Posted on

Cory’s Revenge: Devils Edged by Islanders 4-3

As promised, I watched the recording of Sunday’s Devils-Isles game from Prudential Center. I had been dreading it after hearing not only about the loss, but also that Jack Hughes had left the game with an apparent knee injury.

We will get to that shortly, obviously, but first let’s set the stage for the game and get this one in the books so we can move on from last weekend.

The Devils went with pretty much the same lineup from Saturday’s overtime loss to the Florida Panthers (who coincidentally became the first team to qualify for the playoffs on Sunday when they beat the Buffalo Sabres).

Colton White, Mason Geertsen, Miles Wood and Jon Gillies were all scratched. The only change saw Pavel Zacha return from injury up front and Michael McLeod scratched in his stead.

In goal, it was right back to Nico Daws after Andrew Hammond took the reigns as the starter the night before. Hammond, with Gillies scratched, served as Daws’ backup.

On Sunday, Daws made 25 saves on 29 total Islander shots for an .862 save percentage. He was equal to the Isles’ lone shorthanded shot but let in their only power play chance. At even strength, he made 24 saves on 27 shots. The Islanders, as a team, were 1-for-3 on the power play.

For New York, there were two main threads in this game. One of them involved who was in net for them with Ilya Sorokin injured for the moment.

Old friend Cory Schneider made his first NHL appearance in more than two years. His last NHL game was actually just prior to the league shutting down for COVID back on March 6, 2020 when (as a Devil) he beat the St. Louis Blues. That was also his last NHL win. This was also his second only meeting against the Devils as his other one came in 2012 when he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks. This game served as his Islanders debut.

Cory made 27 saves on 30 total Devils shots for a .900 save percentage. He stopped the Devils’ two power play shots and made 25 saves on 28 five-versus-five shots. As a team, the Devils were 0-for-2 on their power play opportunities.

This was actually the Devils’ first ever appearance on TNT… and the Islanders’ second in exactly two weeks.

It was also the final meeting of the season between the youngest team in the NHL by average age (the Devils) and Lou Lamoriello’s Antiques Roadshow. The teams last met with two games in December and January at the UBS Arena. Their first meeting of the year was at the beginning of the season at Prudential Center.

The Devils opted to wear their black alternate uniforms on national television, contrasting with the Islanders’ more traditional and classic white, blue and orange road uniforms.

The Isles got on the board 11:56 into the game when JG Pageau found the back of the net for the first time in the afternoon.

Another former Devil Kyle Palmieri carried the puck along the left-wing boards after getting a pass from Adam Pelech. Palmieri made a sort-of stutter step around the Devils’ defenseman as he went for a sweep check that also served to back the defender up a bit.

Palmieri used that extra space to center to Pageau, who was cutting through the middle. Pageau took the pass and shot along the ice, beating Daws five-hole to put New York up 1-0.

Following that goal, the Devils would lose forward Nathan Bastian when Ross Johnston gave him a high cross-check to the face. Bastian left down the tunnel and would not return, having played just 4:55 on the afternoon.

The Devils would end up losing two more players in the second period basically on one play.

But before that, Pageau and the Isles would double their lead on the power play.

Jesper Boqvist was called for a trip against Zdeno Chara at 13:39 of the first to give the Islanders the man advantage. This penalty gave us the rather comical visual of Boqvist, all 6-feet of him, getting tangled up with the 6-feet, 9-inch Chara and taking him down.

Anyway, with New York with the extra attacker, Pageau would strike again.

At the 14 minute mark, Anders Lee went to the bench to grab a new stick after his old one failed him. Zach Parise handed him his and Lee entered the Devils zone. He intercepted the puck, made a nice move around the Devils defense, splitting defenders and got a shot off on Daws. The rebound ricocheted off of Damon Severson and right to Pageau, who scored.

This was Pageau’s second goal of the evening, so it was essentially JG Pageau 2-Devils 0 heading into the second period.

Pageau was not done there, though.

But first an incident that may or may not have longer reaching consequences than Devils fans would hope.

Early in the new period, about 4:30 or so in, Jack Hughes had the puck in the far corner in the Islanders zone. Oliver Wahlstrom closed in on him and laid a hit on him that caught Hughes on the right thigh with Wahlstrom’s left thigh as Hughes was releasing the puck around the boards.

The impact of the hit, which I should stress, was completely legal (not knee on knee nor interference – just Wahlstrom finishing his hit as Hughes began to turn away from him to sidestep him) caused Hughes’ left knee to kind of hyperextend behind him into the air.

