Devils' 3-2 Loss to Senators: No Margin for Error

Some thoughts on the New Jersey Devils' 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators, including Johnathan Kovacevic not deserving Sheldon Keefe's wrath.

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New Jersey Devils games will be chores until the regular season closes. That's just the way it is due to injuries and the state of the roster, especially in the bottom six. There was some good, some bad, and a bit in between in their 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

The good? The Devils showed some life in the third period on offense. The bad? The second period, usually their best, was a disaster, as the Senators scored all three of their goals in the middle 20. Here are some takeaways from the loss.

Defensive Hockey Is Leaving the Devils Little Room for Mistakes

Analyzing Devils games is a bit difficult right now. No Jack Hughes, No Dougie Hamilton and No Jonas Siegenthaler, so it's a shell of what the team should look like for the stretch run.

Still, it's fair to criticize the team when they play poorly because there are good players on this roster. That second period last night was unacceptable. The Devils got gashed right from the opening faceoff of the second, something we haven't seen much of from them this season.

As Sheldon Keefe said after the game, they've been one of the best, if not the best, second-period teams in the NHL this season. The numbers suggest it was not the Senators getting lucky, either. They generated 0.72 expected goals at five-on-five compared to 0.17 for the Devils.

Jake Allen did his best to keep the Devils in it, but the Senators were just too much, especially for the first ten minutes of the period. The Devils got some life when Nico Hischier scored a power-play goal to make it 2-1, but Stefan Noesen took an offensive zone penalty, and the Senators capitalized on the power play.

Two-goal deficits are not much in today's NHL, but they are for a Devils team missing a top-five center in the league and one of the best offensive defensemen.

However, they showed they can tilt the ice in their favor when they have to. The Devils outshot the Senators 16-4 in the third period and controlled 83 percent of the expected goals (xG%). They almost tied the game in the final two seconds, but Artem Zub cleared the puck away from Noesen in the blue paint.

The Devils seem intent on wanting to play defensive hockey because of the injuries, but I think there's room to open it up offensively. They’ve shown they can generate offense without Hughes and Hamilton. And they almost need to because this style of defensive hockey is leaving very little margin for error.

Kovacevic Didn't Deserve the Criticism

Keefe did not hold back on criticizing Johnathan Kovacevic after the game. When Gabriel Trevino asked if the team needs more of a playoff mentality, as Kovacevic said, Keefe replied by saying, "Kovacevic just needs to play better. That would help."

The text doesn't do this quote justice. Keefe's tone was quite scathing, and he ended the press conference without saying anything else.

Kovacevic did have another careless delay-of-game penalty, but the Devils killed off that penalty. He's been careless with the puck at times, so I understand where Keefe's frustration comes from. The Devils just signed Kovacevic to a five-year, $20 million extension, so it's fair to expect better play.

Still, I don't think Kovacevic has been that bad to warrant that type of call-out. He was second among Devils skaters in game score last night, and his other metrics have generally been solid, even though they've dipped since Siegenthaler's injury.

It's fair to expect more out of him because he's the guy now due to the injuries, but other players are performing worse than Kovacevic. Much worse (Brenden Dillon). He's far from the player who needs to be held most accountable.

Devils Bottom 6 Is What It Is

It's too late to fix the Devils' bottom six this season, but the same players continue dragging the team down. Credit to Erik Haula, who's picked up his game over the last couple of weeks, but the Devils are getting nothing out of Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian.

Bastian finished with an xG% just above 14 percent, while Lazar was just above six percent. They're not giving up much defensively, but they're providing next to nothing offensively.

Bastian has one goal and four points across his last 41 games (cringe emoji), while Lazar has one goal and three points in his previous 31 contests. When I mentioned players are performing much worse than Kovacevic, this is who I'm talking about.

You can't take Lazar out of the lineup because the Devils need someone to center the fourth line, but Tomáš Tatar should be playing over Bastian. Tatar may not have the offensive game he used to, but he will help the Devils' fourth line tilt play in their favor. It might not seem like much, but it would help the team.

Quick Hits

• Dawson Mercer played one of his better games in recent memory, finishing with an xG% of 93.65 percent. Part of the reason is that Keefe switched Mercer onto a line with Hischier and Timo Meier in the third, and it worked; they finished with an xG% of 100 percent. The Devils need more out of Mercer over their last 11 games, and this probably gives them the best chance of getting the most out of him.

• Allen only faced 19 shots, but many were of the high-danger variety. He allowed three goals on 2.83 expected goals, so he stopped what was expected of him. He made some incredible stops to keep the Devils in the game, something Jacob Markström has not done lately. Expect Allen to keep getting starts, even with a busy week ahead.

• It was just another day in the office for Cody Glass. He finished with a 65.39 xG%, and scoring chances were 11-4 in favor of the Devils when he was on the ice. With him playing as well as he is, moving Mercer back to the wing becomes a viable option if Keefe is comfortable playing Haula down the middle again.

Game Score Chart

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Advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick

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