calls. Montembeault was pulled with just over two minutes to play. Matheson played it down low into the Devils’ hands, and Ondrej Palat played it out of the zone — but it went wide of net and was called for icing.

With 1:50 to play, Montreal won the draw at six-on-five, and Matheson’s point shot was saved without a deflection. Lane Hutson had a one-timer blocked, but the Devils took three tries to get the puck out for a line change. After earning the change, the Hughes line, with Haula in place of Palat, had a chance to win the game — but Jesper Bratt flung a puck down the ice for another icing with 48.1 to play. Martin St. Louis called timeout, allowing the Devils a breather and a chance for the Hughes line to get some guidance from Ryan McGill. Haula won his draw, but Jack iced the puck with 39.7 seconds left. Haula lost it on the second go, but Jack Hughes took Mike Matheson off the puck with a low check at the blueline! Jesper Bratt took it away and closed in on the net, closing the book on this game with a 5-3 score! The Devils had an entertaining one at The Rock.

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

Shouldering the Burden

While not always looking like himself at the start of this season, Jack Hughes has seemed like he was going to have one of these nights sooner or later. It just so happened that everything clicked for him tonight, and he was taking advantage of every opening he saw. He thus skated away with three points on the night, bringing him up to five goals and 10 assists in 16 games for the Devils this year.

Without that line, the story tonight may have been very different. In 10:31 of ice time, the Hughes line generated 18 shot attempts at five-on-five. The next best line for the Devils — Hischier’s — had five shot attempts in the exact same amount of ice time. Still, only the third line was underwater in terms of scoring chances and expected goals, though they still managed to get a goal on their only shot. The Hughes line’s success, meanwhile, can also be attributed to the elevated play of Ondrej Palat, who always seemed to have the right touch on things tonight. Whether it was his passing, forechecking, or where he knocked the puck during board battles, Palat enabled Jack’s production tonight.

Physicality and Defense

Central to tonight’s victory was the strong defensive effort in front of Jacob Markstrom, with Montreal generating only 2.2 expected goals in total, with the Devils penalty kill holding them to zero shots on their two power plays (in large part thanks to Jonas Siegenthaler making some very timely blocks) in addition to their five-on-five effort. Markstrom did allow three goals here, but the Devils never trailed in this game, and the only tie was at 0-0. I am not really concerned about the specific goals he let in, as he made quite a few timely saves to keep the momentum in the Devils’ favor, such as his sprawling save on Savard.

The Devils were also very active along the boards tonight, with Brenden Dillon crunching some Canadiens on a few occasions in addition to the involvement of Palat, Cotter, Noesen, and MacDermid on the forecheck. And while this coincided with a rather inconsistent and baffling performance by the officiating crew, the Devils stayed disciplined and did not get into any scrums or fights that may have given a late power play to Montreal. Still able to deliver a physical message without dropping the gloves, the Devils never distracted themselves from the goal at the end of 60 minutes. For a team with an ostensibly mismatched fourth line, they did a great job of balancing ice time and doing all the little things in their winning effort.

Your Thoughts

What did you think of tonight’s game? How did you feel about Hughes’s game? What about Markstrom? Who do you think is the best defenseman on the Devils right now — is it Jonas Siegenthaler? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.