Hughes would go back to the bench and then try to skate on it during a TV timeout. He seemed fine. On his next full shift, however, he collapsed on a turn and had to finally leave the game when his knee simply could not support him.

Hughes had played 10:14 in this game and had a four-game goal scoring streak ended.

Meanwhile, while everything was happening with Hughes, PK Subban had seen the hit by Wahlstrom and Hughes being shaken up. He wasted no time in going after Wahlstrom in retaliation and to stick up for his superstar teammate.

Subban skated right up to Wahlstrom and did not give him a chance to drop the gloves. He eventually would and they did fight at 4:36.

In the end, both Subban and Wahlstrom each got five for fighting with Subban also receiving the instigator, a ten-minute misconduct and the aggressor game misconduct, with the Devils losing him for the game as well. The game misconduct was for essentially beginning the fight without Wahlstrom being able to get set and defend himself. PK ended up with 27 total penalty minutes out of the play.

Hopefully Hughes is okay and we will have an update on his health very soon.

Pageau would complete the natural hat trick at the 14:58 mark of the second when the Isles won an offensive zone faceoff. Palmieri was able to move the puck to Pelech at the point. Pelech centered to Pageau, who was camped out on the doorstep in front of Daws.

Pageau scored to complete his second career NHL regular season hat trick. This was also the second straight game for the Devils involving a hat trick, as Yegor Sharangovich had one for New Jersey on Saturday night in their losing effort against the Panthers.

The Islanders (or, again, more precisely JG Pageau) had now built up a 3-0 lead.

The Devils, though, finally got on the board a little less than a minute after Pageau completed his hatty.

At the 15:45 gone by mark of the second, Janne Kuokkanen gained the New York zone and gave it to Severson. Severson blasted an absolute bomb that Boqvist – who was now set up in front of the Isles’ net – used his superior hand-eye coordination to tip by Schneider to make it 3-1.

At first, the Islanders argued that Boqvist had played the puck with a high stick, but replays showed that he was well below the crossbar and the goal was legal. It counted and the Devils now had a bit of life.

The third period began with the Devils capitalizing on that extra life.

This goal was all the Devils using their superior speed to create offense as it gave Tomas Tatar room to operate with room when he found the back of the net.

At 5:32 into the third period, Dawson Mercer gave the puck to Andreas Johnsson who was able to back up the Islanders’ defense. Tatar gained an inside position on an Isles defenseman as he was crashing the net, took a pass from Johnsson and roofed it over Schneider to cut the New York lead to one at 3-2.

The Devils had fought back into things and seemed poised to erase the bad taste of the blown lead against Florida on Saturday.

But the Isles kept at things.

At the 14:35 mark of the third, Ryan Graves attempted bank the puck up and off the boards to clear it. Pelech got it and gave to Pageau. Pageau then hit Palmieri with a pass.

The former Devil then re-entered the New Jersey zone and simply sniped one far side on Daws off of the rush to build the Isles lead back to two at 4-2.

The Devils now needed to fight back from two goals once again and they would at least get back within one in the next few minutes.

Daws was pulled with just under three minutes remaining in regulation time.

With the sixth attacker on for the Devils, New Jersey was able to set up in the Islander zone. Dougie Hamilton took a shot from the point that was blocked in front and came to Mercer on a scramble in front. A loose puck was picked up by Nico Hischier, who shot just under the crossbar from right in front to score and cut the New York lead to one once again. The Islanders had a 4-3 lead.

With just under a minute to go in the game, Daws was pulled again for the sixth attacker as the Devils frantically tried to get things tied up.

But in a moment that was both frustrating and kind of poetic for Devils fans, Cory Schneider made a final great save to preserve the Islanders win. He stopped a New Jersey chance with his left toe and scrambled back into position to be ready for a rebound.

The play was athletic and showed a flash of the elite Cory of old. The elite Cory that simply stole wins the Devils had no business winning in his first few seasons here.

But on Sunday, it was in a New York Islanders uniform and it was they who got the two points.

The Devils outshot the Islanders by one at 30 to 29. The Devils won 42-percent of the game’s faceoffs as a team.

Hughes led the Devils centers in faceoff wins even in his limited playing time of 10:14 before he left with his injury. He won at a clip of 67-percent.

The Devils accumulated 31 penalty minutes (largely due to the PK Subban game misconduct) while the Isles had only nine. New York edged the Devils in hits with 24 to New Jersey’s 23. Blocked shots saw the Islanders with 12 and the Devils with ten. Team giveaways had the Devils register 13 to the Islanders’ four.

