Last night the New Jersey Devils played the Philadelphia Flyers at the Prudential Center for the lone time this season, losing 3-2 in overtime. The Devils fall to a record of 16-12-2 and sit at sixth in their division.
Recap
Period One
The Devils and Flyers came out waiting for someone to make the first move. It was a very slow back and forth first period between the two squads. Eventually the Devils broke through with Michael McLeod. Nathan Bastian sent a nice pass by a sprawling defender to his buddy in front who potted it to go up 1-0. That would be the score after one.
Period Two
The Flyers came out buzzing to start the second period. After a bad Jack Hughes turnover at the blue line, a nice passing play resulted in a Flyers goal for Ryan Poehling. The Devils would go to the power play shortly after where Jesper Bratt would answer on a loose puck in front of the net.
Halfway through the period after a weird change by the Devils and a horrible play on the puck by Brendan Smith, the Flyers went on a two-on-one where they would score. Poehling had his second of the game off a nice pass.
Period Three
The third period was a good one for the Devils as they came out with some fire. Sam Ersson in net for Flyers would stand strong though and stop everything that came his way. The Devils wouldn’t be able to break through and the game would go to overtime.
Overtime
After some back and forth chances leading to saves on both sides Jack Hughes made yet another bad mistake. On an attempt to leave the puck for his brother Luke he gave it away right to Flyer Owen Tippett who fired the puck glove side high on Vitek Vanecek for the win.
Game Notes
Giveaways
Jack Hughes doesn’t lose the Devils many games but he did last night. He had a couple bad giveaways on the Flyers first and final goals which led to them losing the game.
This won’t be a night Hughes will look upon very fondly that’s for sure, but it’s still a learning experience.
Playing Well
While the Devils may have lost last night, they certainly didn’t deserve to. The Devils had 62% of the expected goals (xG) at five on five last night; 2.61 to the Flyers’ 1.6. At all strengths it was even better for New Jersey as they owned a 66.94 xG% despite only having one power play to the Flyers’ three.
Overall, Ersson had 1.76 goals saved above expected (GSAx) and Vanecek had -1.14 GSAx. Goaltending bites again.
What’s Next
The Devils welcome in the Edmonton Oilers for a 7:30 pm ET puck drop on Thursday.