Palmieri Nets Hat Trick but Devils Lose in OT

The Devils have had a rough October to say the least. Tonight, they held Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos off the scoresheet, outshot their opponents 42 to 23 and Kyle Palmieri scored his first hat trick as a New Jersey Devil, but they still fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime 7-6.

Some roster moves to get to first. Jesper Bratt was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch in the last game way back last week. Sitting in his place was Nikita Gusev, who the Devils felt could use some time up in the press box watching the game with team legend Patrik Elias, who would help him see the NHL game a little bit better. Mirco Mueller and Jesper Boqvist were also scratched.

Connor Carrick will be out for four to six weeks following having surgery on his broken right pinkie finger. However, the Devils did bring Will Butcher back into the lineup following his activation off of the IR the other day. It was his first game since October 17. Butcher would be on the third pairing with Matt Tennyson.

One player who rewarded his being reinserted into the lineup was Bratt. He played primarily on a line with Nico Hischier and Pavel Zacha as the second line combo. He would reward the coaching staff’s decision to bring him back in by scoring two goals tonight and playing a good overall game.

Tampa, on the other hand, would be without some key parts of their lineup. Victor Hedman and Patrick Maroon were both injured last night in the Lightning’s game at the Garden against the Rangers.

The Devils got on the board early – just 1:10 into the game when Palmieri scored his first of the game on the power play. Kevin Shattenkirk had taken a delay of game penalty just 33 seconds in and the Devils capitalized when Taylor Hall shot from the far faceoff circle and Wayne Simmonds grabbed the rebound on the side of the net. He calmly passed to Palmieri in front. He buried it and the Devils had the 1-0 lead.

But with an offense like Tampa’s, no matter how slow a start they have gotten off to, no lead is safe. At the 9:28 mark of the first, Ondrej Palat, on a delayed penalty against the Devils, took a cross ice pass from Shattenkirk and beat Cory Schneider. Brayden Point had the other assist. The game was now knotted at one.

Tampa would grab a lead in the draining minutes of the first on the power play. Nico Hischier was called for a hold and the Lightning power play went to work. Alex Killorn took a pass from Shattenkirk in the skates and, in one motion, turned and fired, giving the Bolts the 2-1 lead going into the first intermission. Tyler Johnson had the secondary assist on the goal.

The Devils would start the second period with about 10 seconds of overlapping power play time, but could not convert. They would finish the night 1-for-5 with nine shots on the power play and one shorthanded shot. Tampa was one-for-one on the power play with one shot. They also had a shorthanded shot that was turned aside by Cory.

And New Jersey would get another goal, 6:05 into the second, that, while not officially counting as a power play goal, did come as a penalty was expiring. Jesper Bratt swooped into the high slot to put a rebound in after Lightning goalie Curtis McElhinney made several stops on Nico right in front. That tied the game at two and was the first of two in the period for Jesper Bratt. Zacha and Hischier had the assists.

Damon Severson made a nice defensive play midway through the second period. Johnson had a partial breakaway and Severson cut down the angle, avoided a penalty and swept the puck to safety.

Just after that, at the 11:48 mark of the second, Point scored on a fortuitous bounce for the Lightning. Nico lost his stick and Tampa quickly got the puck on net. Cory made the initial save but the rebound bounced right to Point and he scored to give the Bolts back the lead at 3-2. Johnson and Mikhail Sergachev had the assists on this one.

But, less than a minute later, the Devils tied the game up once again. At 12:17, Palmieri scored his second of the game when Butcher wristed one from the point and Palmieri redirected it in. Taylor Hall had the secondary assist for his second point of the night as well.

The Devils retook the lead for the first time since the first period 59 seconds later when Bratt got his second of the night at 13:16. Nico won the faceoff deep in the Tampa zone cleanly back to Andy Greene (who was celebrating his 37th birthday) and he gave the puck to Bratt. Bratt then curled at the half wall and shot. He beat McElhinney cleanly, although at first it appeared that Hischier had redirected it in. It was now 4-3 New Jersey.

Late in the second, Cory made a nice save on Sergachev as he was coming out of the penalty box on a breakaway. That kept the score 4-3.

Just 1:13 into the third period, Sami Vatanen gave the Devils a 5-3 lead. It was all hard work by Simmonds as he got the puck to the net, grabbed the rebound, boxed out the Tampa defender and passed it to Vatanen. Vatanen then simply walked right in and beat McElhinney to make it 5-3 Devils.