Ice time for the Devils was obviously very concentrated since the team lost two forwards to injury and a defenseman to an ejection. Hamilton led everyone in time on ice with 24:30 – which included 1:12 on the power play and 1:23 on the penalty kill. Severson actually led the defensemen in special teams time with 2:51 on the PP and 2:59 shorthanded out of his 23:57 of total ice time.

Among the forwards, Hischier led with total ice time of 21:16, which included 2:25 on the power play and 2:22 shorthanded. Only Jesper Bratt had more power play time at 2:44 (out of his 18:15 total TOI) than Hischier.

Mercer led the Devils in points with his two assists. Hischier led in total shots with five. Hits were led by Severson with four. Blocked shots were led by Jonas Siegenthaler with two. Personal turnovers were co-led by Hamilton and Siegenthaler, who had three each while personal takeaways saw Sharangovich and Zacha lead with one apiece.

And now that we are all caught up, the Devils will next play tonight as the “other” New York team crosses the Hudson to visit the Devils.

The Devils will play the Rangers at Prudential Center with puck drop coming at 7 PM tonight. The Devils broadcast will air on MSG+2 and we will have coverage for you following the finale of the game later this evening.

This will be the final meeting of the season between these two rivals and, hopefully the Devils can score a W to finally get off of their skid.

Until then, have a great Tuesday everyone!

Posted on

Devils Waste Four Goal Lead/Sharangovich Hatty and Fall to Cats in OT

In a game played the day after April Fool’s Day, you’d still think that this was a cruel joke bring played on Devils fans.

The Devils watched a four-goal lead dwindle away in the third period as the Florida Panthers came back with five unanswered goals to defeat the Devils 7-6 in overtime at Prudential Center on Saturday.

Firstly, I apologize for the lateness of this recap. I had attended a concert last night in Atlantic City (Jerry Cantrell at the Music Box venue at the Borgata casino in case anyone is interested) and had to record this game – as well as yesterday’s game against the Islanders – and was not too keen on watching it or writing this up once I found out the results. I will have yesterday’s game up on Monday afternoon/evening.

The Devils came into this game looking to start the last month of the regular season on the right foot. Especially following the 8-1 debacle in Boston this past Thursday. They were also starting a four-game homestand and take the season series against the Eastern Conference and Atlantic Division leading Panthers.

The first two games between these teams had come back in November with the Devils winning in Newark while the Cats returned the favor a few days later in Sunrise.

But starting tonight, the Devils had little more to play for than pride and Draft Lottery positioning. They were mathematically eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention with the loss at the Bruins last week.

The Panthers, on the other hand, have dreams of winning the Cup and are jockeying for playoff seeding.

The Devils made some changes to the lineup that they iced up in Boston by sitting Colton White and Mason Geertsen. Pavel Zacha is still day-to-day with an injury and Miles Wood was out as well. Head coach Lindy Ruff said that Wood’s absence from the lineup had to do with his “bumps and bruises” that were “to be expected” as he is just coming back from his hip surgery. So, essentially this was a maintenance day for him.

Coming back was Janne Kuokkanen, who had not played since February 7 due to a wrist injury. He was out for 20 games and had just been cleared from Injured Reserve prior to the Bruins game. He slotted in up front.

Also making his return from IR and making his Devils debut was goaltender Andrew Hammond. He wore number 35 and made 34 saves on 41 total Florida shots for an .829 save percentage on the day. He stopped all five Panthers power play shots and, at even strength, made 29 of 36 shots against.

Hammond was the seventh goalie to start a game for the Devils this season and was making his first start in about four weeks due to his injury suffered while with the Montreal Canadiens.

Nico Daws backed Hammond up as Jon Gillies was a healthy scratch for the game.

Florida started Sergei Bobrovsky who stopped 19 of 25 total shots for the Devils with a .760 save percentage in the first 40 minutes of the game. He let in one of New Jersey’s two shorthanded shots and got all four of their power play chances. At five-against-five, he stopped 14 of the 19 shots he saw.

Spencer Knight came on in relief for the third period and overtime and pitched a shutout. He got all six shots the Devils peppered him with – all of which came at even strength.

As a team, the Devils were 0-for-2 on the man advantage while the Panthers were 0-for-3. Between the two Florida goaltenders, the Devils finished with a total of 31 shots.

It was Nickelodeon Weekend at Prudential Center for the kids with a 12:30 PM matinee puck drop and even Ken Daneyko getting “slimed” by current Devils players prior to the game for social media.

The Cats have retooled as they head down the stretch and try to make their run at the championship. They acquired forward Claude Giroux and defensemen Ben Chiarot and Robert Hagg at the Trade Deadline.

The Devils kicked things off when Yegor Sharangovich scored just 3:25 into the game unassisted.

