Last night, the New Jersey Devils (34-13-5) lost just their second game of the year when leading after two periods. They fell in a shootout to the Minnesota Wild 3-2. It was just their fifth overtime/shootout loss this season.
In the two games thus far without Jack Hughes, the team has struggled to produce offense. However, the team has collected three of four points in those two games.
Their next two are against struggling Columbus and St. Louis teams. This, in theory, should be a good stretch of games to get their scoring legs back under them.
Recap
Period One
The Devils came out looking sluggish, taking a penalty which led to a Joel Eriksson Ek goal. The Devils were able to get some pressure towards the end of the period, but overall couldn’t get much going. The Wild had the lead after one.
Period Two
The second period was in the Devils favor for the most part, which started after Tomas Tatar blasted home a pass from Ondrej Palat. Palat currently holds a six-game point streak in which he has three goals and seven total points.
Just minutes later, a Damon Severson shot took a bounce off a Wild body and Tatar stick. The Slovak forward had his second of the period to put New Jersey up 2-1. That would be the score after two.
Period Three
The Wild came out buzzing to start the third, with Vitek Vanecek making a few big saves. Eventually, it was a point shot that went off the arm of Ryan Hartman that tied the game for the Wild.
Following that, the Devils put on the pressure, but Filip Gustavsson came up with big save after big save to keep the game tied. It would stay that way at the end of regulation, so once again the Devils would go to overtime.
Overtime and Shootout
It was a slow methodically played extra session until both teams got a couple good chances. Specifically, Wild goalie Gustavsson made a couple sensational saves. That included a Dougie Hamilton one-time bomb and Yegor Sharangovich breakaway.
The game would stay tied after overtime. In the shootout, the Wild would score in round one and three with Gustavsson making a couple more amazing saves. Final score was 3-2.
Game Notes
Depth is Needed
The Devils had been playing poorly for a while, but it was masked by the great play of Jack Hughes and Vitek Vanecek. With Hughes out the scoring has dropped off to no one’s surprise and the Devils have been struggling to win. The team has stars even without Hughes in Jesper Bratt, Dougie Hamilton, and Nico Hischier.
The bigger thing this team needs is some depth. A bunch of their bottom-six has been struggling to produce for a while now. This group includes guys like Fabian Zetterlund, Yegor Sharangovich, Erik Haula, and the whole fourth line.
Even though general manager Tom Fitzgerald said he doesn’t want to trade for rentals, flipping one of their dozen so-so prospects or late-round draft picks for a depth piece certainly wouldn’t hurt.
Just look at how big guys like Nick Paul or Frank Vatrano were for the Lightning and Rangers in their playoff runs last year. They didn’t cost much and made huge impacts not just from playing well but from pushing worse players out of the lineup.
Healthy Soon?
The Devils were 100% healthy for the first time since October last Monday. That lasted one game before Brendan Smith and Jack Hughes went down. The good news? Those two players made the trip to Minnesota with the team. The bad news? That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll play on this road trip, it could just mean they expect their practice windows to open up on the trip.
Still, it’s good to know that they’re expected to get back on the ice sooner rather than later. Especially with Smith, there’s a decent chance he does play in the final three games of this road trip.
What’s Next?
The Devils continue their road trip with a trek to Columbus to face the lowly Blue Jackets. The game is not until Tuesday, the 14th. It’s scheduled for a 7:30 P.M. ET puck drop.