Match Summary
Coming off of back-to-back losses over the weekend, the New Jersey Devils needed a win against the struggling Buffalo Sabres. Instead, almost nothing went well as the Devils fell 4-1. The lone goal came from Nikita Gusev late in the third.
The first period saw the Devils and Sabes trade chances, feeling each other out. Early on, Jersey controlled the pace of play and seemed dangerous. Later, however, the Sabres hemmed the Devils into their own zone with good pressure. They were quite unlucky as a few of their shots rang off the post.
Any momentum the Devils had going into the second was wiped out as nothing materialized. Their atrocious penalty kill unit went to work and did as one would expect, bad kills with a goal allowed. Analytically, New Jersey was horrendous with a Corsi-for percentage of (CF%) of 36.00. In spite of this, the Devils escaped down only one goal.
Hope was essentially lost in the third as the Sabres scored three goals, one of which being an empty-netter. Early in the third, the Devils’ play just seemed stale and sluggish. As the game wound down, however, the team had some fight left in them and got some good shots off. Despite a late six-on-four scramble that resulted in a Gusev goal, New Jersey endured their third straight loss.
The Devils are now 6-6-2 and sit in seventh in the East Division. The Sabres improved to 6-8-2 and are behind them at eighth.
Keys to the Game
The Historically Bad Penalty Kill
Where to begin, this unit has just consistently dropped the ball during every chance. Just by watching them tonight, you could tell that the penalty-killers followed the puck too much, resulting in wide-open Sabres players, allowing them to cycle.
Not so fun fact, up to this point in the season, New Jersey has the worst penalty kill rate of all time at around 60%. The Devils have more potential than they let on, but they can only achieve it with an effective penalty kill.
Linus Ullmark
Credit where credit is due, Linus Ullmark was a brick wall in the net. He stopped all but one shot that prevented the shutout. In all, he stopped 41 shots for a save percentage of .976.
Nikita Gusev spoiled the shutout, however, with a late scramble. Despite this, he made some incredible saves as the clock neared zero. It was a well-earned win for Ullmark.
Up Next
The Devils and Sabres rematch on Thursday at 7:00 pm.