It came when the Devils were able to force a turnover in the Florida zone and the puck was moved to the point and Dougie Hamilton. Hamilton took shot low that got in on Bobrovsky, who made the initial save. Sharangovich was able to get a subsequent shot off and and score to make it 1-0 Devils.

For Sharangovich, a new career high for a single season as that was the 17th goal of the season for number 17 and it he was not even done for the afternoon.

The Devils only needed 17 seconds to double their lead as well. Hughes notched his 26th of the season when his forecheck caused Bobrovsky to turn the puck over to him while the Florida goalie was trying to get the puck from behind his own net to his defenseman in the near corner. Hughes grabbed the puck, skated to the front of the Panthers net and scored to make it 2-0 New Jersey. That goal also came unassisted.

But, in a pattern that was to repeat very late in the game, the Cats stayed in things. The Devils outshot the Panthers 12-5 in the first period but kept things close still.

At the 9:02 mark, the Panthers attempted a wraparound that was stopped by Hammond, who ended up with his back to the shooter. He actually made the save with the back of his left leg as the shot came from around the near side.

Devils defenseman Damon Severson swooped in to help and swept the puck away – right to a pinching in Cats d-man Ben Chiarot, who was creeping in from the point.

Chiarot then wristed a shot by Hammond as the Panthers scored on just their second shot of the game. The goal was unassisted as well and came was Chiarot’s first goal as a Panther. It was 2-1 headed into the first intermission.

If the Devils had given a glimpse of how they could get ahead on the powerful Panthers in the first period, the second period became 20-minutes of dominance for them.

It began with Sharangovich’s second goal just two minutes in, his 18th of the season and second of the game.

Dougie Hamilton had a chance stopped by Bobrovsky that Florida recovered and tried to clear. Dawson Mercer, however, won the puck off of a battle on the far boards and passed to Sharangovich at the bottom of the far faceoff circle.

Sharangovich made a quick spin around and snapped a shot by Bobrovsky to make it 3-1 Devils.

Just 45 seconds after Sharangovich’s second goal, the returning Kuokkanen scored his first goal since December 31, 2021 against Edmonton.

On this one, Ty Smith was able to keep the puck alive in the Panthers zone, making a well-timed and high-risk play to hold the zone. He then passed Andreas Johnsson, who then hit Kuokkanen with a pass. Kuokkanen was cutting in towards Bobrovsky down low and made a nice move to his backhand to score and make it 4-1 Devils.

But once again, the Cats were never far out of things. Immediately following the Kuokkanen goal, Nico Hischier was stopped on a Devils 3-on-1 to thwart a chance that would have put New Jersey up by three.

Later in the period, at 11:17 gone by, Radko Gudas cut the lead in half at 4-2.

Gudas had just come out of the penalty after Florida killed a two-minute minor for tripping.

He got the puck up the left side from defenseman Brandon Montour and gained the Devils zone. His initial shot was stopped by Hamilton in front, but a Panthers player was then pushed into Hammond as Gudas followed up on his own rebound. That shot went in to make it 4-2 Devils.

Ruff and the Devils’ coaching staff looked at the play but declined to use their coach’s challenge to have it reviewed due to a Devils player pushing the Panthers player in ot Hammond. There just was not enough to get a call of goalie interference and overturn the call on the ice which was a good goal.

However, the Devils would pick right back up where they left off by scoring two more goals to add to their lead.

First, Sharangovich completed the hat trick at the 14:44 mark of the second period, shorthanded.

Hamilton was called for holding Jonathan Huberdeau at 13:26 to put Florida on the man advantage.

But a little more than halfway through that kill, Hischier forced a Florida turnover at the left wall just inside the Devils zone. Nico chipped the puck up and Sharangovich got around the last Panther to beat, took the puck and was off to the races in on Bobrovsky. He cut in alone on the Cats goaltender, went to his backhand and roofed the puck over Bobrovsky to make it 5-2 and complete Sharangovich’s first career NHL hat trick.

It was the first Devils hatty since Blake Coleman turned the trick in Toronto in January of 2020 and the first at the Prudential Center since Kyle Palmieri did it in October of 2019 as pointed out by Devils play-by-play man Steve Cangialosi. Of course, in an eerie bit of foreshadowing, Cangialosi also pointed out that New Jersey had actually lost those two games.

Johnsson would add one more to the Devils’ coffers before the second period was out.

On this goal, Jesper Boqvist recovered a puck that had been stolen by him from Mackenzie Weegar in the Florida zone. He passed low to Kuokkanen, who then hit Johnsson (who was cutting back door), who scored. The Devils had a 6-2 lead going into the third period and just needed to hang on for 20 more minutes.

