Recap
Period 1
It was a rather ugly performance all around for New Jersey. The outcome certainly captured how each team played. There were tons of sloppy turnovers, mental lapses and just all around poor hockey from the Devils.
Alexander Ovechkin started the scoring early and buried a goal from a cross-ice Evgeny Kuznetsov pass. While it was a nice pass, a lapse in coverage by Ty Smith allowed the pass to get through to the most dangerous man on the ice.
The second goal went to Nicolas Backstrom. He tapped home a backdoor pass for the easy goal. Both Smith, once again, and Scott Wedgewood can receive blame for this one. Smith seemed to be in position and recognized that Backstrom was cutting for the far post. However, he never tied up his stick and allowed. This allowed the pass to come through far too cleanly. Now, while I don’t think Wedgewood necessarily has to make that save, he could have done a better job using his stick to not allow that pass through the blue paint. Odds are you won’t make the save, so you are better off, in this instance, at least trying to break up the pass.
Period 2 and 3
The second period was a rather uneventful, so we will jump ahead to period number three. Conor Sheary is the beneficiary of a brutal turnover by Mikhail Maltsev just inside the defensive zone. This made the game 3-0. Maltsev received a pass from Andreas Johnsson and was mere feet from the blue-line when he decided to turn back into the defensive-zone in an effort to avoid a Backstrom forecheck. Not sure if he was trying a soft pass or just simply had the puck slip off of his stick, but either way, this is a mistake that simply cannot be made. And one that the Devils make far too often. A simple dump off the boards or even a quick backhanded flip would have easily gotten the puck to the neutral zone and completely prevented this play from happening.
Goal number four came from an Ovechkin one-timer in his office as T.J. Oshie danced through the entire Devils’ defense. He drew everyone to the middle of the ice before dropping a pass to Kuznetsov who quickly sent it to the wide-open Ovechkin. Who, we all know, just doesn’t miss from that area of the ice. Poor defensive zone coverage yet again, and quite frankly this was a goal that showed the skill gap in players on the ice.
What’s Next?
Next up is Boston on Sunday afternoon, where hopefully New Jersey can get back to some of the better play they have been having recently.