News Devils Team Notes

[New Jersey Devils]

Game Preview #12: New Jersey Devils @ Los Angeles Kings

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (8-3-0) vs. Los Angeles Kings (5-3-4)

The Time: 9:00pm ET

The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio

Last Devils Game​

New Jersey began the California portion of their road trip on Thursday in San Jose. A goal against in the first minute of the game, plus two more in the opening frame sunk the Devils in a terrible 5-2 loss. Dawson Mercer registered two power play goals for all the offense on the Devils’ side.

Last Kings Game​

Los Angeles was also in action on Thursday, falling in a shootout to the Red Wings, 4-3. The Kings were down 3-1 entering the final three minutes of regulation, but two goals in 40 seconds late in the third helped them secure a loser point to salvage something from their Thursday evening.

Friday Night News Dump: Markstrom Extended​

The Devils made a pretty significant announcement last night. If you missed it, I don’t blame you. The team announced it on a Friday night, which just so happened to be Halloween, which also just so happened to come during Game 6 of the World Series. But in the middle of all of that, New Jersey announced that they have signed Jacob Markstrom to a contract extension: 2 years, $6m AAV:

Enjoying a Swede treat on this fine Halloween evening.

: https://t.co/xTCdOqlkYC pic.twitter.com/VzCYuwHabi

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) November 1, 2025

This doesn’t really impact tonight’s game, but it’s such a significant development that we need to address it here. The timing isn’t the best as far as optics go. Markstrom is coming off one of his worst games as a Devil, and he’s struggled through substandard play and injuries early this season. Still, Markstrom showed in stretches last season (including the playoffs) that he can still be a high-end goalie in this league.

For me personally, I really like the two-year term, but the $6m AAV is a little rich for my blood. I guess I have to keep telling myself that in a rising cap environment, $6m AAV is the new $4m AAV, or something like that.

In any case, congrats to Markstrom. Here’s to hoping he can give New Jersey a few more good seasons to come.

Injuries Taking Their Toll​

The Devils have been ravaged by injuries since before the season even began. Johnny Kovacevic and Stefan Noesen began the year on the shelf, and they were quickly joined by Evgenii Dadonov, Zack MacEwen, Cody Glass, and most recently, Brett Pesce. It’s that last one that seems to be hitting the Devils the hardest. In the two games that Pesce has missed, New Jersey has given up eight(!) and five goals. Completely unacceptable defensive efforts, even if a large portion of the blame belongs to the goaltenders.

Pesce is expected to be out at least a month, so he’s not walking through that door to help the Devils defense anytime soon. It’s on the players still in the lineup to figure things out and stop bleeding chances and goals. It’s only two games, but it would behoove New Jersey to nip this in the bud starting tonight.

And now, we may have to add another injury to the list:

Connor Brown is questionable for Saturday at the moment.

Needed the day off today, says #NJDevils HC Keefe. And they’ll see tomorrow how he feels.

Keefe says not to read too much into today’s lines as Brown’s availability tomorrow will dictate what the makeup looks like.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) October 31, 2025

Brown has been quite the offseason pickup for New Jersey. He won’t continue to shoot the lights out, but he’s a solid player with speed, skill, grit, and veteran leadership. Even if he isn’t a top of the lineup player, he will be missed if he can’t go tonight. Let’s hope whatever is ailing him heals soon.

In his absence, head coach Sheldon Keefe made some big changes to his lineup in practice yesterday:

Changes indeed for #NJDevils — though we will have to see how things might change again with Brown not on the ice today.

Each forward line has been tweaked.

And if today is any indication, it looks like Cholowski will draw in with Nemec while Casey will be an extra tomorrow. https://t.co/UR5toSEjM7 pic.twitter.com/3slJGtbCLu

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) October 31, 2025

I hesitate to put too much stock into this because Stein reported that Keefe said not to read too much into this. The lineup was the way it was apparently to accommodate Brown’s absence. If he’s in tonight, I expect the lineup to remain roughly the same. If he’s not, then perhaps we see something similar to this.

