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Devils Fall to Leafs After Allowing Two Shorthanded Goals

How would the Devils follow up their performance from last night after the 7-4 lambasting that they gave the Rangers?

Not with the output that they would have preferred, most would assume.

They traveled up to Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, gave up two shorthanded goals and lost 3-2 to the Maple Leafs in the second half of a back-to-back.

This continues the Devils’ run of futility in the country of Canada. They have still only won a single game north of the border. That was a 7-1 victory back on February 8 at Montreal. It also completes the season sweep by the Leafs over the Devils in their three meetings.

The Devils made a few changes to their lineup along with callups from AHL Utica.

Colton White and Ty Smith were healthy scratches on the blue line with Mason Geertsen slotting out up front. Pavel Zacha remains out fighting an injury suffered during the road trip west last week.

In Smith’s place was Kevin Bahl on defense (he paired with PK Subban on the third pairing) while AJ Greer slotted in up front for Geertsen. Greer played on the fourth line centered by Michael McLeod with Nathan Bastian on the right wing and Greer on the left side.

For both Bahl and Greer, they were marking their second stints with the big club this season. Greer’s last NHL tenure ended with an injury suffered at the Islanders in December.

In addition to that, newly acquired goaltender Andrew Hammond joined the team today officially. He will likely not play until next week.

In the meantime, it was back to Nico Daws between the pipes for the Devils tonight, making his second straight start following a night off last weekend in Edmonton.

Daws stopped 28 of the Leafs’ 31 total shots for a .903 save percentage for the game. He stopped both Toronto power play shots as the Maple Leafs finished 0-for-3 on the man advantage. At even strength, he was equal to 25 of 26 Toronto shots. Where the Devils suffered was when you factor in that Daws let in two of the three shorthanded shots that the Leafs took.

For the Leafs, Petr Mrazek was their guy. He made 20 saves on 22 total New Jersey shooting attempts for a .909 save percentage. He stopped the Devils’ one lone shorthanded chance and two of their three power play shots. On power play chances, the Devils went 1-for-4 as a team. Mrazek made 17 saves against 18 shots at five-on-five play.

Of note from last night was not just Jack Hughes becoming a 20-goal scorer for the first time in his NHL career, but also Yegor Sharangovich matching his goal total for his rookie year with his 16th goal.

The Maple Leafs were welcoming some trade deadline pickups with defenseman Mark Giordano making his Toronto debut after being acquired from the Seattle Kraken on Monday. Center Colin Blackwell, also picked up from Seattle, was in the Leafs’ lineup as well.

Another debut for the Leafs were their “Next Gen” uniforms designed by Justin Bieber of all people. They are basically black Maple Leafs jerseys with black where the blue would be and blue where the white striping would be and they are… not too bad looking, actually. A bit of a departure from what you would expect from the Leafs, but not overly terrible on television. Not too sure how they came across in person, however.

Following a first period that saw no scoring or penalties and the Maple Leafs outshooting the Devils 11-3, we got set for the second.

The Devils jumped out to a 1-0 lead early in the second period on the power play.

After New Jersey’s Bahl had been penalized for slashing Ilya Mikheyev 1:42 into the new frame and the Devils killed that off – limited Toronto’s number one ranked power play – it was time for the Devils to go to work.

At 4:38 gone by, Pierre Engvall was called for tripping Jonas Siegenthaler and the Devils were up a man.

About 23 seconds into the 5-on-4, Nico Hischier was able to keep the play alive in the Toronto zone. He got it to Jesper Bratt, who used his body to shield the puck in the slot and make a pass to Damon Severson, who had moved down low. Severson attemped to pass across ice to Hughes, but Leafs defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin went down to block and Severson’s pass deflected off of him and past Mrazek to make it 1-0 New Jersey.

With that goal, Severson now has 49 career goals, allowing him to pass Andy Greene on the Devils all-time defensemen goal scoring list. Congratulations to him as he has been a solid player for years for the Devils and it’s nice to see him get rewarded for it statistically.

In addition to that, this was the first time the Devils had scored the first goal of the game in eight games.

The Devils found themselves back on the power play at the 11:49 gone by mark of the second period when Auston Matthews was given a hooking minor against Hischier.

While Toronto is mostly known for its power play proficiency across the league, it was their penalty kill that came up big tonight.

At the 12:30 mark, Yegor Sharangovich, with the Devils on the man advantage, was stripped of the puck at the Leafs’ blue line by Alex Kerfoot. Kerfoot gave to Ilya Mikheyev, who was off on his way. He cut in one-on-one on Daws and beat him to tie the game at 1-1.

