New Jersey Devils
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Officials Appear to Invent New Rules to Wave Off Game-Tying Goal as Sheldon Keefe and Jeremy Colliton’s No-Offense Devils Lose 4-1 to Senators
Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...litons-no-offense-devils-lose-4-1-to-senators
OTTAWA, CANADA - JANUARY 31: Dylan Cozens #24 of the Ottawa Senators scores his 100th career NHL goal as he puts the puck behind Jake Allen #34 of the New Jersey Devils during the third period at Canadian Tire Centre on January 31, 2026 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Matt Zambonin/NHLI via Getty Images) | NHLI via Getty Images
In his first game in over a month, Linus Ullmark was finally tested four minutes into the game when Connor Brown redirected a hard pass from Timo Meier, who was near the corner at the wall. Ullmark made the initial save, but it bounced up and was trickling behind him when Brown whacked the puck again. Ullmark fell backwards onto the puck, keeping the game even. Jake Allen finally saw his first shot nearly a minute later when he gloved a long wrist shot from Cousins, as the New Jersey Devils had held most of the early possession. Cody Glass got a big chance on the next possession for New Jersey when Jake Sanderson had slipped in the corner. Glass took the pass from Connor Brown and ripped a high shot to the blocker side, but Ullmark squeezed it under his shoulder.
The Devils got the first power play of the game when Tyler Kleven high sticked Paul Cotter on an offensive zone entry six and a half minutes into the period. Keefe sent out Hischier, Meier, Brown, Bratt, and Hamilton for the first unit, and Timo Meier won the faceoff back before Ottawa fought for the puck and got it out of the zone. Dougie Hamilton then had to avert a potential two-on-one on the attempted re-entry, when it looked like Ottawa had a chance to work it back up the boards in the neutral zone. A good stick check stopped the chance before it developed and allowed the Devils to enter the offensive zone, but the first unit was unable to get a shot off. On the second unit, Evgenii Dadonov was beat to the puck in front of the crease, and they were unable to get a real scoring chance, as well. The Senators had a chance to make the Devils pay when Arseny Gritsyuk was back on defense with Simon Nemec with Kleven coming out of the box. Gritsyuk stayed on his assignment, but Nemec drifted into no-man’s land, allowing a passing lane to develop to Fabian Zetterlund, who was stuffed by Jake Allen all alone.
Not too much time had passed at five-on-five before Claude Giroux broke Cody Glass’s stick with a hard slash, sending the Devils back to the power play. This time, Nico Hischier was not kicked from the dot and the Devils kept possession off the draw, and Timo Meier fired a wrist shot into Ullmark’s glove. After the second draw, Hamilton fired a slap shot that was blocked down right in front and cleared, and it took two attempts to re-establish full possession on the offensive zone. Another shot from Hamilton was blocked, and Timo Meier sent a bad pass to Nico Hischier that was intercepted and cleared, bringing the second unit on. They were unable to get anything going as Brett Pesce was unable to hold the zone with a late chance to make something happen, with it looking like Sheldon Keefe was leaving a safety net for Nemec on the second unit.
After this failed power play, Brett Pesce took a tripping penalty on Claude Giroux away from the play. Pesce was unhappy with the call, as Giroux skated into him, but he was not being very attentive with his stick. On the penalty kill, Jonas Siegenthaler had an early clear for the Deivls from the wall, though Connor Brown failed to do so after the Senators came back with Giroux beating the kill at the line and getting a chance all alone on Allen. The Devils ended up stuck in the zone, and Brady Tkachuk sniped a low shot when Jake Allen gave up the far post to make it a 1-0 Senators lead.
The Devils had a chance to tie it up when Nico Hischier was sent ahead with a stretch pass. The Senators caught up to him, so he had to pass across on the rush to Lenni Hameenaho. The pass was deflected in the lane, but the trailer Dougie Hamilton got right on it and quickly fired a hard pass to Arseny Gritsyuk that was redirected on goal — right into Linus Ullmark’s right pad. The Devils looked cursed.