There’s also Dennis Cholowski seemingly being set to make his season debut tonight. He’s a very limited player but after the last two nights, it’s not like the defense begs to be kept together. We’ll see what Cholowski can bring this evening.

Some Big Guns Have Been Quiet​

I mentioned this briefly in the game recap of the San Jose game on Thursday, but I would really like to see Nico Hischier and Timo Meier get back in the goal column. Both players have gone seven games without scoring a goal, and while they contribute in many, many other ways, scoring goals would be a nice way to contribute some more. Hischier only has two goals on the season, and Meier only has three. I get that a lot of their energy is taken up every night by stopping the other team’s best players, but they were fed brutal minutes last year and still produced. In fact, Hischier registered a career-high in goals with 35, and while much of that was on the power play, the overall point remains that even with tough assignments, they are more than capable of finding the back of the net.

The good news is that Hischier is due. He is only shooting at 8.0% thus far, well below his career mark of 13.2%. Meier on the other hand is actually at 10.7%, which is basically at his career mark of 10.9%. So it doesn’t appear that he’s getting victimized by bad shooting luck. Which is a little concerning, but if there’s one thing we know about Meier, it’s that he is capable of scoring goals in bunches. Once he sees that next one go in, don’t be surprised to see him follow it up with a stretch of seven goals in five games or something like that.

Jack Hughes has carried the offense lately, and Jesper Bratt and Dawson Mercer have produced as well. But New Jersey needs their other big guns to start scoring goals again too. I have confidence in them, Hischier and Meier won’t be held down for long. But it would be nice if they can stop being held down tonight.

Is Luke Ready For Primetime?​

We’ve talked about Brett Pesce already, but now let’s talk about his defense partner, Luke Hughes. When I say primetime, I’m referring to being a true number one defenseman based on both traditional and advanced stats. It’s worth asking if he’s ready considering just how much the Devils now have invested in the young man. Again, all the small sample size caveats apply, but since Pesce went down, to me it’s been a mixed bag as far as what I’ve seen out of Hughes without his primary partner.

In the game on Tuesday in Colorado, Hughes actually didn’t look too bad based on the numbers at Natural Stat Trick. In that game, at 5-on-5 Hughes posted an Expected Goals For% of 54.30. The Devils also outscored Colorado 4-1 when Hughes was on the ice. Hughes was paired with Dougie Hamilton that night, and in 13:22 together at 5-on-5, Hughes’ xGF% was 68.77, and he was in the black in goals for, Corsi, Scoring Chances, and High Danger Corsi. In Thursday’s game, however, Hughes was paired with Seamus Casey, and boy did it not go well. Hughes posted a 5-on-5 xGF% of 14.31, which is shockingly bad. In 17:20 with Casey specifically, he put up a 19.72 xGF%. The Hughes-Casey pairing did not work in any way, and I would strongly suggest that Keefe not go with that pairing again.

The numbers at Hockey Stat Cards seem to back this data up. In the Colorado game, Hughes posted a Game Score of 3.18, second on the team behind only his partner, Hamilton. For those not familiar with Hockey Stat Cards’ Game Score model, 3.18 is a fantastic number. Meanwhile in the San Jose game, Hughes’ Game Score was -0.89, a really bad result.

So for Hughes, it’s been one great game and one bad game since Pesce went down. I will say, just based on my own personal eye test, I feel as though his numbers in the Colorado game are a little generous. Not to the point where I think he had a secretly bad game, but I do think it’s hard for me to point to Hughes and say he was truly dominant in that contest. Then again, he did get matched up against Colorado’s super-elite top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Martin “The Diver” Necas, and Artturi Lehkonen, along with a steady dose of the all-world Cale Makar-Devon Toews pairing. So maybe I’m being too harsh on Hughes given he posted really good numbers against arguably the toughest matchup in the league.

And even if we go by traditional stats, Hughes has zero goals and six assists through 11 games. His shots will start beating goaltenders again, but that’s still only slightly more than half a point per game production. Which is pretty much exactly what he’s produced in his first two seasons (47 points in 2023-24, 44 points last year). That’s not bad obviously, but that’s far from top of the league stuff. The only way you can get away with that level of production and still be considered a number one defenseman is if you’re also an elite shutdown guy. Think Jaccob Slavin or Gustav Forsling. Luke certainly isn’t on their level in that regard. Then again, if Hughes actually starts getting regular playing time on the top power play unit soon, instead of splitting time with Hamilton, he could see his production skyrocket.

So what does all this mean? Well in my eyes, it means that Hughes is not quite ready to be considered a true number one defenseman yet. He has all the tools, and he shows that elite production and ice-tilting ability in spurts, but not at a consistent level. He doesn’t appear to be able to carry his own pairing yet, though perhaps it’s unfair to expect him to carry a player as raw as Casey. Then again, it’s not like the Hughes-Casey pairing was going up against MacKinnon or McDavid, they were playing a woeful Sharks team. I really don’t think it would’ve been too much to ask for Hughes to have a good game against a team that bad regardless of who his partner is.

I want to make it clear, I am absolutely not giving up on Hughes. I still have confidence that he will be a star defenseman in this league very soon. But the numbers seem to indicate that he has thus far only been able to achieve star-level play when paired with another really good defenseman. For Hughes to be considered a true number one, he needs to thrive under tougher conditions.

Heavy Is The Head That Wears The Crown​

The Los Angeles Kings have been a very good team for half a decade now. They’ve made the playoffs every year since 2021-22, finishing with 99 points twice, 104 points once, and 105 points last season. They’ve built their team through terrific team defense, finishing second league-wide in goals allowed last season, third in 2023-24, 16th in 2022-23, and 9th in 2021-22. Even in their “down” year in 2022-23 they were still average.

The biggest problem for Los Angeles since they’ve become a perennial playoff team can be summed up in two words: Edmonton Oilers.

Over the past four seasons, the Kings have been eliminated by the Oilers in the first round every single year. Other fans have plenty of complaints about the current playoff format, but Kings fans probably have the biggest complaints of all. They just can’t seem to solve their Edmonton problem.

That problem cost general manager Rob Blake his job this past spring. In his place came longtime NHL executive Ken Holland. He went to work reshaping the team, which basically boiled down to the highly questioned signings of defensemen Cody Ceci (4-year, $4.5m AAV) and old pal Brian Dumoulin (3-year, $4m AAV). These two have effectively replaced (or at least that was the idea) shutdown ace Vladislav Gavrikov, who signed with the New York Rangers in free agency.

Aside from Ceci and Dumoulin, the rest of the team remains largely the same. They still haven’t solved their Oilers problem, but as we’ve discussed, this has still been one of the stronger teams in the league for years now. They hope this is the year they can finally get over the hump.

Abdicating The Throne​

With apologies to Cyrus The Great, Anze Kopitar has been the King of Kings for a long, long time in Los Angeles. But the future hall of famer’s reign is coming to an end, as he announced before the season that 2025-26 would be his last. Obviously Kopitar has slowed down in recent years (he only has five assists and zero goals in eight games this season for example), but he’s still been an effective player and invaluable leader for the Kings.

The heir apparent to Kopitar’s throne is Quinton Byfield. The second overall pick in 2020 has developed into a pretty darn good player over the past couple seasons. Over the past two years, he posted 43 goals and 109 points over 161 total games. Certainly not elite production, but respectable for a player his age. But that’s not what makes Byfield so dangerous.

Byfield is one of those players who just controls the run of play very well. A look through his Natural Stat Trick numbers show a player whose big 5-on-5 stats (Expected Goals For%, High Danger Corsi For%, Scoring Chances For%, Corsi For%) have all been in the mid-to-high-50’s since 2022-23. That’s excellent work for a player as young as Byfield. Meanwhile, a look at Byfield’s Hockey Stat Cards numbers have him above average in defensive impact, borderline elite in offensive impact, and borderline elite in overall impact. As far as traditional stats go, he’s got those 109 points over the past two seasons, and this year he’s leveled up a bit in terms of point production, registering 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 12 games, an 82-game pace of roughly 68 points.

