Jacob Markstrom Leads The Way In New Jersey Devils’ 4-1 Win In Global Series 2024-25 Season Opener

It was Jacob Markstrom and a slew of fresh recruits that propelled the Devils to a solid win over the Buffalo Sabres

It’s a new era of Devils hockey. New head coach, new starting goaltender, lots of new faces up and down the lineup. And it was those fresh faces that were most responsible for the New Jersey Devils’ 4-1 victory over the Buffalo Sabres in the Global Series season opener in Prague on Friday afternoon.

We have to start with Jacob Markstrom. After so many seasons lost in large part due to poor goaltending, general manager Tom Fitzgerald went “big game hunting” in the offseason and bagged his prize in the form of Markstrom. Obviously it’s only one game, but Markstrom lived up to the hype. According to Natural Stat Trick, Markstrom saved a whopping 2.61 Goals Above Expected in all situations. His rebound control was pristine, his positioning was sound, and he made what may very well be the Save Of The Year early in this contest:

Markstrom came to New Jersey with a reputation for being a top goaltender against high danger shots. That, uh, seems to check out after watching that save. Goodness.

It was a stellar performance from the Devils’ new goalie, but of course the best netminding performance in the world can’t win a game by itself. It takes the skaters putting the puck in the other net too. And luckily for Markstrom, his new teammates picked him up. It started with another new face (sort of) in Stefan Noesen, who scored the first goal of the season for New Jersey. He, along with his linemates Erik Haula and Ondrej Palat, created a turnover on the forecheck, and new guy Johnathan Kovacevic (more on him in a moment) collected that turnover and slipped a pass to a wide open Noesen in front.

He didn’t miss his chance.

And yes, as even the Devils’ social media admin acknowledges, it was a breath of fresh air seeing New Jersey score first for a change.

And now back to Kovacevic. With New Jersey looking to extend their lead, another forecheck led to an opportunity for one of the new members of the blue line. It took a fortunate bounce for it to happen, but Kovacevic found the back of the net himself.

Two goals, two points for Kovacevic. A 164-point pace that he is a lock to maintain.

It was a long-time Devil, Nico Hischier, who scored the third goal. But yet another new addition, Paul Cotter, got the play started by getting a shot to the net. Credit to Nathan Bastian for a terrific effort in front to win the battle for the puck and fire it to Hischier for the score.

The Devils entered the third period with that 3-0 lead, but the final frame was all Sabres (more on that below). After Owen Power scored to cut the lead to 3-1, the Devils managed to get it down to the final few minutes with that two-goal advantage intact. So when old friend Lindy Ruff pulled his goalie, it was Cotter striking again, potting the empty-netter and salting the game away.

Markstrom. Noesen. Kovacevic. Cotter. All putting up big-time production in fresh face head coach Sheldon Keefe’s first game. That’s not to say the old guys didn’t contribute. Obviously Hischier scored, the Timo Meier-Jack Hughes-Jesper Bratt line put together some pretty shifts despite not finding the back of the net, and Dougie Hamilton led the team with four shots on goal (tied with Hischier). But the story to me is the new guys. Markstrom led the way, the rest followed, and the Devils skated away with a season-opening victory.

Here’s to another 81 (and beyond) of those in 2024-25.

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: Courtesy of the NHL on ESPN Youtube channel

Yet Another New Face. The Newest Of Them All

Congratulations to Seamus Casey for making his NHL debut today! He lined up with Simon Nemec on the third pair after injuries to Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce, and Santeri Hatakka opened the door for his opportunity with the big club. What a moment for the youngster to open his NHL career in Prague of all places.

So how did he fare in his first game in the Show? Let’s dive into the numbers.

To start, Keefe gave him only 13:14 of ice time, by far the lowest of all defensemen (Nemec was closest with 17:13 TOI, every other blueliner got at least 20 minutes). That makes sense to me, I think we can all agree it’s best to ease a player in during his debut. Especially one who might not quite be ready for prime time like Casey.

