Game Summary

The New Jersey Devils lost to the New York Rangers for the fourth time on Sunday. Mackenzie Blackwood had another poor game and the team struggled to put the puck past Georgiev. Although they did attempt a comeback in the second half of the game, they still ended up losing 5-3.

First Period:

The Devils started out playing well for the second day in a row, but gave up the first goal in the first 10 minutes for the second day in a row. Kreider got a power play goal to make it 1-0. Hughes was dominant as usual, with his line having a corsi-for percentage (CF%) of 100% during the period. Even with the effort by that line, at the end of the first frame it was the Rangers who were up 2-0. The second goal went to Vitali Kravstov who scored his first NHL goal.

Second Period:

New Jersey had good pressure to start period number two, but just like in the first, it was the Rangers who scored after all of it. Lafrienere was the one to put it in on the backhand before getting rammed into Blackwood by Matt Tennyson. With about 4 minutes left in the period, Jack Hughes was wrongfully accused of a trip. Jack freaked out slamming his stick multiple times and screaming at the ref, which got him a 10-minute misconduct. However, this kind of sparked the Devils as after a solid penalty kill, it was Mikhail Maltsev who got his first goal in over a month to make it 3-1.

Third Period:

The third period started off very well, with Marian Studenic scoring his first NHL goal to get the Devils within one. The Devils didn’t stop there however, as shortly after it was Captain Nico Hischier with his third of the season and first since his return to tie the game. The goal was off a beautiful tic-tac-toe play with Merkley and Nolan Foote, who collected his first NHL point. The game was very back and forward until late in the game when Ryan Murray was penalized for high sticking after a failed clearing attempt. On the ensuing power play, it was the birthday boy in Mika Zibanejad who scored the eventual game-winner. PK Subban hooked Ryan Strome on a breakaway with the empty net, which meant he was awarded a goal to make it 5-3 and put away the game.

Game Notes

• As mentioned earlier, the Hughes, Kuokkanen, Sharangovich line had a fantastic game. The trio put up no goals, but in 10:36 of ice time, they had a 73.68% CF% and a 75.61% expected goals percentage (xG%). Ever since they were put together a little under two weeks ago, they have dominated shift after shift and put up great numbers not only analytically, but scoring-wise as well. In the seven games, Hughes has two goals and six total points (2-4-6), Sharangovich has 2-5-7 and Kuokkanen has 1-3-4.
• With Sunday’s loss, the Devils have now dropped six games in a row and are in dangerous territory of last in the league. However, the five-on-five possession metrics would tell a different story. The Devils are sixth in the league in CF% with  52.5% and 11th in the league in xG% with 51.24%. This shows a few things; first that offensively the team has been pretty snake-bitten. Second, Lindy Ruff IS NOT the problem. The problem that cost us the game on Sunday and so many others are the special teams and goaltending. Mackenzie Blackwood was great to start the season, but has been atrocious besides for a short stretch in March since then. The power play and penalty kill are both bottom three in the league. The power play in third last with a 12.9% and the PK is last at an atrocious 70.2%.