Byfield is probably the most important Kings player of the next five to ten seasons. He’s a star in the making, and while he might not be a true star yet, he’s a dangerous player that the Devils should devote a sizeable amount of their gameplan to.

Keeping Kempe Contained​

Apart from Byfield, Adrian Kempe is the other big Kings forward to keep an eye on. Through 12 games, Kempe leads the team in points with 15, and is tied for the team lead in goals with five. Kempe has been a point machine for Los Angeles over the past few seasons, registering a career-high 41 goals in 2022-23 (67 total points that year), 75 points in 2023-24, and 73 points last season. He’s over a point per game pace in the early going, so he’ll need plenty of defensive attention as well.

Projected Lineup​

Here’s how the Kings lined up in their last game:

Tonight's projected @LAKings lines from DTLA. Forward Trevor Moore will miss tonight's game due to personal reasons:
: @FanDuelSN_West
: ESPN LA App, LA Kings App, @TuLigaRadio pic.twitter.com/37kIDxwj9u

— LA Kings PR (@LAKingsPR) October 31, 2025

I’m not sure if Trevor Moore will return to the lineup (he missed last game due to personal reasons). If he does, expect this lineup with Moore drawing back in for Jacob Moverare.

Your Take​

What do you make of tonight’s game? Are you confident the defense will right itself, or will they struggle to keep the puck out of their own net again? Who on the Devils are looking for to step up? Who on the Kings are you most intrigued by? As always, thanks for reading!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...review-12-new-jersey-devils-los-angeles-kings

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Game Preview #13: New Jersey Devils at Anaheim Ducks

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (9-3-0) at the Anaheim Ducks (6-3-1)

The Time: 8:00 PM ET (5:00 PM local)

The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN, Radio — Devils Hockey Network

Better Effort​

The New Jersey Devils had most breaks go their way last night against the Los Angeles Kings. Jacob Markstrom was excellent, keeping the Kings to one goal as the Devils took the 4-1 win. The Kings doubled their shots at 44 to 22, forcing Markstrom to earn that victory. Do the Devils want to play the same game tonight with Anaheim? I would not think so. The one thing that I do not think was really their fault that did not go their way last night was the penalties. The officials overlooked a couple obvious too many men situations for Los Angeles, contributing to some extended defensive shifts for the Devils, while New Jersey was called for four total penalties during the game. To date, the Devils are tied for the second-least power play opportunities in the league, tied with Pittsburgh at 31 and ahead of just the Columbus Blue Jackets with 26. They have had to kill 43 penalties, though, and the league average for both at the moment is 39. I am not going to be nice to referees and pretend this disparity reflects the reality of infractions on the ice.

But the Devils have to deal with it, or maybe they just don’t embellish enough to get calls in today’s NHL. Some better possession numbers might help them draw calls, too, but the lack of calls coming their way are also hurting their chances to gain and sustain possession. The Ducks are a rather average group on special teams, as they have eight goals on 40 power play opportunities and seven goals against in 33 penalty killing situations. They have scored two shorthanded goals and have allowed none. The Devils, of course, lead the league with four shorthanded goals, which brings their penalty killing differential to just -2 (tied with the Jets for best in the league) on 43 penalties. Their power play percentage is also tied with the Penguins for second in the league behind the Oilers.

The Ducks​

The Anaheim Ducks have gotten very lucky at even strength this season. Per Natural Stat Trick, they have good possession numbers at a 50.60 CF%, but they are a bit worse at getting their shots on goal, with a 230-246 shot disparity through 10 games. They have only been able to outshoot teams because of their penalty differential. Still, they are also performing well above their expected goal differential at even strength of 21.76-27.13 (44.51 xGF%), with a real differential of 22-23 at five-on-five. So far, they are also 4-2-0 against Eastern Conference teams, escaping with these wins despite a 36.25 xGF% at five-on-five and a 40.42 xGF% in all situations.

