3 Takeaways From Devils' 4-2 Loss to the Hurricanes
The New Jersey Devils made it close in the end, but the Carolina Hurricanes still seem to have their number.
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At least for the two teams' first matchup, the Carolina Hurricanes remained a thorn in the side of the New Jersey Devils. A well-rested Hurricanes team that hadn't played since Friday and had only played one game this season put their foot down and mostly took the Devils out of their element.
Yet, the Devils fought back in the third and almost tied it when they pulled Jacob Markström for the extra attacker, but Jesper Bratt fanned on the shot. Here are three takeaways from the 4-2 loss.
Markström Kept the Devils in the Game
The Devils went out in front 1-0 thanks to Jack Hughes, but the Hurricanes had the run of play for most of the first 40 minutes of the game. Thankfully, Markström was up to the task and kept the Devils in it until the very end.
Markström stopped multiple high-danger chances early, including one with his right pad on a Sebastian Aho chance on the doorstep and another later on Jackson Blake with the right pad. But that was far from where the night ended for Markström.
Some of his best saves came in the second period, like when he robbed Jesperi Kotkaniemi with the left pad of what seemed like a sure goal, and then in the final couple of minutes of the period, he robbed Jack Drury of a goal from the slot.
Even early in the third, Markström had to make a crucial save on Jordan Staal, who got in alone on Markström after the puck took a weird bounce into the Devils' end.
In all, Markström gave up three goals on 3.51 expected goals while saving 11/12 high-danger shots. A .917 SV% on high-danger chances is excellent, and that's been a strength of his throughout most of his career. Given some of the Hurricanes' chances, you couldn't have asked for much more from him.
Hughes Starting to Round Into Form
The Devils had trouble generating offense for much of the night, specifically the first two periods. But the Timo Meier, Jack Hughes and Bratt line was cooking and, at times, was the only unit sustaining offense.
As mentioned, Hughes opened up the scoring for the Devils, but they had their chances throughout the night before head coach Sheldon Keefe broke them up, looking for a spark in the third period.
The Meier, Hughes and Bratt line finished with an expected goals share (xG%) of 53.89 percent while generating eight scoring chances and three high-danger opportunities. Hughes' goal came off the rush, but they also put in work on the cycle to sustain some zone time.
We'll see if Keefe decides to put them back together for tomorrow's game against the Ottawa Senators or if Paul Cotter remains with Hughes and Bratt. Regardless, the biggest takeaway from this line is that Hughes is starting to find his game after a slow start to the season.
His best game came in the 3-0 win over Utah HC a little more than 24 hours before, and he followed that up with an even better performance against the Hurricanes yesterday. Once he gets in a groove, I'd imagine the Devils' top six will start scoring more consistently.
Devils Fourth Line Got Hammered
A significant reason the Devils got killed at five-on-five last night was that the fourth line was horrendous. The combo of Ondřej Palát, Curtis Lazar and Nathan Bastian got hemmed in consistently and was on the ice for two goals against.
The five-on-five stats with the fourth line on the ice were ugly, and that's putting it mildly:
Shot attempts: 3-16
Shots on goal: 0-10
Scoring chances: 2-11
High-danger chances: 1-8
Expected goals: 0.24-1.31
Goals for/against: 0-2
The first goal they allowed was particularly back-breaking, as the Hurricanes took a 2-1 lead with about 40 seconds remaining in the second period. This line got hemmed in their end and couldn't break out the other way.
And more importantly, they got worked along the wall and in one-on-one battles leading to that goal. Jonas Siegenthaler and Johnathan Kovacevic were the defense pair on the ice, so you can't blame the inexperienced unit of Seamus Casey and Šimon Nemec for keeping them pinned in due to the Hurricanes' forecheck outworking them.
At that point, you would have thought their night would have been done. But it wasn't until the Hurricanes scored to go up 3-1 that Keefe decided to call it a night for the fourth line.
All three forwards finished in the bottom three spots for Game Score. And their five-on-five numbers were so bad that the Devils would have come close to winning the xG battle if they were just average.
I am somewhat surprised Keefe continued to roll four lines with how poorly the fourth unit played last night, but perhaps that'll be a lesson learned for future games if/when they get caved in again.
Quick Hits
This will be worth a longer read eventually, but the Devils have a problem brewing with Palát. It's still early, but he looks much worse than he did a season ago when he was one of the team's best defensive forwards. If this continues, it'll be time to have a conversation not about what the Devils should do with his contract but why they have to move his contract.
Siegenthaler looks poised for a rebound season, as I thought he had another solid game last night. He had a few key shot blocks, and was intercepting passes in the neutral zone. He finished with a 52.86 xG% and continues to look comfortable playing alongside Kovacevic in a top-four role while Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce remain out of the lineup.
For the first time this season, Keefe made changes to the top six, putting Cotter with Hughes and Bratt and moving Meier up with Nico Hischier and Dawson Mercer. The Devils did play a bit better after Keefe made the switch, but it was too small a sample to say how effective they could be. We'll see if Keefe decides to stick with the changes tomorrow against the Senators or if he reverts to what he's been using.
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Game Score Chart
Advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick