Bastian, McLeod, Wood Line Come Up Big in Devils Win

The line of Nate Bastian, Michael McLeod and Miles Wood played a huge role in the Devils’ 5-3 win this afternoon in Buffalo. The Devils end up with three of a possible four points in their two-game series with the Sabres.

The Devils were playing their first back-to-back of the season, having also played a matinee yesterday in Buffalo. The Devils will now play every other day through next Saturday as the schedule starts to heat up a bit.

Today also marked a few roster changes. Connor Carrick was placed in COVID Protocol as his wife was giving birth to a child. Kyle Palmieri was also placed on COVID Protocol. He was a late scratch and it was announced late that he would be on the Protocol list. Also on the COVID list is Sami Vatanen, who just arrived in New Jersey from Finland and is four negative COVID tests from playing. Will Butcher was the lone scratch not on the COVID list.

Because of this, Jesper Boqvist was recalled from Binghamton to play today and forward Mikhail Maltsev made his NHL debut. He finished with a shot on goal, two hits and two takeaways. He was also given the now-customary lone skate on the ice for rookies before the pregame warmups.

Also getting a start today was goaltender Eric Comrie. He made his first start since December 15, 2019 when he was with the Red Wings. He finished the game with a .909 save percentage, making 30 saves on 33 Sabres shots. He stopped eight of their ten power play shots and was 22-for-23 at even strength. Buffalo did not have a shorthanded shot. He got his first NHL win since March 20, 2018.

Facing him was Carter Hutton, who finished with an .889 save percentage. He stopped 32 of the Devils’ 36 shots, turned aside their lone shorthanded shot and made 31 saves on 35 even strength shots. The Devils did not register a power play shot.

The Devils outshot Buffalo, 37 to 33 and had only four turnovers to the Sabres’ ten but struggled in most other categories. They were 0-for-3 on the power play while Buffalo was 50-percent at 2-for-4. The Sabres outhit the Devils, 15-9 and had one more blocked shot at 10-9.

The Devils bookended the first period when Michael McLeod scored 20 seconds in and Andreas Johnsson scored with 17 seconds remaining.

The McLeod goal came when Ryan Murray went D-to-D with PK Subban in the Devils zone. Subban then sent a stretch pass to McLeod, who broke into the Sabres’ end alone and went backhand/forehand on Hutton to beat him and make it 1-0 Devils.

The Johnsson goal came when Jesper Bratt took a shot from the point. The shot was high and bounced in off of Johnsson, credited to him. Ty Smith continued his production by getting awarded the secondary assist on the goal. The assist tied him with Barry Beck for the franchise record for points by a rookie defensemen in their first nine games. Beck played for the team when they were in Denver as the Colorado Rockies. Butcher actually got near the record in 2017-18, his rookie year.

With that, the Devils took a 2-0 lead into the second period. But that would soon evaporate.

Following Pavel Zacha missing a wide-open net midway through the period, the Sabres would cut the lead in half.

It came when Jake McCabe wrapped the puck around the boards in the Devils’ zone. It ended up on the stick of Rasmus Ristolainen. He shot and it was tipped in front and in by Curtis Lazar. That made it 2-1 at the 14:11 mark of the second.

It became 2-2 when Rasmus Dahlin scored 1:12 later on the power play. Victor Olofsson got it to Dahlin, who took a low shot. It was inadvertently put in by Damon Severson as he tried to block the shot. Jack Eichel had the secondary assist. Ristolainen provided a good screen in front to allow the shot to get by Comrie.

Then, the dynamic play of Miles Wood kicked in. Janne Kuokkanen, with seconds remaining in the second, dove through the neutral zone to get a loose puck to Wood. Wood broke in all alone, scoring on his own rebound with 0.6 seconds to go in the second. The goal counted and it was 3-2 Devils as the second intermission came into being.

MSG+ clocked Wood as hitting 19 miles per hour as he sped through the neutral zone and took Kuokkanen’s pass in stride. It was an amazing sight and showed just how valuable Wood’s speed can be for the Devils as an asset.

But, just 3:53 into the third, Ristolainen would tie things again on the power play. Eichel made a cross-zone pass to Olofsson, who shot on Comrie as he was falling down. Ristolainen, once again parked in front of the Devils net, then put the rebound in to tie the game up.

Things were not done in this wild one though.

At the 10:40 mark, McLeod struck again and this was set up by Wood. Behind the net, Wood took a hard check but got the centering pass to McLeod. McLeod got a quick shot off, which Hutton got a piece of, but it trickled by the Sabres’ goaltender to make tit 4-3 Devils.

Wood would add an empty net goal with eight seconds to go in the game. Zacha and Severson had the assists on the capper, giving us our final score of 5-3 Devils.

Severson led all Devils skaters with 22:39 of total ice time while Jack Hughes led the forwards with 18:41.

Wood led the game with three points (two goals and an assist) in taking first start honors. McLeod was second star with two goals and Ristolainen was third star.

Wood led in shots by a wide margin with seven. Maltsev led in hits with two, blocked shots were led by Murray and Subban with two apiece, takeaways by Maltsev with two.

Next up, Tuesday, the Devils travel to Pittsburgh for two with the Penguins. I will see you earlier for that game as my schedule should not get in the way. Until then, stay safe everyone!

Devils Fall to Sabres in Shootout

According to MSG+’s Steve Cangialosi, the home team has won the last six meetings between the Buffalo Sabres and the New Jersey Devils. That was true earlier today as the Sabres took a 4-3 shootout victory on home ice in the first of two meetings between the teams this weekend.

Lindy Ruff was returning to his home, the place he called home as a pro hockey player from 1979 to 1989 and was a head coach from 1997 to 2012. He won a Jack Adams Award there and even continues to root for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills.

But this afternoon he was the enemy, coming in as the coach of a divisional rival (the first time these teams have been such). But the Sabres gave him a rude welcome.

There was also another familiar face, this one to Devils fans.

The Devils were facing Taylor Hall for the first time since his trade from the Devils to Arizona in December of 2020. The Devils did not face the Coyotes when Taylor was in the desert.

One person missing for the Devils was Travis Zajac. This is a shame because he was scheduled to play in his 1,000th NHL game on Sunday at Buffalo. Instead, he is on the COVID protocol list as of yesterday and did not make the trip to Western New York. In his place, Nick Merkley was recalled from the taxi squad.

This was the Devils’ first real road trip, going out of the New York Metropolitan area for the first time this season.

I goal, Scott Wedgewood made his fifth straight start for the Devils. He stopped 28 of 31 for a .903 save percentage. He stopped the lone shorthanded shot he saw, seven of eight on the power play and 20-of-22 at even strength.

Facing him was Linus Ullmark who stopped 31 of 34 Devils shots, the only shorthanded shot he saw and nine of ten on the power play. He turned aside 21 of 23 at even strength. He had a .912 save percentage.

Connor Carrick and Will Butcher were once again the healthy scratches for the Devils.

The Devils had a rare 5-on-3 power play early on in the first when Jesper Bratt drew a slashing call from Eric Staal and a tripping call on Brandon Montour at the same time. Buffalo would kill this power play and the Devils ended the night 1-for-5 on the power play, as did the Sabres.

The Devils actually pulled Wedgewood for the extra attacker with 2.6 seconds remaining in the first period and a faceoff deep in the Buffalo zone.

After a scoreless first period, the second began a goal frenzy.

It began with a missed Devils’ 2-on-1 when they hit the crossbar early in the period.

The Sabres finally broke the deadlock when Staal scored at the 9:03 mark of the second. It happened when the Devils got caught in a line change. Hall fed Staal with a nice pass and Staal sniped the puck by Wedgewood to make it 1-0. Montour had the secondary assist.

Late in the period, Staal would again strike when he tipped a puck by Wedgewood and it hit the post and then went under Wedgewood. Crisis averted.

But in a pattern that would recur during the game, the Devils tied things before the end of the period.

It came at 18:35 on the power play when the Pavel Zacha moved the puck to PK Subban, who went D-to-D with Ty Smith. Smith blasted a shot through a Miles Wood screen and by Ullmark to tie the game at one apiece.

That would set up a wild third period.

Just 1:37 into the new period, Andreas Johnsson would notch his first as a Devil. It came when Jack Hughes used Montour as a screen and passed through him to Johnsson. Johnsson took the pass and went top shelf, beating Ullmark to give the Devils the 2-1 lead.

But, just 30 seconds later, Tobias Rieder would take the short-lived Devils lead and put it to rest.

Cody Eakin won a puck battle with Matt Tennyson behind the Devils’ net. He made a one-handed pass to Rieder, who scored to make it 2-2.

Just seconds after that goal, Hughes was absolutely robbed by Ullmark who made a nice glove save on him.

The Sabres would retake the lead at 10:56 when Hall and Rasmus Dahlin moved the puck up high on the power play. They got it to Victor Olofsson, who shot it cleanly by Wedgewood. That gave Buffalo the lead again at 3-2.

But before things could settle in too much, Janne Kuokkanen would score his first NHL goal. It came at the 14:41 mark when Nate Bastian and Michael McLeod won the puck behind the Sabres’ goal cage. McLeod gave it to Kuokkanen, who banked it in off of Ullmark and through the unsealed right goal post. That tied it at three.

But things were not done. With less than two minutes to go in regulation, Damon Severson took a tripping call against Jack Eichel. The Sabres would finish the game on the power play and get eight seconds of power play time in overtime, should it get there.

And get there it did. The Devils killed off the penalty and OT started at four-on-four. Once there was a stoppage, things went back to three-on-three and opened up. It was then that Jesper Bratt had a clean breakaway, all alone in on Ullmark, but lost control of the puck.

And with no scoring, we were off to the shootout. In the first round, Buffalo’s Eichel scored and Bratt was stopped. In round two, Dahlin was stopped, as was Nikita Gusev. In round three, Olofsson was stopped and so was Kyle Palmieri, giving Buffalo the win, 4-3.

The Devils outshot the Sabres, 34-31, won only 39-percent of the faceoffs, hurt more by Zajac’s absence. Both teams finished with 17 hits and 12 blocked shots. The Devils had seven giveaways to Buffalo’s two.

Individually, Severson led all Devils in ice time with 24:51 while Hughes led the forwards with 23:49.

Shots were led by PK Subban with five, hits by Bastian with three, blocks by Subban with three and takeaways by McLeod, Palmieri, Gusev, Severson and Subban with one apiece.

McLeod led in faceoffs won with a 56-percent clip.

Next up, the teams will do it again tomorrow, same Bat-time, same Bat-location. I will be working, so the report will be up later as it was tonight. See everyone tomorrow!