The big task for today is shutting down their top lines. Cutter Gauthier (six goals, 10 points), Mason McTavish (eight points), and Bennett Sennecke (five points) have tallied the most (89:37) minutes together, rolling with a 59.90 CF% and 4-2 goal differential. However, Leo Carlsson (five goals, 15 points) and Troy Terry (five goals, 13 points) lead their team in point production, and I expect them to be on a line with Chris Kreider. That line has only broken even in goals at even strength, but they have dominated possession with a 61.02 CF% through 28:51 together. Kreider, who is returning from a bout of hand, foot, and mouth disease, is having an excellent start to his season alongside Jacob Trouba. Both have six points, though Kreider has only played six out of 10 games, as he has scored five goals already, compared to the 22 goals he had for the Rangers last season. Jacob Trouba, meanwhile, has already matched his Rangers production from last year in 14 fewer games while playing much better defense in bigger minutes. He might be getting a bit lucky with his on-ice goal differential of 11-4 with his 50.73 xGF%, but the Ducks play their best hockey with Trouba on the ice.

The Devils will likely only have to deal with one big-hitting former Metropolitan Division right-handed defenseman tonight, though. Radko Gudas, Captain of the Ducks and regular cause of Devils injuries on illegal hits, has missed three games with a lower-body injury. The coach of the Ducks said that Gudas should be out for about a week from yesterday, alongside Mikael Granlund (lower-body) and Ryan Strome (upper-body). Granlund has only missed two games so far, but he already had eight points in eight games. Meanwhile, Strome has yet to play a game this season. Those injuries should make it easier for the Devils to win their matchups in the bottom six tonight, as the Ducks are a bit of a two-line show.

Key to the Game​

Tonight is the night the Devils’ fourth line needs to get going. They are going against a rather poor fourth-line center in Jansen Harkins, who throws a lot of hits but had a 10.00 CF% and 3.19 xGF% in his season debut. He should be on a line with Frank Vatrano, who is having a rotten start to the season with one point and a 28.88 xGF%. Meanwhile, the third line should not be outmatched by the Ryan Poehling-led group. The Devils are well-used to Poehling’s mediocrity, and he is on a line with an increasingly washed up Alex Killorn and a more promising young Nikita Nesterenko, who has four points in eight games. Still, Poehling’s third lines have not fared very well in terms of possession or expected goals, and running a guy like Arseny Gritsyuk loose against a poor bottom six should mean opportunities for the Devils to score. While the lines were pretty fluid last night (I saw a lot of mixtures down the stretch), I think the Devils should go with a look like this:

Noesen-Hughes-Bratt
Meier-Hischier-Brown (if available)
Cotter-Mercer-Gritsyuk
Palat-Glendening-Halonen

Unfortunately, neither of the Palat-Hischier-Gritsyuk or Meier-Hischier-Mercer lines really created any offense last night, so I think more tinkering is needed there. With Juho Lammikko not playing much towards the end of the game, I do not think he should be centering the third line again tonight. With Brian Halonen earning his way to stay in the lineup with his goal, it would be nice to see him get a game with more of an offensive focus on his line. Palat, who finds himself suddenly without a home on Jack’s line (especially with Noesen looking consistently in the right spots there last night), needs to reinvent himself and work some scoring chances in the bottom six: he should have opportunities if he plays there against Anaheim’s weak bottom six tonight.

If Brown misses a second straight game, I would just recommend sliding the right wings up a line and dressing Lammikko on the fourth. Lammikko has not shown enough (he had a 12.31 xGF% last night in 6:55 at five-on-five) to play on the third line, and he did not even win draws in the faceoff dot. In order to keep Hischier and Hughes fresh enough for the end of the game today, they will need Dawson Mercer to play center and turn in good shifts at even strength. Maybe if they need to shorten the bench in the third, Mercer can move back to wing, but they need his minutes at center right now.

The Devils will have Jake Allen (5-1-0, .906 SV%, 2.39 GAA) starting tonight, while the Ducks should have Lukas Dostal (4-3-1, .909 SV%, 2.74 GAA) in net. If Dostal gets a rare rest, Petr Mrazek (2-0-0, .831 SV%, 5.52 GAA) is Anaheim’s backup. Mrazek last played on October 23, while Dostal has played three in a row (October 25, 28, and 31). With the Ducks on a homestand, next playing Florida on Tuesday, I expect to see Dostal.