To add insult to injury, the Leafs ended up killing off the rest of the penalty as well.

That shorty for Toronto would, however, kick off a flurry of goals for both teams.

At the 13:56 mark, Hischier gave New Jersey back the lead just after that penalty was up.

Dougie Hamilton made a one-touch pass to Jack Hughes at the side of the Leafs net. This looked like a pure slam dunk for Hughes. Mrazek stopped him, however, and Hischier crashed in, cleaning up the rebound and sweeping it into the Toronto net to make it 2-1 Devils.

But the Devils were not to take that lead into the third period.

About a minute after the Hischier goal, at 14:54 gone by, Michael Bunting made a pass behind the Devils net to Matthews. Matthews then centered to Mitch Marner who snapped off a shot that eluded Daws to tie the game up at two apiece.

And that was where we were going into the final frame – tied as we were at the end of the first.

The third period began with Giordano being called for a trip to seemingly put New Jersey on the power play again.

Replay, however, initiated by the officials, found that Giordano had actually never touched the Devils player with his stick or any other part of his body. With the Devils puck carrier simply losing an edge. Very quickly, Giordano was waved out of the penalty box and the teams were playing at five-on-five.

The third period featured no scoring for the majority of it, but there was plenty of high-energy, up tempo hockey from both teams.

Then it happened.

At the 12:23 mark of the period, Mikheyev hit Andreas Johnsson with a high stick. Johnsson was cut and Mikheyev was assessed a double minor to put the Devils on the power play for four minutes.

After the Leafs killed off the first two minutes, the Devils were beginning to get a bit frustrated.

At 15:18 gone by in the period – nearly three minutes into the double minor – three Devils players were caught deep in the Toronto zone. Pierre Engvall grabbed the puck and was off on a 2-on-1 with Hamilton back as the Devils’ defender and Hischier aggressively backchecking on the second Leaf.

Engvall entered the Devils zone on his own and waited for Hamilton to go down too early trying to take away the pass. He then calmly skated around the downed Hamilton and beat Daws one-on-one.

That second shorthanded goal of the evening given up by the Devils (their tenth and eleventh shorties allowed this season – leading the league in that… not so good category) gave the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead and came from Engvall unassisted.

Toronto killed the rest of that penalty and would, indeed, go on their own 5-on-4 at 15:55 when Hamilton was called for tripping David Kampf.

Since the end of the double minor overlapped with that power play, there was 28 seconds of 4-on-4 before the Leafs power play.

The Devils killed that off as well to hold Toronto’s power play in check for the night and would pull Daws with about 1:30 or so remaining in regulation. But they never got the score tied.

Our final score was 3-2 and it was the inefficiency of the Devils’ power play to defend rather than score that did them in.

Team stats saw the Leafs outshoot the Devils 31 to 22. The Devils did not do well in the faceoff circle, winning just 35-percent of the game’s draws. Hughes won 63-percent of his personal faceoffs to lead the Devils centers.

Team penalty minutes saw the Devils accumulate six minutes while the Leafs had eight minutes. The Devils played the more physical game with 33 hits to the Maple Leafs’ 28. Blocked shots had the Leafs at 18 and the Devils registering seven. Team giveaways had the Devils finish with seven to the Maple Leafs’ nine.

After last night’s offensive explosion for New Jersey, only Hischier registered a multi-point night with two points (one goal and one assist).

Severson led all Devils skaters in ice time with 28:13 which included 4:27 on the power play and 4:06 on the penalty kill. Those special team times are tops amongst Devils defensemen.

Hischier led the forwards with 22:46 of total time on ice which featured 4:37 on the PP and 2:32 on the PK. Only Mikey McLeod logged more shorthanded time with 2:37 out of his 9:06 of total time on ice.

Hughes’ five shots led in that category, edging out Bratt’s four. Siegenthaler registered five hits – leading there. Siegenthaler had the most blocked shots amongst Devils skaters with two. Personal turnovers were led by Jimmy Vesey, Bratt, Hughes, Hamilton, Severson and Siegenthaler who each had one. Personal takeaways saw Sharangovich led with three, just ahead of Vesey’s two.

Next up, the Devils will continue their short road trip as they return to the United States to play the Washington Capitals in DC at 7 PM on Saturday night.

That game will be shown on MSG+ and will be the beginning of another back-to-back for the weekend.

We will have coverage of that game for you right here after the conclusion.

Until then, enjoy the rest of your week everyone!