The Devils seemed to be in the driver’s seat, but, especially in this season and especially with the Lightning, no lead is safe for New Jersey.

The comeback began when Anthony Cirelli scored at 2:45 of the third. Tampa got the puck to the point to Jan Rutta. He shot on Cory and seemed to beat him, but replays showed that Cirelli had tipped it by him. Mathieu Joseph had the other assist. It was now 5-4 Devils.

The Devils continued to apply sustained pressure in the Tampa zone, but all it took was a Joseph shot redirecting in off of Hall’s skate and stick to tie the game at five. That goal came at the 7:45 mark of the second and Cirelli had the lone assist.

Then disaster struck when PK Subban’s stick failed him on a shot attempt from the Tampa blueline. The Lightning grabbed the puck and were off to the races. Point got it to Ondrej Palat, who roofed it over Schneider for his second of the game and made it 6-5 Tampa.

The stunned Devils could not seem to catch a break. Severson hit the post late in the third and they seemed headed for another regulation loss.

But, with about eight seconds left in regulation, with Cory pulled for the extra attacker, it was Palmieri to the rescue. He completed his first hat trick as a Devil (he has a second NHL hat trick that came with the Ducks) when Simmonds, again with great work along the boards, got the puck to Butcher at the point. He fired and McElhinney gave up a big fat, juicy rebound in front that Palmieri was able to clean up and, miraculously tie the game at six.

Once the next seven or so seconds expired, we were headed to OT.

Unfortunately, all it takes in OT in the NHL is to lose possession and things can change in a heartbeat. And that is exactly what happened when Palat took a shot that rebounded right to Johnson’s stick. He beat Cory to give the Lightning the 7-6 win in overtime. Ryan McDonagh had the other assist on the game-winner.

In the end, seven Devils had a multi-point night (Hall, Hischier, Simmonds, Palmieri, Bratt, Greene and Butcher). Palmieri was named the game’s first star while Bratt was the second (Tampa’s Palat was the third).

In goal, Schneider made 16 stops on 23 shots total for Tampa for a .696 save percentage. McElhinney turned aside 36 of the 42 pucks the Devils threw on net for a .857 save percentage.

The Devils won 59-percent of the game’s faceoffs, had 19 hits to the Bolts’ 16, blocked 12 shots to Tampa’s 10 and had seven giveaways to two for the Lightning.

Vatanen led all New Jersey skaters in ice time with 24:04 (4:58 on the power play and 1:24 shorthanded) while Hall led the forwards with 21:21 (5:21 with the man advantage). Palmieri led in shots on goal with eight, Simmonds led in hits with four, Greene led in blocks with three and Jack Hughes and Severson were the leaders in takeaways with two apiece.

So the Devils finish up October with a paltry 2-5-3 record (seven points) putting them last in the Eastern Conference. Hopefully things can begin to change on November 1 when the Flyers come to town to take on the Devils.

The Devils will now be settling into a more normal schedule, playing 16 games over the next 32 days (or roughly every other day). Maybe that will be enough to get things rolling for them. We will find out starting on Friday.

Despite Hughes’ Three Points, Devils Fall to Coyotes

Well, Devils hockey was back tonight after a five-day layoff. That’s the good news, the bad news is that despite Jack Hughes’ three-point night, Sami Vatanen’s two-point night and outshooting them 35-17, the Devils lost to the Arizona Coyotes 5-3.

Some roster notes to get to first, as Connor Carrick got injured (upper body) at practice yesterday and was placed on injured reserve. Will Butcher came off of IR but (he was only out for the Vancouver game with his upper body injury) but did not play tonight. Nico Hischier also returned after missing a handful of games.

In addition to Butcher, the two Jespers, Bratt and Boqvist, were the healthy scratches tonight. Coach John Hynes shuffled the lines up a little bit, moving Hughes to center a line with Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri as the top unit. Nico was shifted down to play with Pavel Zacha and Nikita Gusev.

Today was the 12th anniversary of the opening of the Prudential Center and the Devils were trying to win three straight for the first time since December of 2018 as well. The Coyotes came in with a decent record of 5-3-1 to begin the season and they would spoil the party at the Rock.

The game began with Damon Severson making a good play on an Arizona 2-on-1. He went down to block the pass and was able to time it perfectly, breaking up the play.

Arizona goalie Antti Raanta was great all night, keeping the Yotes in the game when the Devils were really pressuring. After Hughes missed an open net midway through the first (an Arizona player got a stick on the puck), Wayne Simmonds – who is really having a rough go of things points-wise – was stopped point-blank by Raanta.

The Devils did take the 1-0 lead at the 16:29 mark of the first when PK Subban made an impressive diving play to keep the puck in the Coyotes’ zone. Subban got the puck to Hughes at the near half wall. He then passed it across to Vatanen, who shot and it deflected in off of a Coyotes player. It was the first point of the night for both Vatanen and Hughes, who had multi-point nights.

The Devils doubled up their lead at the 18:26 mark of the first when Hughes notched his second NHL goal and first power play goal. It was set up when Oliver Ekman-Larsson was called for hooking Hischier and the Devils went on the power play. On this one, Vatanen took the puck just inside the Coyotes’ blueline and dished off to Taylor Hall. Hall then found a nice seam cross-ice to Hughes, who snapped the shot by Raanta to make it 2-0.

But as has been a problem for the Devils this year so far, they would give up a goal in the final seconds of the period. Nick Schmaltz made it 2-1 with just 16 seconds to go in the first period. Arizona was able to funnel the puck to Schmaltz, who was camped out in the high slot. He fired and beat Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to get Arizona within one. For Blackwood, this goal ended 97:21 of shutout hockey. Ekman-Larsson and Jason Demers had the assists on the goal.

The Devils would give up a shorthanded goal to one of the best in the business just 2:01 into the second to tie the game at two apiece. Arizona was killing a Carl Soderberg tripping penalty when Michael Grabner got by PK Subban at the Yotes blueline and was off to the races. He went forehand-backhand to beat Blackwood and had his 22nd career shorthanded goal. Demers had the lone assist on this one.

The Devils would retake the lead at 13:07 of the second when Matt Tennyson dug the puck out of the near corner in the Devils’ zone. He backhanded it to Hughes who sent a stretch pass to Pavel Zacha, who was streaking through the neutral zone. Zacha fired the puck by Raanta to give the Devils back the 3-2 lead.

But before that goal could even be announced to the crowd, the Coyotes responded.

Thirty-one seconds after the Zacha goal, Ekman-Larsson snapped a puck by Blackwood after the Devils failed to clear the zone. Lawson Crouse had the lone assist. The game was again knotted, this time at three.

Then things got worse, just 1:45 into the third, Barrett Hayton notched his first career NHL goal when Schmaltz broke into the Devils’ zone and dropped to the trailing Hayton. Hayton fired by Blackwood to score the eventual game winning goal. It was now 4-3.

A critical play late in the period as Tennyson hit the post on a one-time attempt led to the Devils pulling Blackwood with 1:57 to go. Clayton Keller added an empty net goal (assists to Phil Kessel and Demers had the assists – giving Demers his third helper of the night). That gave us our final of 5-3.

The Devils played a good game, especially that first period, but just let Arizona hang around. The Devils were 1-for-5 on the power play with 11 shots and had one shorthanded shot. They kept the Coyotes 0-for-3 with the man advantage, limiting them to not a shot. Arizona did have the one shorthanded shot, which Grabner scored on. Blackwood stopped 12 of the 16shots that he saw for a .750 save percentage. The Yotes had the extra shot into the empty net. Raanta was 32-for-35 for a .914 save percentage.

The Devils got back on track in the faceoff circle, winning 53-percent of the game’s draws. They were outhit 23 to 14, had eight blocked shots to Arizona’s 12 and had more giveaways at seven to the Coyotes’ five.

Subban led all Devils skaters in ice time with 25:22 (1:28 on the power play and 57 seconds on the PK) while Hall led the forwards with 21:07 (4:12 on the PP). Hughes led in points with his three (a goal and two assists) and Simmonds led in shots with five. Hits were led by Hall, John Hayden, Simmonds and Severson with two each. Blocked shots were led by Andy Greene with two and takeaways were led by Hall and Greene with two apiece.

So, following that, the Devils will have another four days off as they gear up for the Tampa Bay Lightning next Wednesday, October 30. We will see you then with coverage of that game.