Your Thoughts​

What do you think of tonight’s game? Will the Devils make any changes to their forward lines? Will Cholowski play again tonight, or is tonight a good time to use Seamus Casey? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...preview-13-new-jersey-devils-at-anaheim-ducks

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Devils Faceplant Into 4-1 Loss to Ducks

First Period​

After the New Jersey Devils got off to a good start in the game, getting the first three shots on goal, Beckett Sennecke blew by Simon Nemec and Dennis Cholowski to beat Jake Allen high. The Anaheim Ducks took a 1-0 lead less than five minutes into the game on their first shot of the game. Neither of the Devils’ third pair looked very good on this goal against.

The Hischier line had the best response in the next few minutes for the Devils, with both Hischier and Arseny Gritsyuk having great chances to score. On Hischier’s chance, Gritsyuk retrieved the puck below the goal line and backhanded it back out to Hischier for a point-blank shot, but Lukas Dostal made the save. The Devils eventually had something go in their favor when Sennecke was called for holding Jack Hughes, sending the Devils to the power play just after the halfway mark of the first.

Dawson Mercer and Dougie Hamilton were on the first power play with Hischier, Hughes, and Bratt. Hischier lost the first draw and the Devils had to take it from their own end, but Troy Terry quickly got a breakaway after a bad entry by the Devils. Allen made two big stops here, and the Devils continued to have trouble gaining the offensive zone until Bratt was called for offsides at the end of the first minute. The second unit came out, and Luke Hughes started the breakout from their own end after another clear by Anaheim. A shot from Luke Hughes trickled through the crease but was just too far on the other end from Stefan Noesen and rolled wide of the net. At the end of the power play, Gritsyuk got a pass across to Timo Meier for a one-timer, but Dostal made a glove save.

The Ducks took a 2-0 lead when the Devils got hemmed in their own zone after a bad change. Dawson Mercer finally had a chance to clear the puck out, but he passed towards Hischier in the middle, turning it over. Frank Vatrano fired off a one-timer, and the Ducks took the two-goal lead. Right after play resumed, Luke Hughes was called for tripping in the neutral zone, giving the Ducks a chance to put the game away early.

The Devils sent out Glendening, Bratt, Siegenthaler, and Hamilton to start the penalty kill. The Devils got a chance to go the other way early on, but Glendening was unable to feather the pass through to Bratt on a two-on-two rush. Mercer and Hischier came on while Siegenthaler and Hamilton did not change. The Ducks set up low, but Siegenthaler blocked a pass to Kreider. The Ducks went back high until a pass went through Jackson LaCombe to give the Devils a break. Dillon and Nemec changed on with Hughes and Palat to finish the kill, and they did finish the job to keep the score as it was. Luke Hughes sent a blind pass from the corner to the front of the net after he got out of the box, but Jack Hughes was just too late to redirect it into the net.

Second Period​

The Devils were hoping for a better second period, but they quickly fell down 3-0 after Timo Meier failed to get the puck out of the defensive zone with a chance on his stick. He tried to push it out again at the blueline, but the Ducks worked it back down to the goal line. Cutter Gauthier just slid it low, and the puck went under Allen’s pad.

Mason McTavish was temporarily sent to the box four and a half minutes into the period when it looked like Timo Meier took a high stick, but it was called back when Brenden Dillon was discovered to have been the one who high sticked Meier. Thus the game stayed at five-on-five. The Devils looked like they had a great chance to end the shutout when Stefan Noesen found Jack Hughes in the middle of the ice on a three-on-two rush, but Jack did not seem to get a great shot off, and it was frozen by Dostal with just a little rebound off of Bratt’s skate that was quickly swallowed back up.

When Allen was tested, the Ducks had some incredible chances. Sennecke was denied on a one-timer in the slot, and Kreider had a big chance after a terrible defensive zone turnover by Simon Nemec. Allen came up big on both occasions, and the Devils stayed somewhat in the game at that point. They ran out of steam as the period went on though, drying up almost entirely as they just tried to survive the end of the period, taking the game towards its merciful end.