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Devils Have Second Period Outburst En Route to Blow Out of Rangers

For the first time this season, the Hudson River rivalry made its appearance at Prudential Center.

The Devils were seeking their first win of the year over their bitter rivals from Manhattan after suffering a shootout loss and a regulation loss in the two games played at Madison Square Garden earlier this season. The Rangers had won eight straight over the Devils in a streak New Jersey desperately wanted to put to an end.

And revenge is sweet. After it seemed to be business as usual with the Rangers jumping out to an early 2-0 lead in the first period, the Devils officially put five unanswered by Ranger goalie (and potential candidate for both the Vezina Trophy and the Hart Trophy this season) Igor Shesterkin to claim victory over New York 7-4.

The Devils broadcast on MSG+2 kicked off with General Manager Tom Fitzgerald as a guest with Erika Wachter and Bryce Salvador on the pregame show.

In the wake of the NHL Trade Deadline, Fitzgerald touched on a few different topics. He did say that the Devils were trying to make “hockey trades” which, as he explained, involved the Devils getting NHL-ready players or assets to use for future trades (basically anything the team has control over – no rentals) but that no trades that were offered made sense for either team.

He said that Andrew Hammond is working his way back from injury and will join the team later tonight when the team travels to Toronto. He will be on the ice for the Devils tomorrow as New Jersey will carry three goalies for the season, keeping Nico Daws up in the NHL, but playing him a little more sparingly so as not to put the burden on him.

As for the injury, Hammond should be ready to go by next week.

Fitzgerald also talked about the Utica Comets and their success this season as well as the Devils further reassessing the goaltending situation (including Mackenzie Blackwood) in the offseason.

Tonight though, it was back to Daws for the Devils in the net. He made 31 saves on 35 total Ranger shots for an .886 save percentage. Daws stopped the one Rangers shorthanded chance but got just one of their two power play shots. The Ranger power play actually clicked at a 100-percent pace at 1-for-1. At five-on-five, Daws stopped 29 of 32 New York shots.

The Rangers started their all-world goalie Shesterkin and he played only 40 minutes and stopped 19 of the 24 shots that he saw for a nightly save percentage of .792. He stopped the lone power play shot the Devils threw his way and got 18 of the 23 shots he saw at even strength.

He was relieved at the start of the third period by Alexandar Georgiev (who was coming off of a shutout of the Carolina Hurricanes in his last game). He made five saves on seven total shots for a .714 save percentage. At full strength, he got five of six Devils shots faced and let in the only shot he faced on the power play.

The Devils ended the game with 31 total shots, including three on the man advantage. The Devils finished 1-for-3 as a team on power play opportunities.

The Devils lineup situation saw Pavel Zacha still out healing from the Western Canada road trip and Colton White as a healthy scratch. Defenseman Christian Jaros cleared waivers yesterday and was reassigned to AHL Utica.

Jimmy Vesey was the most recent victim of the flu bug that had hit the Devils locker room and was sick the last day or two but did play tonight.

The Rangers had three players making their debut for the team tonight – all acquired at the trade deadline. They included defenseman Justin Braun (traded from the Flyers) and forwards Andrew Copp (from the Jets) and Tyler Motte (received from the Canucks).

New York would waste no time in jumping out to the early lead just 7:10 into the game. Mika Zibanejad scored then to give the Rangers the 1-0 lead.

It developed when Devils defenseman Damon Severson attempted to clear the puck out of the New Jersey zone with a pass through Zibanejad’s legs. Zibanejad intercepted the puck and kept the play alive in the Devils zone. New York got it towards Daws and a few Ranger players had a hack at it.

Alexis Lafreniere (who notched the secondary assist) had a chance and Chris Kreider (primary helper) had his whack. Zibanejad finally put the loose puck behind Daws off of the scramble in front.

Daws had made a few nice stops on the sequence, but the Rangers had still gotten one by him.

The Devils had a few chances of their own immediately following that goal.

Jack Hughes and Yegor Sharangovich narrowly missed tying things on a 2-on-1 when Sharangovich received the pass, took too long to pull the trigger on a shot and simply ran out of room.

Later on, Zibanejad took the game’s first penalty and, when that was killed off by the Rangers, came out of the box and was hit with a pass for a breakaway that was turned aside. Going the other way, Andreas Johnsson was stopped by Shesterkin on good scoring chance.

After all that, however, it was the Rangers who ended up doubling their lead.

At the 13:55 mark of the first, Copp won a faceoff for New York in the Devils end and Zibanejad moved it to Adam Fox pinching up the right-wing boards. He had time to shoot backdoor and roofed the puck over Daws to make it 2-0 Rangers.

