Lightning Give Devils Lessons In Championship Mettle
Give the Devils credit for their fight to earn a point in Thursday night’s 4-3 shootout loss to Tampa Bay. New Jersey answered every Lightning haymaker with a tying goal, including a pair by newly acquired wing Timo Meier in the third period--the latter on a six-on-four with 2:16 remining in regulation--and had chances galore in the overtime before coming up short in the contrived jump ball gimmick that the NHL continues to endorse in lieu of more exciting hockey.
Still, Tampa Bay, Stanley Cup champions in 2020 and 2021 before falling in the Final last season, gave the Devils valuable lessons in mettle this week. The Lightning took both games at Prudential Center, including a more surgical 4-1 victory on Tuesday night, showing the young Devils what it will take for their spectacular regular success to translate into the playoffs.
Though the Devils had better skating legs on Thursday, outshooting and outchancing the Lightning by healthy margins, Tampa Bay never seemed to lose control of the game. They took New Jersey’s best punches and capitalized on a higher percentage of their breaks, like when the linesmen incorrectly judged that Jesper Bratt did not beat the Lightning defenseman to the faceoff circle on an icing and, off the ensuing draw, Mikhail Sergachev’s point shot banked off Ross Colton and past Devils goalie Akira Schmid for a 1-0 lead. Or after Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler was called for interference on a dump-in that happens 50 times a game without a whistle, Tampa Bay star Steven Stamkos made New Jersey pay on the power play with the first of his two snipes. Simply put, the Lightning were more opportunistic, structurally sound, and, when they needed it, they received top-flight goaltending from five-time All-Star Andrei Vasilevskiy.
All three character traits came into play during New Jersey’s two-minute five-on-three advantage in the second period. With the score tied at 1-1, the Devils fired at will on Vasilevskiy, who made a couple of saves on wicked slap shots from Devils defenseman Dougie Hamilton. The Lightning defense ate up two more Devils attempts and, at the tail end of the power play, Jack Hughes dinged the outside of the post.
Of course, as soon as Stamkos and Erik Cernak jumped out of the penalty box, they transitioned the puck into the Devils’ zone, where Stamkos found himself left alone in the slot with the puck on his stick. He didn’t miss.
That was the only “rush” goal the Devils surrendered on Thursday, which was a major improvement from the previous contest. After New Jersey took a 1-0 lead, the Lightning struck for four unanswered scores—all off the rush—starting with Anthony Cirelli’s shorthanded goal late in the first period.
The backbreaker came at the end of the second period. The Lightning possessed the puck behind their own net with about ten seconds remaining. That’s not supposed to be all that threatening to a team with high aspirations. The Devils, though, let up, and three passes later Nikita Kucherov backhanded one past goalie Vitek Vanecek 0.8 seconds before the horn.
In both games, the Devils owned the advantage in NaturalStatTrick’s expected goals for percentage metric, yet they came up short on the scoreboard. Vanecek had a bit of a rough outing on Tuesday, but Schmid made some outstanding saves to keep New Jersey in the rematch. I wouldn’t classify any of the goals Schmid surrendered as disturbing.
Though New Jersey ranks fifth in goals scored per game, a recurring issue has been that they have left a ton of potential goals on the table by failing to convert on Grade A chances. Meier was supposed to help plug that hole, but he hadn’t scored since his third shift as a Devil six games ago prior to Thursday’s third period.
I know, the Devils (44-17-7) are still in fantastic shape, especially when compared to the garbage we have witnessed over the past five seasons. However, the point of all this anxiety is that these are the things that will come back to bite the Devils in the playoffs. At this stage, a one-series-and-out will feel like a disappointment.
In the regular season, New Jersey has been able to thrive with their high-octane system because their speed and skill generates so many chances that it can more than offset the ones they fail to convert and the few defensive breakdowns/goaltending issues that occur each game. When you play a team like Tampa Bay in a game of greater importance, however, every mistake and missed chance gets magnified.
The Devils will get another crack at the Lightning in a road game on Sunday in the tail end of a back-to-back after visiting Florida on Saturday. Let’s see if they learned enough lessons to pass this upcoming test.