After a shot through traffic into the glove by Meier sent the game to the last TV timeout of the first period, the Glass line came back out for the next faceoff. Off a Hamilton shot from the point that was axed at by Connor Brown, Cody Glass was fighting for the puck outside the crease. Tied up, Glass trudged along and kicked the puck down low as Brown came in for support. With the teams crashing and Ullmark scrambling, Glass got up and passed out from behind the net to Timo Meier, who chipped the puck past Ullmark to tie the game with under two minutes to play!
Following the first period’s final horn, Timo gave a good answer to Rachel Herzog about the Devils’ pace of play and what they need to do to score goals:
Second Period
The second period moved along much more quickly, but the pace of scoring chances crawled to a near halt. Throughout the first half of the second, the Devils were very conservative on their breakouts, standing behind the net and waiting for changes. But standing still for so long led to multiple turnovers, and Jake Allen had to be sharp a few times because of slow puck movement.
Dylan Cozens was called for a high hit on Evgenii Dadonov with eight minutes and 30 seconds to play in the period. Chasing the puck in the corner, Dadonov had his back turned to the boards and Cousins seemed to jump up a bit with a shoulder to his face as Cousins was raising his arms. The Devils made no changes to the first unit of their power play again, and Hischier won this draw cleanly. The Devils cycled the perimeter, and Jesper Bratt lost the puck along the wall to the aggressive Ottawa kill. The puck trickled past the oncoming Senators to Nico Hischier, but he could not lift his shot enough and hit Ullmark’s glove. At the end of the first unit’s ice time, the Senators had Tim Stutzle on a long flip for a breakaway, but Allen made him shoot over the net.
After another failed power play, Johnny Kovacevic, fresh off the bench, took a slashing penalty when he was beat cleanly on the outside on the rush. Early on the kill, Jake Allen had to stick the pad out to deny Drake Batherson by the net. The Devils ended up getting it cleared out near the end of the first minute. They ended up getting another when Dougie Hamilton took his man out behind the net so he could wrap the puck around the boards, and the Devils successfully cleared their second penalty when Jesper Bratt came in to intercept a pass across the crease with seconds remaining.
Linus Ullmark had the save of the game when Dougie Hamilton was cutting down the high slot to the left faceoff circle with a high shot to the far corner, with Ullmark flashing the leather up behind his head for the stop. On the other end, Jake Sanderson glanced a hard one-timer off the iron and out of play with two and a half minutes left in the second. Throughout the end of the period, Jake Allen was on his game, making save after save as the Devils’ defense began to fall apart.
Third Period
Jonas Siegenthaler started the period by taking a hooking penalty on Ridley Grieg. Grieg certainly did his best to pull it along. Jake Allen blockered an early shot from Tkachuk right to Dylan Cozens, who put it home past Brett Pesce. 2-1, Ottawa.
Max Tsyplakov drew a holding penalty a few minutes into the period, with the fourth line having an extended chance to cycle with the extra attacker before Kovacevic sent a terrible pass down low to bring the power play on. The first unit again struggled to create chances or traffic in front of the net after Bratt took one backhand chance down low that was easily padded away, though they stayed on for the second minute despite a faceoff off a long Hamilton shot. Tim Stutzle had a terrible turnover late in the power play, but the Devils could not make them pay as a pass to Hischier in the slot bounced over his stick.
The teams skated at four-on-four with 11:19 to play after Brenden Dillon and Dylan Cozens got into it in the crease. Nico Hischier went for the slap shot from the same spot as his recent overtime winner off a stretch pass from Bratt, but Ullmark padded it away as Hischier couldn’t get the same rise on the shot. Four-on-four came and went without anymore chances for the Devils.
With over seven minutes to play, Ottawa got too aggressive on offense and allowed a two-on-one for Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt. Artem Zub did a great job of clogging the lane to Bratt, and Hischier shot another wrister into Ullmark’s glove. On the other end, Jake Allen made a breakaway save to keep the game within reach.
The Devils drew an interference penalty from Klevens with five minutes to play, when he knocked Nico Hischier down away from the play. The Devils were slow to get set up, but managed to keep possession for the most part. Connor Brown appeared to tie the game when he almost threw the puck into the net after a shot from Dougie Hamilton bounced high, but Linus Ullmark swung his stick back and hit the puck into the net. The call on the ice was a good goal, but it was overturned on a hand pass on review for what I believe was an unreviewable play.
