Devils’ Bad Day Has Them On Brink Of Elimination
When the epitaph is written on this Devils season, either after Tuesday’s Game 5 of their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinals series at Carolina or, if they’re lucky, some time afterwards, injuries promise to be the main talking point.
And it’s true that the loss of All-Star center Jack Hughes plus three of their top six defensemen (Luke Hughes, Brenden Dillon, and Johnathan Kovacevic) tested the Devils’ depth in the series, forcing them to allocate ice time to lesser players while wearing down the remaining core. It was quite noticeable during Carolina’s 5-2 victory at Prudential Center on Sunday less than 48 hours after New Jersey’s epic 3-2 double overtime triumph sent the Rock into a frenzy.
But that’s an overly simplistic excuse for the Devils’ performance in Game 4 that allowed the Hurricanes to go home, where they are very tough, with a commanding 3-1 series lead.
The hard truth is that the Devils picked a bad day to have a bad game. Bad goaltending, bad special teams, bad puck management, and even bad coaching were as much a factor as the missing bodies. And the inconsistencies in these areas have plagued this team all season.
New Jersey fell behind in the first minute on the first of Carolina’s Andrei Svechnikov’s three goals and the first of three goals against that Devils goalie Jacob Markstrom probably should have had (though NaturalStatTrick.com credited him with just a minus-0.77 goals saved above average). The deficit eventually got to 3-0 after Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin dispossessed Devils wing Stefan Noesen at the blue line and walked down the left wing wall where his wrister somehow found a hole upstairs against Markstrom midway through the first period, and then Svechnikov converted a nice backdoor play in period 2’s opening minute on a Hurricanes power play.
It's tough to lay so much into Markstrom because he was so good in the first three games, ranking fourth among the 16 playoff netminders in GSAA and third in high danger save percentage, per NST. But in this business, so much of playoff success rests on goaltending quality. This Devils lineup just can’t overcome a stinker. Markstrom, though, contributed to putting his team in a rough spot, injuries or a clean bill of health.
The Devils did fight back in the second period to make a game of it after Timo Meier’s crash into the net front sent Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen to the locker room for the remainder of the contest. Meier then was gifted a goal from cold backup Pyotr Kochetkov off a spinning prayer from the right side to cut the Canes’ lead to 3-2.
But for those who abide by the hockey cliché regarding a three-goal lead, it is incredibly difficult to come back from them. One mistake and it’s over. In this case, the mistake was made by Sheldon Keefe, who, as the home team’s Head Coach, has the last line change.
For much of the game, Keefe was able to keep Carolina’s defensive stalwart Jordan Staal off the Nico Hischier line. Except with about six minutes remaining, Keefe sent Hischier out for a faceoff against Staal after an offsides whistle. Staal won the draw and the Canes went to work. The Devils got run around, with Markstrom’s clear attempt thrown back at him by defenseman Brent Burns from the right point. With Carolina wing Jordan Martinook poking at Markstrom, the puck squeezed through his legs and into the net for the backbreaking fourth goal.
Technically, Staal was seen changing when the red light went on, so the Staal versus Hischier tally at five-on-five for the series remains 2-1 in Carolina’s favor, per NST, with the Meier fluke New Jersey’s only marker.
Not that the Devils have had any success with a man advantage either. Two more power play attempts went by the wayside on Sunday, running the series drought to 0-for-12 with one shorthanded goal against. Keefe may not have the Hughes brothers at his disposal, but he can conglomerate enough talent to at least generate more scoring chances.
For example, Keefe could have shaken things up by inserting rookie defenseman Seamus Casey into the lineup. I mean, why bother going with Dennis Cholowski as the sixth d-man if you’re just going to use him for 14 shifts totaling 8:46, none on special teams? Casey at least has a knack for getting pucks to the net, which hasn’t been easy in this series. It’s a lot easier to shelter Casey at home.
Keefe was probably more concerned about the defensive side of things, though the Cholowski/Simon Nemec pairing didn’t fare that well when they shared the ice in Game 2. There were some lengthy and scary shifts in that one, not so much on Sunday.
Not that the Devils didn’t get rolled whoever was on the ice in the early going. In one instance, the fourth line was stuck defending for nearly two minutes as Carolina put on the pressure. I think slow Devils wing Nathan Bastian was beaten five times by Canes defenseman Dimitry Orlov when the puck was loose near the left point. If ever a picture existed of how dominant Carolina was during the first period, when NST had calculated their expected goals for share at 76.3%, one of Orlov winning a puck battle over Bastian would have told the story.
The lack of production from New Jersey’s bottom six has been an issue all season, so no one should be surprised that the only Devils goals this series have come from their four best players plus Nemec’s OT stunner. Hischier and Meier marking the scorebook on Sunday was critical, but it wasn’t going to be enough when so much else went wrong.