Third Period​

Down three goals, the Devils still got off to a slow start in the final frame. The third line got their first good chance of the period, as Arseny Gritsyuk split the defense in the neutral zone and went on a two-on-one with Juho Lammikko. Gritsyuk sent the puck across but Dostal stopped Lammikko’s one-timer. On the other end, Ross Johnston got himself a breakaway, and his backhand went off of Allen’s left pad and the post.

Nico Hischier took an elbow from behind into the boards five and a half minutes into the period from Jansen Harkins, and Dawson Mercer immediately jumped in for retribution. Only the retribution was called, and the Ducks went to the power play. The Ducks did not threaten much here until late in the power play, when Jake Allen made a point-blank save on a one-timer. The Devils got the puck up to Mercer out of the box, who slid a pass across to Jack Hughes to make it a 3-1 game with over 12 minutes to play!

The Devils played frantically over the next few minutes, but they had no luck on their chances. Then, they started getting stuck in the neutral and defensive zones again. They finally got back into the offensive zone with five and a half minutes to play, and Dostal froze a weak shot from the boards to give the Devils a stoppage and a faceoff. They did not make good use of it, though, as Chris Kreider got off to a breakaway that was stopped by Allen.

The Devils had the net empty for the last two and a half minutes. They had a perfect chance to score when Lukas Dostal misplayed the puck with Stefan Noesen blocking his attempt at the empty net, and the Devils were unable to score as Dostal scrambled around the crease. The Ducks took it the other way, and Chris Kreider scored the Ducks’ fourth goal of the game, sealing the 4-1 Ducks win.

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

Weak​

The Devils all shared in a common weakness today.

Jake Allen really needed to stop two of the three goals he gave up. The shot under the pad was a must-save, and he probably could have had the first shot by Sennecke, as well. This is not to say that Allen played a bad game on the whole (the Devils certainly did their part down the stretch to give him the appearance of good statistics on the night: it could have ended up a 6-1 or 7-1 game), but if he had some of his late-game saves in the first period, the Devils might not have given up halfway through the second period.

That visible decline in skating and connectivity halfway through the game was difficult to watch. Literally at the 30-minute mark, the Ducks started getting chance after chance, which continued until Dawson Mercer went after Jansen Harkins. Once Mercer came out of the box and set up the shutout-breaking goal for Jack Hughes, the Devils flipped a switch and suddenly started playing like it was the first period again. Then a bad decision by Jack Hughes in the defensive zone led to that momentum falling apart, and the Devils skated just like they did in that middle section of the game until they had the empty net.

By then, it is too late to pull a comeback together.

Thankfully, the Devils are no longer on the road after tonight. They have a three-game homestand starting on Thursday, giving them three days of rest, before they have a five-game Eastern Conference road trip. They won’t have to travel for a Western Conference game for a month and a half — their next such game is December 17 against Vegas.

Wasting Time: Cholowski-Nemec Must End​

A big step in the right direction, lineup-wise, would be fixing the third pairing. One of Dennis Cholowski and Simon Nemec might need to play, but not necessarily both of them. As a duo tonight, they had a 31.03 CF% and 16.40 xGF% and the goal against on Sennecke’s tally. They had a particularly bad effect on Jack Hughes’s line. When Jack Hughes played with Cholowski (8:03), the Devils were out-attempted 18 to six and outshot eight to three. So, Jack had a 12.44 xGF% with Cholowski on the ice compared to a 60.95 xGF% in the 12:31 he played without Cholowski.

Ethan Edwards is available. The Devils have Colton White. If they really need a left-handed defenseman to play with Nemec, it should not be Dennis Cholowski. It’s one thing to say that the Devils just need to kill some minutes with their third pairing. But when they are actively holding Jack Hughes back from creating offense (especially when already playing from behind), Sheldon Keefe needs to let Tom Fitzgerald that it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Brett Pesce will not be back for another three to five weeks.

Your Thoughts​

What did you think of tonight’s game? Did you think the Devils would look this poor? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/devils-game-recaps/62660/devils-faceplant-into-4-1-loss-to-ducks