The Senators made it 3-1 with two minutes to play when a shot by Tim Stutzle put home a two-on-one with a puck that chipped off of Brett Pesce’s stick and over Allen’s pads. Shane Pinto made it 4-1 on the empty net.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
Time for One of Keefe or Colliton, or Both, to Go
I’m not going to spend a lot of time hemming and hawing over the bizarre no-goal call on Connor Brown, because I have come to expect nothing less from Justin Kea. The NHL needs a strictly enforced, by the letter rulebook, and officials like Kea will make it up as they go along.
This loss is more on Sheldon Keefe and Jeremy Colliton’s no-offense Devils. In a must-win game, where only Jack Hughes ended up missing with an injury, the Devils only generated 1.22 expected goals at five-on-five. What’s that? Oh, no problem, they DREW FIVE PENALTIES.
Surely they could have generated a bit of offense in 10 minutes of five-on-four?
No. Jeremy Colliton’s power play had five shots for 0.44 expected goals, with the best chance coming off of Tim Stutzle’s stick in those minutes.
With tonight’s loss, the Devils remain 28th in total goals scored in the NHL with 142. Their five-on-five offense is tied for dead-last in the leaguer with Calgary, having scored 88 goals. Their five-on-five goals for percentage, 41.90%, is dead-last in the league by a wide margin. The power play that got off to a scorching hot start? They are now 20th in goals scored with 30.
Brad Shaw’s penalty kill hasn’t really been any better. They have given up 30 goals, which is 12th-best in the league, but with the rate they take penalties at (not that often), they have the 21st-ranked penalty kill by goals given up per 60 minutes played.
Tonight, only two Devils broke even or better in expected goals percentage. Luke Glendening, who only played 4:55 at five-on-five, had a 100.00 xGF%, though he looked as uncreative as ever in his minutes. Dougie Hamilton, who played 15:19 at full strength, led the rest of the Devils with a 53.69 xGF%. Johnny Kovacevic, who was badly beat leading to a penalty against, had the worst numbers on the defense with a 23.55 xGF%. Tonight, Dougie also accounted for 7 of the Devils’ 27 shots, 13 of their 54 shot attempts, and 3 of their 20 scoring chances. He should have had an 11-game point streak on the waved-off game-tying goal.
But the forwards are playing like garbage too, and not just because Nico Hischier was compromised with an illness. Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, and Evgenii Dadonov created NOTHING in favorable third-line usage, and Keefe rewarded Bratt by giving him shifts in place of Lenni Hameenaho on the Hischier line. The Hischier line, which had a 41.99 xGF% with Hameenaho, had a 12.77 xGF% with Bratt. In over 20 minutes of ice time, Bratt mustered just four shot attempts. And Max Tsyplakov, who looked great every time he stepped on the ice and drew a penalty with his great puck protection, played just 7:55. Hameenaho, who had four points in his first six games, played 12:55.
Sheldon Keefe is clearly too conservative a coach to get the best out of these players, especially if he is unwilling to fire Jeremy Colliton, who has seen the power play go 4 for 43 since Jack Hughes initially returned from his injury on January 21. They are currently 0 for their last 22. But not only is Keefe’s style far too conservative to get goals out of these highly-skilled hockey players who enjoy playing at a fast pace (just ask Timo Meier, he will tell you straight up that this team plays too slow), he does not capitalize on players who are clearly feeling it. Where’s Lenni Hameenaho on the power play? Why not Cody Glass, who had six goals and nine points in nine games? The Devils’ lone goal came off of Dougie Hamilton’s aggressive shooting mentality with Glass’s hard work around the net, and they should have tied it off another point shot from Hamilton that rebounded to Brown in the third. Where’s Timo Meier in the one-timer spot for another shooting option? Where’s the net-front presence? As Jesper Bratt said, post-game:
Oh well. Why try scoring with your skilled players’ ice time when you have Johnny Kovacevic and Jonas Siegenthaler to take penalties and continually fail to break the puck out in theirs?
The Columbus Blue Jackets are next. They are 8-1-0 since firing head coach Dean Evason for Rick Bowness.
Your Thoughts
What did you think of tonight’s game? Do you think it’s time for Sheldon Keefe to go? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...litons-no-offense-devils-lose-4-1-to-senators