The numbers at Natural Stat Trick weren’t kind to him unfortunately. He put up a 5-on-5 Expected Goals For% of 31.61%, 6th-worst on the team. Then again only six Devils were at 50% or above, so maybe it’s not all that bad.

He didn’t put up a shot on goal, but he did get time on the second unit of the power play. 57 seconds of ice time with the man advantage isn’t much, but it’s nice to see Keefe trusted him enough to quarterback that second unit.

Just based on the eye test at least, I thought Casey got better as the game went on. He did look a little nervous early on, but by the third period he was attempting all sorts of dekes and slick passes when in the offensive zone or breaking the puck out. Casey’s calling cards as a player are his edgework and his offensive IQ. That we got to see glimpses of those attributes from game one is promising. Casey obviously has a lot more growing to do, and in all likelihood he will spend the majority of his season in Utica once the blue line gets healthier. But for now it was a decent debut for the young defenseman.

A Few Things I Didn’t Like

As good as a 4-1 win in the season opener is, I would be remiss if I did not mention a few things that stuck out as red flags to me.

Markstrom had answers to just about everything the Sabres threw on net, but the Sabres also did him and the Devils some favors by missing the net a ton. Buffalo put 31 shots on goal today, but had a total of 53 unblocked shot attempts. That’s 22 missed shots! New Jersey can’t count on the other team missing a boatload of shots every game. That needs to get cleaned up.

Along those same lines, I thought the Devils seriously lacked crispness. Lots of passes off the mark, passes not handled properly (though that may have had more to do with the ice than the players), and a few too many missed shots of their own. To be fair I’m not all that concerned about this one because it’s game one with a lot of new faces in the lineup. Once players get into midseason form, we’ll see sharper performances. But it’s at least worth mentioning to me.

The last thing I wanted to bring up was the complete turtling we saw in the third period. Under Ruff, the Devils were known for bucking hockey orthodoxy and actually keeping the offensive pressure on with leads. Not to say that was absolutely the best way to play with a lead, but it was certainly refreshing to see a lot of the time. Today, the Devils were outshot 13-4 in the final frame, and put up a meager 22.05 xGF% at 5-on-5. I can’t complain too much, the Devils won 4-1 after all. But it still wasn’t ideal seeing New Jersey totally park the bus in the third. I would be perfectly fine with it if, say, all that focus on defense led to the Sabres generating next to nothing themselves, but clearly that wasn’t the case. We’ll see if this is just a one-off, or a trend that continues throughout the season.

The One Line That Didn’t Score

If I told you before the game that three of the four lines would find the back of the net today, and I asked you to guess which one didn’t, how many of you would’ve said the Meier-Hughes-Bratt line? Well those of you crazy enough to have said that would’ve been right.

So was it a failure of a game for that high-powered trio? Much has been made about how Meier and Hughes haven’t really clicked in their (admittedly brief) time playing together, so perhaps this contest against the Sabres was more proof of that.

Well while I thought there were moments of miscommunication and a little lack of chemistry, I wouldn’t say it was a failure. Per NST, in 11:52 of ice time at 5-on-5, that line put up an xGF% of 50.49%. That might not sound amazing, but then you notice that they were the only line in the black in xGF% and suddenly it looks a lot better. All three registered two shots on goal, and they did have their moments, including when Hughes snuck a terrific pass to a cutting Bratt for a grade-A chance.

I choose to look at this one with the glass half full: The team got a solid win despite their presumptive best offensive line not finding the scoresheet. And they did win the territorial battle, if only slightly. Give them a few more games to gel and the sky may be the limit.

Next Time Out

Right back at it tomorrow, as the Devils take on the Sabres in the back half of the Global Series “home-and-home”. Set an alarm, because puck drop is scheduled for 10am ET.

Your Take

What did you think of today’s game? Who among the new faces stood out the most? What will you be looking for tomorrow morning? As always, thanks for reading, and welcome back to Devils hockey!