New Jersey Leaves a Point on the Table in Loss to Dallas Stars

The Devils clawed back from a two-goal deficit in the third period only to fall to the Stars. Let’s look at what happened in this recap.

Entering the first period, like many Devils fans, I was interested to see how head coach Sheldon Keefe would adjust the lines without Jack Hughes. Keefe started the following lines to begin the game.

Jesper Bratt – Nico Hischier – Timo Meier

Ondrej Palat – Dawson Mercer – Tomas Tatar

Justin Dowling – Erik Haula – Stefan Noesen

Paul Cotter – Curtis Lazar – Nathan Bastian

First Period

The Mercer line’s first shift generated some sustained offensive zone pressure. As I was telling myself that this line looked decent, Dallas struck. Luke Hughes jumped into the offensive zone and got caught along the boards. None of the Devils’ forwards covered for him, and Dougie Hamilton was inexplicably caught flat-footed as two Stars carried the puck into the neutral zone. Dawson Mercer couldn’t get back, and Dallas’ Wyatt Johnston blew past Hamilton for a breakaway. Johnston wristed the puck over Jacob Markstrom’s glove and into the top corner of the net. 1-0 Stars.

From that point on, Dallas dominated. The Stars abused New Jersey’s defense, and only Markstrom kept the Devils alive. With 12:36 remaining, Jamie Benn chipped a puck behind the Devils’ defense. Simon Nemec caught some friendly fire while pursuing the puck as Brenden Dillon’s stick hit him in the face. As Nemec clutched his face, Evgenii Dadonov recovered the puck for a partial breakaway that Markstrom stopped. About a minute later, Hamilton made an ill-advised cross-ice pass on an attempted break out that was intercepted by Mason Marchment and fired on net. Again, Markstrom made a big save.

Jesper Bratt had the best scoring chance for the Devils in the first period. Bratt recovered the rebound after a shot from the point and slid the puck to his backhand at the side of the net but couldn’t elevate the puck over Casey DeSmith’s outstretched pad. Just over a minute later, Wyatt Johnston outskated Luke Hughes for another breakaway, shot glove-side, but was stoned by Markstrom.

New Jersey was hit with more injuries at the end of the first frame. With just under two minutes remaining, Dougie Hamilton collided with Mason Marchment in the corner. He appeared to tweak something in his right knee. Hamilton was in obvious pain and skated off the ice very gingerly. He pointed to his knee area on the bench and did not return to the game.

The first period ended 1-0 and was as ugly as it sounds. The Stars outshot the Devils ten to nine. Dallas won 11 of the 16 faceoffs in the period. The Stars had five high-danger scoring chances compared to the Devils’ two. The few chances the Devils had were short, isolated flurries in a period that was all Stars.

Second Period

The second period started a lot like the first, with Markstrom being forced to make some big saves right off the bat. The physical play increased significantly during this period, as did the penalties. Just over two minutes in, Erik Haula took a careless high-sticking penalty. Markstrom rescued the Devils again following a smooth tic-tac-toe passing play to Roope Hintz in tight. Hintz fired a snap shot from under ten feet away that Markstrom could barely get a piece of.

Lack of finishing was also a theme for the Devils in this period. Before killing off the penalty, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt executed a two-on-one play, but Casey DeSmith saved Hischier’s shot. About a minute later, Mercer was a beneficiary of some good passing from the corner but hit DeSmith squarely in the chest with his shot from the slot.

At the 13:30 mark, Luke Hughes got caught pinching below the offensive zone circle, which led to a two-on-one for Dallas. Ilya Lyubushkin carried the puck from the Devils’ zone and eventually ripped a wrist shot over Markstrom’s blocker. 2-0 Stars.

New Jersey started to elevate their play after the Dallas goal. Less than a minute later, Mikael Granlund was penalized for holding Erik Haula. The Devils pulled off a beautiful passing play following a faceoff win by Nico Hischier. Luke Hughes connected with Hischier in the left circle; Hischier faked a quick shot and passed to Timo Meier, who buried it! 2-1 Stars.

About 20 seconds after the goal, Brenden Dillon was penalized for a high stick while following through on a check in the corner. It was terrible timing for a penalty, but New Jersey killed it. The physical and chippy play seemed to drag the Devils into this game. Stefan Noesen and Paul Cotter jousted with Mathew Dumba and others. Erik Haula had a good scoring chance on a turnaround shot attempt with just over three minutes remaining after Luke Hughes jumped into the offensive zone play, but nothing found the back of the net.

Unfortunately, a rash of penalties within the final two minutes would halt New Jersey’s momentum in the period. With just over a minute left, Johnathan Kovacevic flipped a bouncing puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty. 30 seconds into the ensuing penalty kill, Luke Hughes pursued a puck-carrying Matt Duchene. Hughes whacked Duchene’s gloves with his stick. It is a play that happens a million times during any game without a whistle. Still, it was called in this instance, granting Dallas a two-man advantage with 25 seconds remaining. Of course, Dallas won the faceoff. Thomas Harley passed low to Wyatt Johnston, who made a one-touch pass for Roope Hintz to whistle past Markstrom. Just like that, it was 3-1 Dallas at the end of the second period.

It was too bad because New Jersey showed some life through the first half of the second period. The Devils outshot the Stars nine to seven despite not recording a shot in the last eight minutes of the period. New Jersey matched Dallas in scoring chances eight to eight while tallying four high-danger chances to Dallas’ two.

