Last night, the New Jersey Devils took down the Ottawa Senators on the road 3-1 to improve to 5-2-0 on the season. A two goal second period sealed the deal as the Devils bounced back from a loss on Tuesday.
Recap
Period One
The Devils came out hot in the first getting a few decent chances that they weren’t quite about to finish. Ottawa had a few of their own that was stuffed out by Jacob Markstrom and the game was 0-0 after one period.
Period Two
The second period was a fine one for the Devils five-on-five, but excellent on the special teams. They kicked things off with a goal from Erik Haula, as he redirected a Jonathan Kovacevic shot from the point to kick off the scoring.
A few minutes later while the Devils were killing a penalty, Nate Bastian picked off a pass, went in on a two-on-one, and ripped a shot near side past Anton Forsberg. That would be the score after two as the Devils were up by a pair.
Period Three
The third period was lockdown time for the Devils as they attempted to limit Ottawa’s opportunities. This would create some chances of their own, as Paul Cotter buried a rebound attempt to make it 3-0.
In the final minutes, with the goalie pulled on the power play, Brady Tkachuk tipped in a shot from Claude Giroux to break Markstrom’s shutout bid. The Senators would get no more than that, and would fall 3-1 to the Devils.
Game Notes
The Great Penalty Kill
The Devils have had a spectacular penalty kill to start the season. While on its own, the 89.5% success rate that ranks sixth in the NHL is impressive, the deeper statistics really show how much it’s shined.
With a league leading seven games under their belt, the Devils have a 3.88 expected goals against per 60 minutes (xGA/60) on the penalty kill which is first in the NHL by a healthy margin. If you look at Corsi against per 60 minutes (CA/60) they also hold the best mark by quite a bit. Overall it’s been a great start to the season for the Devils’ kill, let’s see if they can keep it up.
Defensive Depth
The Devils are going to have some decisions to make when Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes return from injury. Right now, the Devils have one of the better defenses in the NHL without two NHL regulars in the lineup. The question is what do they do when Hughes and Pesce return? The easy answer given the possession metrics would be to bench Casey and Nemec.
Casey and Nemec hold a 33.59 and 32.29 expected goals percentage (xG%), respectively. Far worse than any of the other four defenseman. However, Casey does lead all defenseman on the team in goals with three through just seven games.
How do you bench your leading scorer on the blue line? Luke Hughes being the one coming in makes it easier to bench Casey, but despite the poor numbers in his own end Casey has shined on offense and it’s hard to take that opportunity away from him given what he’s done with it.
Either way I don’t envy general manager Tom Fitzgerald and head coach Sheldon Keefe right now, they’re going to have to have a tough conversation with someone down the road.
What’s Next?
The Devils return home Saturday, October 19 for a 7:00 pm ET puck drop against the Washington Capitals.