Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche stars were too much in a listless defeat
On the very first shift of the game, Nico Hischier and his line gained the offensive zone and fired a shot on net. It was all downhill from there though, as the New Jersey Devils fell 5-1 to the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night. Nathan MacKinnon scored twice, and Martin Necas collected three assists to lead the way. Jack Hughes was the lone goal scorer for New Jersey.
The Devils did have their moments throughout the evening. After allowing the Avs to outshoot them 8-1 at one point, the Devils did manage to right themselves over the second half of the first period. They didn’t create much in the way of high quality chances, but they started to tilt the ice back toward even at least. The second period was New Jersey’s best, and while Colorado dominated the last five minutes or so of that frame, the Devils did actually manage to sustain pressure and generate chances.
But that’s about it. New Jersey played decent for about 25 minutes tonight. At no point did their play rise above decent though, as I cannot remember a single shift that I would classify as significantly above average. The Hischier line did have one shift where they dominated puck possession in the Colorado zone for a long time, but all they could manage out of that was a Luke Hughes slap shot from above the circles. 25 minutes of adequate hockey and 35 minutes of terrible hockey is usually not a winning formula. And lo and behold, we got a lopsided final score as proof of concept.
To be fair to the Devils, this game was close for the vast majority of the night. It was only 1-0 entering the third period, and 2-1 until the Avalanche scored three goals in about four minutes late in the third to ice the contest. But the only reason for the game being as close as it was for as long as it was can be summed up as…Jake Allen. Until his meltdown late in the third (which, curiously, ended with Nico Daws taking over after the fifth goal with about 90 seconds left to play), Allen played very well. He made key saves in timely spots, and if it weren’t for him it would’ve been 5-1 (or worse) well before the late stages of this game.
For as good as Allen was, though, he was outshined by the other goalie in tonight’s game, Mackenzie Blackwood. At this point, what else is there to say? Blackwood pitched a 44-save shutout against the Devils back in November while a member of the San Jose Sharks. Tonight he stopped 22 of 23 shots he faced. So if my math is correct, in two games against his old team this year, Blackwood has turned aside 66 of 67 shots, good for a .985 Save%. The more time went on, the more I became utterly convinced he was going to deal New Jersey another shutout. I almost fell over when Jack Hughes actually managed to beat him, it felt like Andy Dufresne emerging into a cleansing rain.
But Blackwood’s inexplicable heroics aside, this was just a bad night all around for New Jersey. The Avalanche are perhaps the closest analogue to the Devils in the entire NHL: A team that is top heavy with big stars but with little depth to go along with it. Colorado is far from perfect, you could name a few other teams in the Western Conference that would be favored over them in a seven game series. But Colorado is also a team that is proving that it is possible to win with a roster constructed like this. New Jersey is still heavily favored to make the playoffs, and perhaps the fast-approaching trade deadline brings much needed change to the roster. But as it stands, the Devils are a team that is prone to vanishing on far too many nights. The Devils’ stars haven’t been up to the task of carrying them like the Avalanches’ stars were tonight. Another game, another dismal loss.
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’s website
I Just Don’t Get It
At one point tonight, Jack Hughes collected a turnover from Cale Makar and charged toward Mackenzie Blackwood on a breakaway.
He didn’t convert.
Unless the goaltender is named Igor Shesterkin, Hughes is simply incapable of scoring on breakaways. His shootout record is atrocious, and he always seems to have a hard time burying breakaways (again, unless it’s Shesterkin in net for some reason). Hughes is a sublimely talented player, why in the world does he struggle so much when the odds are more in his favor than ever?
I just don’t get it.
Gimme Shelter
Did you know Seamus Casey played in this game tonight? I haven’t mentioned him yet, and even if you watched the game you’d be forgiven if you forgot. Casey played 9:38 tonight, far and away the lowest ice time among Devils defensemen and second-lowest on the entire team ahead of only Justin Dowling’s 8:35. According to the Shift Chart on Natural Stat Trick, he played four shifts in both the first and second periods, and five in the third.
It’s understandable that head coach Sheldon Keefe would want to keep Casey sheltered tonight. As mentioned, the Avalanche are a team of big time stars, and they had last change this evening. If Colorado coach Jared Bednar wanted to feed Casey to the wolves of Mackinnon, Makar, and the rest of the big boys, he could have at various points if Keefe gave Casey a normal amount of ice time. That being said, it just doesn’t feel sustainable to skate five defensemen on any given night. If this is something that Keefe will only do against top teams, then I can live with that. But if we start seeing it against everybody, that’s a bad sign. Jonas Siegenthaler’s injury really threw this blueline into chaos.
Juggling Act
Speaking of ice time decisions, we saw Keefe juggle his lines and pairings a fair bit tonight. This is something we only saw very rarely from Keefe through much of the season, but clearly he felt like he needed to perform surgery on his combos this evening. I don’t blame him, his team gave him very little reason to keep things consistent.
The usual top pairing of Dougie Hamilton and Brenden Dillon played much of the game together, but Hamilton also got some shifts with Luke Hughes late in the game when New Jersey desperately needed offense. And as mentioned when discussing Casey, his lack of ice time forced some defensive blending throughout the game. Up front, the Hischier-Tatar-Noesen line turned into Hischier-Tatar-Meier at one point. Dowling’s limited minutes forced several forwards to take shifts on different lines at various points as well.
Tonight, nothing worked. But I have to say, I give credit to Keefe for at least trying to find a spark.
The Highs And The Lows
The Devils’ penalty kill has been excellent this season. They started this game playing excellent hockey as well, holding Colorado off the scoresheet on their first two powerplays. This even included 58 seconds of 5-on-3 time in the first period. It was shaping up to be yet another great night for New Jersey’s penalty kill.
But then The Avalanche scored two power play goals in the third to seal the victory. Backbreaking, to say the least.
To be fair, they were somewhat fluky goals. Jake Allen saved a shot, had no idea where the puck was, and MacKinnon tapped home the loose change from right beside the net for the first PPG. And then after a shot went wide, hit the boards behind the net, then trampolined off the outside of the net itself, MacKinnon whacked it out of the air and in for the second PPG. There’s really not much the Devils penalty killers can do on either of those.
By the way, one of those power plays was brought about by Ondrej Palat tripping Martin Necas, who stayed down for a few seconds in apparent pain. As anyone who remembers Necas absorbing a hit from Timo Meier while with the Hurricanes earlier this season, this looked all too familiar. And sure enough, just like in that Devils-Canes game in December in which Necas went down like he was shot in an attempt to goad the referees into calling a major penalty (which they did) only to miraculously not miss a single SECOND of game time, Necas popped up fresh as a daisy once he saw a penalty was actually called. I’m only half-kidding when I say the league should fine or suspend him for egregious embellishment. It’s completely embarrassing, and it is now officially a pattern with this player.
Next Time Out
The Devils are back in action on Saturday in the franchise’s first ever game in Utah. They will skate against the artist formerly known as the Coyotes, AKA The Hockey Club, at 9pm Saturday evening.
Your Take
What did you make of tonight’s game? Were you as disappointed with the Devils as I was? When will MacKenzie Blackwood’s heater finally end? What do you expect next time out in Utah? As always, thanks for reading.