And that was how things were set up heading into the first intermission. How the second period would end was about to blow some minds on both sides of the Hudson.

It began with a goal that has gone through a few owners over the course of the two or three hours since it was scored.

Only 7:12 into the second frame, the Devils cut the lead in half when Jesper Bratt used his speed to enter the Rangers zone and back up the New York defense.

This gave him space to make a pass across the rink to Ryan Graves. Graves pinched in and blasted a shot from the left-wing side. Shesterkin made the initial stop and the puck bounced around in front with Nico Hischier and Tomas Tatar there taking whacks at it in front. Somewhere along the way, the puck ended up in behind Shesterkin.

The problem with describing this goal is that, initially, it seemed to be Tomas Tatar’s swipe that put it in but Nico Hischier was awarded it officially. That was changed midway through the second period when the scoring was changed to be Tatar’s.

By the end of the game, it would be Ryan Graves’ goal but the scoring is a little wonky. For instance, Tatar was still mentioned as the goal scorer when he was named the game’s first star at the end of the night – despite the scoring having already been changed to make Graves the goal scorer.

I will not argue with things because I do want to move on with the recap, but by giving Bratt the sole assist, it eliminates Hischier and Tatar’s involvement in the play completely which… makes no sense due to the fact that they were both originally given credit for scoring the goal.

Well, maybe it will be changed in the next few days as the NHL is wont to do. As always, we’ll keep you updated.

Moving on, the Devils needed only a little more than 1:15 to tie the game up at two.

At the 8:30 gone by mark, the Devils forecheck kept the puck in the Rangers zone and it got moved up to Ty Smith at the near point. Smith found Andreas Johnsson at the far half wall with a pass and Johnsson set up PK Subban with a pass at the point for a blast. The puck was put on a tee and Subban let loose a bomb, beating Shesterkin cleanly to make it two all.

The Devils were nowhere near done.

At the 12:40 mark, Dawson Mercer fought for the puck along the far boards, winning the board battle and jarring it to Graves, as he was camped at the point.

Graves’ shot was saved by Shesterkin but he gave up a rare big rebound that Mercer was able to get to and put in behind him. Mercer had fought off Zibanejad, who was on him in front in order to be in position to score the goal.

Just like that, the Devils had fought back to take the lead at 3-2. Unlike the lead in Edmonton on Saturday, this was a lead the Devils would never relinquish.

Tatar did get on the scoresheet less than a minute after the Mercer goal when Bratt hit Severson with a pass. Severson was at the point and saw Tatar cutting up the left side towards the Ranger net. Tatar tapped Severson’s pass in for the Devils’ fourth unanswered goal at the 13:13 mark of the second. It was now 4-2 Devils.

It was after this goal that the Rangers began to get just a bit flustered.

Ryan Reaves tried in vain to goad Mason Geertsen into a fight. Geertsen kept his cool though and did not engage. Reaves would end up taking a slashing penalty against Geertsen 19 seconds after Tatar’s goal to set up the Devils first power play of the night.

The Devils wasted no time in converting as Bratt and Jack Hughes played give-and-go in the Ranger zone after Hughes rushed in up the right-wing side. Hughes then made a nifty spinning pass back to Bratt, who finished to seemingly make it 5-2 Devils.

However, Rangers coach Gerard Gallant used his coach’s challenge to argue that Dougie Hamilton was offside prior to Hughes entering the zone.

A big tell that New York must have been pretty confident about winning the challenge was that they were already on the penalty kill when the challenge was issue. Losing it meant that they would receive a delay of game bench minor and be down two men.

Sure enough, the replay showed Hamilton offside by a fraction of an inch as there was just enough white ice between his skate blade and the blue line to call the goal back, reset the game clock to 6:08 or so remaining in the period and to put the Devils back on the power play.

Bratt would not have a goal on the night, but with two assists, did continue his four-game point scoring streak.

The Rangers would kill the rest of that penalty off, but the Devils struck one more time before the period was through.

This one came at 18:07 gone by when Hischier crossed into New York territory on the rush. He made a drop pass to Sharangovich just inside the blue line and went to the Ranger net, tied up with a New York defender to provide a screen in front of Shesterkin. Sharangovich shot through the screen and scored to make it 5-2 Devils.

Hamilton atoned for the offside by providing the secondary assist with the pass to Hischier. The Sharangovich goal also capped a period where the Devils scored five unanswered and simply blitzed the Rangers.

