Devils Aren’t Really As Close As Keefe Claims
In Sheldon Keefe’s delusional mind, the Devils would be atop the Eastern Conference instead of residing in 15th place this season if not for a break here or there. The number of times where New Jersey’s Head Coach has stood in front of the media (or team employees pretending to be independent journalists) after a loss and claimed his club was “right there” has to be in double digits.
In the case of the Devils’ 4-1 loss in Ottawa on Saturday night, it was an unfortunate, albeit correct, interpretation of a rule that disallowed Connor Brown’s potential game-tying power play goal with about four minutes remaining in the third period that had Keefe moaning about how his team deserved a better result. To be clear, you can’t just throw a puck into the net as Brown did, even if Senators goalie Linus Ullmark was the one who actually knocked it across the goal line with an inadvertent stick swing. The same rule applies to kicks and high sticks—a goalie touching the puck last does not negate the infraction.
The underlying problem was that Brown’s opportunity was just one of very few the Devils were able to generate over the course of 60 minutes, and, save for Timo Meier’s nifty finish late in the first period, they couldn’t beat a goalie who hadn’t played since December 28 due to a personal leave of absence.
The Devils had just five high danger chances and 1.68 expected goals for on the night, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, and that’s with five ineffectual (not counting Brown’s chance above) power plays. I counted one odd-man rush all night, which Nico Hischier couldn’t lift like he did to skate off Thursday night’s 3-2 overtime victory over visiting Nashville. Saturday night’s score might have been close deep into the third period, but it sure didn’t feel like New Jersey had the wherewithal to pull it out, not with star center Jack Hughes sidelined (again) by a lower body injury suffered early in Thursday’s contest.
The Devils were playing low-event hockey even before Hughes exited the scene. They have recorded the fewest high danger chances per game over the last week, per NST. It seems like Keefe wants his club to try to win every game, 2-1. Never mind that the Devils aren’t good enough in the hard two-way game to play that way, that’s difficult to sustain in the modern NHL, especially when only one other East team has scored first fewer than New Jersey’s 24 times in 55 games. The Devils are dead last in the NHL with 88 five-on-five goals and they have won just one game all season when they trailed after two periods.
Saturday’s affair was tied entering the final frame, but since Ottawa’s special teams have been on point in their matchups with New Jersey this season, they were able to capitalize on two of their own power play opportunities, the second of which gave them a 2-1 lead 37 seconds into the third period. Despite trailing, the Devils totaled a mere six shots on goal the rest of the way, not an uncommon sequence of events this dismal season.
And when the Devils were pressing in the Senators’ zone to get the equalizer with less than three minutes remaining, Keefe curiously opted not to pull goalie Jake Allen for an extra attacker. Of course, Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle scored on a counter to make it an insurmountable 3-1 deficit with 2:07 left. Oh, that’s when Keefe thought it was ok to leave his net empty, and Shane Pinto obliged for the Senators’ final tally 48 seconds later.
From his defeated tone at his postgame press conference, Keefe seemed to understand the gravity of the contest, which is why I found it confounding that his late-game decisions didn’t match the requisite urgency. The Devils (28-25-2) wasted an opportunity to gain ground on the Islanders, the Metro’s third-place team. New Jersey may only be seven points out of the playoffs, but they have four teams to jump over.
It’s not over, but it’s getting late early enough. Keefe too must see it on the horizon, even if he won’t coach it that way.