Tuesday night the New Jersey Devils lost their first regulation game in over two weeks, 5-1, against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team had plenty of chances, but Andrei Vasilevskiy played great. The loss drops New Jersey to 13-5-1 on the season.
Recap
Period One
The Devils got off to a hot start in the first period, but weren’t able to finish. Then, it was the Lightning who got the scored started. Tampa Bay opened the scoring when Dawson Mercer accidentally banked the puck off the wall and right to Jake Guentzel who went in all alone and made no mistake. The Devils pushed hard to try and tie the game, but in the final 30 seconds of the first period, a presumed missed icing call led to a Nikita Kucherov goal. Tampa led 2-0 after two.
Period Two
The Devils continued to play well as the second period began, but then the penalties began to come. Luke Hughes hooked Jake Guentzel, and it was Guentzel who scored his second on the power play to make the Devils pay. New Jersey didn’t give up however, and it was the captain Nico Hischier who got them on the board. Arseny Gritsyuk’s shot went off Hischier’s glove, skate, and then JJ Moser’s leg to draw the Devils back within two as the second period wrapped up.
Period Three
With the Devils down two heading into the third Tampa put the clamps on. Eventually, Dennis Cholowski turned the puck over and Darren Raddysh made him pay to give Tampa their three goal lead back. Shortly after, Tampa would go back on the power play, and Jake Guentzel finished off his hat trick to make it 5-1. The Devils would get a few chances on a couple of late power plays, but Andrei Vasilevskiy stood tall, and the Lightning won 5-1.
Game Notes
Is it Time to Worry About Markstrom?
After tonight’s game, Jacob Markstrom has an .864 save percentage (SV%) on the year through nine games. That number is by far the worst of Markstrom’s career through nine games in a season. His previous worst mark was in 2013-14, the second year of his career, where he had an .887 SV% in his first nine games.
It gets even worse if you remove his 43 save performance in Los Angeles. In Markström’s eight other games this season he has an .839 SV%. The extension given by general manager Tom Fitzgerald on Halloween is not giving back strong return extremely early on.
Dadonov’s Return
While Dougie Hamilton and Connor Brown both also made their returns to the lineup, Evgenii Dadonov was the bigger story. As recently as three days ago, the public was in the dark as to when he would return so the fact he was able to get back into a depleted lineup so quickly was massive, not just for Tuesday’s game, but for the next few weeks as well with Jack Hughes, Cody Glass, and Zack MacEwan still out.
The veteran winger was decent in 9:55 of five-on-five ice time as he recorded a 42.86 Corsi-for percentage (CF%), but a 52.39 expected goals-for percentage (xGF%). Given his linemates, and lack of practice time before returning to the lineup, that should be deemed as a successful return.
What’s Next?
The Devils return to action on Thursday night at 7:00 pm ET. They will travel over to Sunrise, Florida and take on the defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Florida sits at 10-8-1 on the season.