It was the second time this season that the Devils notched five goals in a single period. They did so a few weeks back in the third period of the win at St. Louis over the Blues.

That offensive explosion resulted in the end of the night for Shesterkin as Georgiev was in the crease for the Rangers when the teams came out to start the third.

The Rangers did alleviate a little bit of their shock 3:46 into the third frame when Artemi Panarin got the puck from Ryan Lindgren threw it towards Daws from the near point.

Ryan Strome redirected it in front by Daws, who did get a slight piece of the shot through traffic. However, it did beat him and the Rangers made it 5-3.

From there, Jack Hughes took things over starting at the 9:36 mark to put the icing on the Devils win cake.

At the 7:53 mark, Strome was give an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and the Devils were again on the 5-on-4 advantage.

About 1:30 into that two-minute power play, the Devils stopped a shorthanded Rangers odd-man rush and Hischier, backchecking like a maniac, fought for the puck on the boards just near the Devils blue line. He was able to spring it to Hughes, who broke in on a 3-on-1 into the New York end.

Hughes and Hischier played catch on the entry with Hughes getting it and shooting into the empty goal mouth once Georgiev had gone down to the ice.

That goal occurred at the 9:36 mark. Just 1:10 later, Hughes scored his second, this time at even strength.

Subban hit Sharangovich with a nice outlet pass to get the Devils off in transition. Sharangovich dished to Hughes, who simply sliced his way through the Rangers defense and ripped past Georgiev to give the Devils the 7-3 lead.

Hughes had his 20th and 21st goals of the season – the 20th goal of the year was also his 100th career NHL point. He can now call himself a 20-goal scorer in the NHL, the first of hopefully many such seasons for the budding superstar.

The Rangers added one before the end of the game when Kreider scored his 42nd of the year (he is having a monster year for New York and may even end up scoring 50) on the power play.

Vesey was called at 14:32 for a hook on another newly acquired Ranger, Frank Vatrano to put the Rangers on what would go down as their only power play of the night.

Kreider converted 24 seconds into the man advantage when Fox played catch with the other D at the point before sneaking down, pinching up the far boards.

He then threw a shot on Daws that the Devil goaltender stopped. Copp got a chance at it and Kreider put that rebound in to make it 7-4, which was our final for the night.

In the end, the Devils became the only team besides the Calgary Flames to put five goals by Shesterkin in one night (the Flames have actually done so twice in both meetings with the Rangers this year).

To tally, Hischier finished the game with two assists, Sharangovich with a goal and an assist, Bratt with two assists, Hughes with two goals, Graves with and goal and an assist and Subban with a goal and an assist. Those were the guys with multi-point nights.

In addition, Johnsson, Mercer, Tatar, Hamilton, Smith and Severson all participated in the scoring in some way as well.

Yet still, the Rangers outshot the Devils 35-31. The Devils did win 52-percent of the game’s faceoffs. Mikey McLeod was the center who led the Devils in personal faceoff winning percentage with an efficiency clip of 78-percent in the game. Hughes won 71-percent of his draws over more ice time allotted, however.

As a team, New York racked up six penalty minutes while New Jersey had just two accumulated. The Rangers laid 24 hits while the Devils had 18. The Devils blocked 17 shots to the Rangers’ nine. For team giveaways, the Rangers had five while the Devils eight.

Ice time saw Hamilton overtake Severson with 21:59 total minutes logged (including 4:21 on the power play) to Severson’s 21:42 (which included 4:06 on the power play and 24 seconds of shorthanded time). Jonas Siegenthaler also had 24 seconds of PK time, as he and Severson were on the ice together for Kreider’s goal. Siegenthaler logged a total of 19:05 for the record.

Up front, Hischier led in ice time with 20:40 of total time (including 4:26 on the PP and 24 seconds on the PK). Bratt led in power play time by a second with 4:27 out of his 18:55 of total TOI. McLeod was the other forwards who was on the ice for the penalty kill (24 seconds out of his 7:36 of total ice time).

Personal stats saw Bratt lead with five. The hits leader was Nathan Bastian with three. Hamilton led in blocks by a large margin with five. Personal giveaways saw Smith lead with two while Vesey recovered two turnovers to lead in takeaways.

Next up, it will be a quick turnaround, but the Devils will need to keep the momentum going if they want to achieve only their second win of the season north of the border.

Tomorrow night, at 7 PM, they will visit the Toronto Maple Leafs, another playoff-bound team that will put forth yet another challenge for this young team.

That game will be shown on MSG+ and we will have coverage of it for you right here after the conclusion.

Until then, see you in (less than) 24 hours!