Easier said than down against a powerhouse like the Florida Panthers.

The Cats began the third by making a goaltending change and installing Spencer Knight between the pipes.

That made all the difference for them.

Johnsson took the only penalty of the third period when he was called for a cross-check against Sam Bennett to put Florida on the power play at 3:28 gone by.

And, although it was not officially a power play goal, it was scored just moments after the penalty was killed off at 5:34 to make it an even strength goal. Mason Marchment passed the puck around to Anthony Duclair at the far half wall. He then moved it to Montour at the point. Montour’s shot tipped by Hammond off of a Devils’ skate in front to make it 6-3.

The Panthers were still around and, sure enough, at 7:03 gone by in the third, Gustav Forsling scored unassisted when the Devils lost a defensive zone draw. Florida got the puck in on Hammond, who made the initial save, the rebound of which came out to Forsling in the corner. He came out of the corner, made a move around a Devils defender and stuffed the puck by Hammond to make it 6-4.

The Panthers nearly scored again with 11:15 left in the game when a shot by Weegar was tipped in by Carter Verhaeghe. Verhaeghe, however, had had tipped the puck by Hammond with his stick up above the crossbar, a high stick and the goal was immediately waved off. Weegar’s initial shot had come from the top of the far faceoff circle. The score would remain 6-4.

For now.

It became 6-5 fir real at the 15:23 mark. Knight had been pulled with almost five minutes remaining in the game for the sixth attacker and Florida began pressing even more.

Jonathan Huberdeau – whose 71 assists on the season was already an NHL record for an NHL left-winger in a season – added to that total when he passed to Bennett. Bennett fed Aleksander Barkov down near the hash marks of the far circle. His shot then snuck in between Hammond’s left arm and the post to make it a one-goal game for real.

And it would be Barkov who would do things again about a minute later.

The Cats once again pulled Knight with a little over two minutes to go in the game.

With an extra skater on, the Panthers were able to move the puck around the horn.

From Huberdeua to Weegar to Barkov at the far faceoff circle’s low hashmarks at the right-side boards.

He unloaded a one-timer from that right side that eluded a Hammond could not get across his crease in time and get set and square to Barkov That made it 6-6 as the Cats had roared back with four unanswered goals to tie and, when the final hor sounded, to force overtime.

The Panthers came in with an OT record of 8-2 while the Devils were 5-1.

It only took 1:45 for the Panther to claim victory too.

Bennett skated the puck into the Devils zone, curled around and dropped it to Forsling. Forsling looked for room and then wristed a shot by Hammond’s glove for the win.

It was a hard lesson in learning to win and hang on against a tough team in a moment of adversity for the Devils.

Team-stats wise, the Devils wee outshot by ten at 31-41 and won just 34-percent of the game’s faceoffs. Hughes led all Devils skaters by winning 44-percent of his draws.

New Jersey finished with six penalty minutes as a team while the Panthers only had four. Hits saw Florida play the more physical game with 27 connected hits to the Devils’ 23. The Devils had 19 blocked shots to Florida’s nine. Team giveaways saw the Cats with 11 while the Devils had just one less at ten.

Sharangovich led the Devils in scoring with his hat trick while Johnsson had two points (a goal and an assist) in his being named a star of the game. Kuokkanen was the other Devil with a multi-point night with two points (a goal and an assist) in his return.

Ice time saw Severson led all Devils skaters with 25:03 of total time on ice. His 2:29 on the power play led the defensemen in that category while he logged 3:55 on the penalty kill. Jonas Siegenthaler actually led the blue liners in shorthanded time with 4:02 out of his 22:06 of total TOI.

Forwards were led in total time by Hughes with 21:22 (included 2:30 of power play time). Jesper Bratt led in PP time with 2:34 out of his total of 16:42 while Michael McLeod led in PK time with 3:46 out of his 12:01 total ice time logged.

Sharangovich led in shots on goal with six – scoring three goals on those six shots, which works out to a 50-percent shooting percentage if my math is correct there. Nathan Bastian led in hits with six. Tomas Tatar and Siegenthaler had three blocks to lead in that column.

As for personal giveaways, Sharangovich had three to lead there. On the flip side, Hughes and Ryan Graves recovered two turnovers each to lead in takeaways.

Next up, the Devils played yesterday afternoon on TNT against the New York Islanders at Prudential Center.

I recorded that game as well and will have that recap up for you by tomorrow afternoon or evening. This weekend just set me back a little bit but should be caught up by Monday night.

Looking at the results and hearing some things about what actually went down yesterday in Newark, I don’t know just how much I am actually looking forward to this.

Until then!