The New Jersey Devils headed west to take on the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night as they looked to bounce back from a tough game in Colorado. Unfortunately, they once again left with a bad taste in their mouths as they suffered a 5-2 defeat – their second consecutive time.
Related: Sharks beat Devils 5-2 for first home win of the season
Some expected regression…
When the Devils got off to an 8-1-0 start, it was pretty clear that they weren’t going to have an .888 points percentage all season. It felt like everything that could have been done their way, but it was just common sense that they would do that possibly faced some hardships.
Just 42 seconds later, a bad bounce led to a William Eklund breakaway. He buried it to give the Sharks an immediate lead. Then another bad bounce gave Philipp Kurashev the puck in an excellent scoring position. He capitalized the same way.
Then Jake Allen, who has been great all season, had one he would definitely want back when an Alex Wennberg shot found its way. According to MoneyPuckthe shot – from 15.1 meters away at an angle of 49.8° – had only a 1.9% chance of becoming a goal. After that, other than parts of the second period, the team looked flat and uninspired.
Before Tuesday in Colorado, it seemed like every jump this season was going his way… and Allen made all the necessary saves. While every team goes through rough patches, unfortunately for the Devils it came sooner than they would have liked.
Increase in the chance of major danger (+ no help with goalkeeping)
There is no doubt that Brett Pesce is a hugely important asset for the Devils. But the disparity in their results with and without him is eye-popping.
According to Natural Stat Trickin the games when Pesce was healthy, the Devils gave up 11.5 high-danger chances per 60 minutes (HDCA/60). Since then they have given up 14.5 HDCA/60 – an increase of ~26%.
Strange men rushing into it and inopportune decision-making has become much more common in the past few games. But there’s also no denying how important the role of goaltending is. During their eight-game winning streak, Devils netminders had given up +4.29 goals above expectations. Since? Minus-6.53 above expectations – a complete 180.
That means the Devils, with only average goaltending, would have given up roughly seven goals instead of thirteen during this two-game skid. That’s still not great, but it certainly makes it not seem nearly as awful.
They don’t help themselves
While there is no doubt about that everything would forever go the way of the Devils, they have continually hurt themselves in the last two games. In Colorado, Jacob Markstrom shot the puck over the glass in the opening seconds, and the Avs quickly scored on the ensuing power play.
Tonight the Devils had six men on the ice for extended periods of time. They almost got away with it, but were eventually caught. Things like this are completely avoidable and show that a team is simply unprepared.
After the Colorado game, head coach Sheldon Keefe said he was willing to give them a pass for a single tough night against a very good team. Understandably so. However, that benefit of the doubt is no longer relevant after tonight.
“You can’t win in the National Hockey League with that as a starting point,” Keefe said to NJD.TV postgame. “That is unacceptable and again: you get what you deserve.”
Come on
The Devils will look to get back into the win column on Saturday as they continue their road trip against the Los Angeles Kings (9:00 PM EDT).
#Lessons #Devils #Tough #Loss #Sharks #Hockey #Writers #Jersey #Devils #Latest #News #Analysis