Third Period

New Jersey dominated Dallas in the third period. The Devils killed off the remainder of Luke Hughes’ penalty and got to work, but the scoring didn’t come at first. About six minutes into the frame, Jesper Bratt made a beautiful pass to Nico Hischier, who walked in but blasted his shot wide of the net. Less than a minute later, Ondrej Palat and Dawson Mercer had a two-on-one opportunity. Mercer hesitated slightly after receiving the saucer pass, which allowed DeSmith to slide across to make the save. A little over halfway into the period, Stefan Noesen was called for tripping, but the Devils killed the penalty and got after it again. Nathan Bastian and Noesen took a two-on-one to the net, but Bastian held the puck for an extra second, and Casey DeSmith made another save.

With just under eight minutes remaining, pucks finally started to find the twine. The Devils broke through on the power play after Lian Bichsel was called for tripping. Luke Hughes launched a wrister from the center of the blue line, and Nico Hischier was able to tip it past Casey DeSmith. 3-2 Stars.

Bratt drew another Stars penalty a little over two minutes later, but New Jersey didn’t need the man advantage. Bratt shoveled the puck into the slot as an extra attacker jumped into the play. After the puck was deflected, Brett Pesce recovered the puck in the right slot and fired the puck home. 3-3!! ALL TIED UP WITH ABOUT FOUR MINUTES TO PLAY!!!

The gut punch occurred with under 15 seconds left in regulation. Johnathan Kovacevic carried the puck through the neutral zone but failed to gain the center line before lazily flipping the puck into Dallas’ end. Harley made a half-hearted whack at the puck as it bounced past him, and the icing was called. Could Harley have made a real effort and played the puck…probably, but he didn’t. Unable to change following the icing, Haula was forced to take the defensive end faceoff and lost it. Dallas controlled the puck, and eventually, Harley received a pass from Jason Robertson, walked to the top of the circle, and fired a wrist shot by Markstrom.

At this point, I took a walk to avoid screaming many, many profanities in front of my family. It was such a solid effort to claw back into that game and to not get at least a point was brutal. The Devils outshot the Stars ten to four in the final frame! Dallas went almost nine minutes without recording a shot at one point! New Jersey tallied six high-danger scoring chances to Dallas’ two! Heartbreaking.

Final Result: The Dallas Stars defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-3.

Game Stats: NHL.com Recap, NHL.com Game Summary, NHL.com Event Summary, NHL.com Full Play-by-Play, NHL.com Shot Report, Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

Takeaways

Injury to Dougie Hamilton

Another game, another injury. Dougie Hamilton did not return to the game following the collision with Mason Marchment at the end of the first period. As reported by Amanda Stein, head coach Sheldon Keefe did not have any further information immediately following the game’s conclusion. Despite his defensive struggles, and he did struggle defensively tonight, losing ANOTHER veteran on the blue line will not help the Devils down the stretch. The Devils already greatly miss Jonas Siegenthaler. Let’s hope for good news in the upcoming days.

Mental Mistakes

Two pinches by Devils’ defensemen led to two goals for Dallas. Using NHL Edge Goal Visualizer, here are the plays that led to the goals.

1st Goal

https://www.nhl.com/ppt-replay/goal/2024020979/118

On the game’s first goal, Luke Hughes pinched in the offensive zone while Ondrej Palat was replaced by Justin Dowling from the bench. Hughes attempted to pass to Dawson Mercer, but Wyatt Johnston intercepted it and was off to the races. Neither Mercer nor Dowling could cover for the pinching Hughes, and Dougie Hamilton was caught flat-footed trying to hold the blue line without help.

2nd Goal

https://www.nhl.com/ppt-replay/goal/2024020979/657

Luke pinched on the second Dallas goal, and four Devils were caught below the faceoff dot. Jason Robertson made a good pass from the corner, and Ilya Lyubushkin was off on a two-on-one. The Devils cannot get caught with four players in one spot.

On Dallas’ fourth and final goal, Johnathan Kovacevic got caught icing the puck with 15 seconds left. It’s 15 seconds, and the puck is in the neutral zone. Pin it against the boards. Shovel it to unoccupied space. Do something that doesn’t result in a defensive zone faceoff with tired teammates. Three mental mistakes put pucks in the back of New Jersey’s net.

Special Teams

I don’t want to be entirely negative because the Devils fought hard to get back in this game. Special teams were the reason for a lot of their success. Since February 4th, the Stars have recorded 11 power-play goals, the best in the NHL. The Devils’ penalty kill gave up chances but held the Stars scoreless outside of the two-man advantage. For the most part, New Jersey’s penalty killed played well.

The Devils converted quickly on both of their power plays. Meier scored six seconds after Mikael Granlund was penalized. Nico Hischier scored less than a minute into the second power play. That isn’t even counting Brett Pesce’s goal with the delayed penalty call coming and an extra attacker on the ice. It was nice to see the power play execute in the absence of Jack Hughes.

Jacob Markstrom

Jacob Markstrom’s first-period performance gave the Devils time to wake up. It easily could have been three or four to nothing without Markstrom in the disaster of a first period. Markstrom stopped four of five high-danger scoring chances in the game, and the one that beat him was the breakaway to Wyatt Johnston. Markstrom saved the next breakaway chance that Johnston had in the same period. He may be coming off of injury, but he has played well in his return despite the losses.

Up Next

The Devils will face another formidable opponent in the Winnipeg Jets on Friday at 7:00 PM ET.

Your Thoughts

Did you take this loss as hard as I did? What did you think of the Devils’ effort tonight? What did you think of the mental mistakes? How did Markstrom play? Let us know in the comments section below. Thank you for reading, and GO DEVILS!!