Biggest Surprise On An Atypical Hockey Night? The Devils Had The Better Goalie
The NHL Stadium Series is designed to be a terrific setting for events atypical of a regular season hockey game, and the Devils went all out in Saturday’s showcase versus Philadelphia to make it a memorable one.
After the Flyers entered MetLife Stadium in “Rocky” sweatsuits, the Devils followed suit wearing outfits straight out of “The Soprano’s” wardrobe collection. The team’s recorded goal song “Howl” was replaced by live riffs from the actual band, New Jersey’s own Gaslight Anthem. To top it all off, the Devils’ 6-3 victory was enjoyed by the majority of the 70,328 fans in attendance, a figure about twice as much as I guessed would have shown up to watch a middling club in the cold.
As Devils captain Nico Hischier, who led the way with two goals, including the opener on a breakaway just 32 seconds into the game, and an assist, told the prime-time network TV audience afterwards, “It was f@#$.ng amazing!” It was a pure Jersey moment, as opposed to all the manufactured ones.
But with regard to the actual game, what was most unusual was that the Devils had the better goaltender.
Nico Daws,23, won his third game in his last four starts, literally saving his squad during a frantic second period that saw the Flyers hurl 27 shots on goal at him, a record for any period in an outdoor NHL game. For the night, per NaturalStatTrick.com, he stopped all seven high danger shots on net and finished with a 2.39 goals saved above average.
Meanwhile, Daws’ young Philly counterpart, Samuel Ersson, was more accommodating to opposing shooters. He left juicy rebounds on simple shots from beyond the faceoff circles that were directed to the stick tapes of Tyler Toffoli and Brendan Smith for New Jersey’s second and third goals, respectively. About a minute after the Smith goal (another NHL rarity, as it was just his second of the season), Ersson was beaten above his glove from the right dot in a one-on-one against Nathan Bastian, the Devils mucker’s fourth tally in 52 games played this season, which put Philadelphia in a 4-1 hole.
The Devils had opportunities to pad their early 2-0 lead but wasted some of them with excess passing on the snowy outdoor ice in lieu of getting more pucks thrown at the shaky Ersson. Hischier’s was the most egregious when he opted for a backwards pass after receiving the puck in tight off an odd-man rush, which, of course, set up a Flyers counter. Though the initial rush was stopped just inside the Devils blue line, the puck skipped off the stick of Ondrej Palat and onto that of Flyers sniper Owen Tippett, who beat Daws with a wrister from the high slot.
Going for the pretty plays has been a problem for the Devils in many games at Prudential Center as well and is one of the reasons why they have posted an inferior 12-13-2 mark there. Fortunately, the Devils returned to their shoot-first mentality on Saturday, and it paid dividends.
Ersson has pretty much owned the Flyers’ net since late January when Carter Hart was granted leave to prepare for his eventual arrest by London, Ontario police on a sexual assault charge following a celebration for Team Canada for winning the 2018 World Junior Championship. The Devils also had a key player, NHL faceoff king Michael McLeod, leave the team due to two charges in the disturbing incident. Both players’ attorneys said they will be pleading not guilty.
While Philly has only recently had to adjust on the fly, Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff has been trying all season to find a hot hand, starting out with last season’s tandem of Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid. However, by the end of December, Schmid was on his way down to AHL Utica while Daws was promoted. Vanecek, who is under contract through the end of next season at a $3.4 million AAV, has been given every opportunity to cement himself as the starter. Instead, he is ranked 59th in save percentage among the 67 goalies who have played at least 10 games and 62nd in NST’s goals saved above average. As a team, only five clubs have posted a lower save percentage than New Jersey’s .896 this season—and that’s a slight improvement from the All-Star break.
Daws has been up and down himself, as one might expect of a goalie who had just 25 NHL games under his belt coming into the season and was still recovering from offseason hip surgery until his first outing for Utica on December 8.
He’s up now, stopping 129 of the 137 shots against over these last four games and topping the league with a 5.57 GSAA in that span, which means Ruff is going to ride him until he drops, or at least until/if General Manager Tom Fitzgerald can swing a trade for a more reliable goaltender.
But imagine of the Devils had this level of netminding all season, or even average play. For all their other issues related to injuries and poor defensive efforts, they certainly wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in.
The Flyers might still be five points ahead of the Devils (28-22-4) for third place in the Metropolitan Division, which guarantees a playoff berth (New Jersey remains two points behind Detroit for the final Wild Card slot), but the final standings will likely be determined by the team which receives the better play in net.
As it so often does.