Johnsson With Huge Game as Devils Down Flyers

It is more than safe to say that Andreas Johnsson just played his biggest game as a New Jersey Devil.

Johnsson four points tonight, two goals and a pair of primary assists, to help lead the Devils over the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 at Prudential Center tonight.

The win by the Devils over the Flyers came just hours after the New York Giants defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 13-7 at MetLife Stadium earlier this afternoon.

This was the first meeting of the season between these longtime division rivals – one of only three that they will have this year. The two teams split the season series at 4-4 last year.

It was also Hockey Fights Cancer Night at the Rock. The Devils wore their lavender warmup jerseys for the occasion and honored a young cancer survivor Lucas Files from Manahawkin, New Jersey.

Lucas dropped the ceremonial faceoff between Devils captain Nico Hischier and Oskar Lindblom of the Flyers. Lindblom is a cancer survivor himself and that choice made for a great symbolic moment on Hockey Fights Cancer Night.

Lucas, whose favorite Devil is currently Mackenzie Blackwood, got to design a custom mask for Blackwood that the goaltender wore for warmups.

Ty Smith also made his return to the lineup having been a healthy scratch over the last two games. He l      ast played in the November 20 win at the Tampa Bay Lightning. Mason Geertsen also slotted back in, meaning Colton White and Chase DeLeo were the two scratches.

Smith played on the third pairing with PK Subban while Jonas SIegenthaler moved up to the second pairing with Damon Severson.

In goal, Blackwood was back in the starting role for the Devils. He turned aside 23 of the Flyers’ 25 total shots for a .920 save percentage. Philly did score on their only shorthanded chance while Blackwood got all three of their power play shots and 20 of their 21 at even strength.

Blackwood, with this win tonight, is now 7-0-2 all-time in his career versus Philadelphia.

The Flyers would counter with Martin Jones, who had 30 saves on 34 total New Jersey shots fpr an .882 save percentage on the night. He stopped the Devils’ lone shorthanded shots and all four of their power play chances. He was equal to 25 of the Devils’ 29 even strength shots. With an empty netter, the Devils finished the game with 36 total shots.

Both teams went 0-for-3 on power play opportunities on the night.

In two other bits of roster news for the Devils – they are even closer to getting Jack Hughes back from injury. He has been skating for nearly a week. He suffered a dislocated shoulder back in the second game of the season for the Devils against the Seattle Kraken. He is now at or even slightly ahead of his timeline to return as per MSG+’s Erika Wachter on the Devils pregame show.

And that brings us to our final note as Nathan Bastian made his return to the Prudential Center for the first time since being claimed off of waivers from the Kraken. The fan favorite would go to play a big role in this game for the Devils.

The Devils struck early when Dougie Hamilton made his presence known.

It began when he pinched up into the Devils attack and hit the crossbar on a chance. Moments later, at the 5:07 mark, Hamilton would hit his mark.

Johnsson got the puck at the far wall from Jesper Bratt. Johnsson then threw the puck towards the slot where Hamilton was still hanging out. Hamilton then redirected Johnsson’s pass into the Flyers net to make it 1-0 Devils early.

As MSG+ analyst Ken Daneyko pointed out that the reason this goal was scored was because of Hamilton’s defensive instincts. He was comfortable enough to stay up in the Devils’ attack and not retreat back to the blue line once he hit the crossbar earlier in the play. That created the chance and, effectively gave the Devils another attacker on the ice at the time.

The lead created by Hamilton’s goal, however, would not survive the first period.

At the 15:53 mark of the first period, Philly’s Joel Farabee was called for hooking Severson. This put the Devils on their first power play of the evening.

But at 17:03 gone by in the first, the Flyers were able to move the puck up to Scott Laughton at their own blue line. The Devils did not actually have control of the puck, but no one was back supporting the play defensively. This allowed Laughton to get the puck from Ivan Provorov and he was off to the races.

Laughton cut in on Blackwood with Subban desperately trying to backcheck on him. Laughton shielded the puck from Subban with his right leg. He fought off the check and slid the puck past a sprawling Blackwood to tie the game at one heading into the first intermission. Sean Couturier had the secondary assist on this goal.

The second period saw some action beginning when Johnsson notched his first goal of the night – and second point – 1:47 in.

Johnsson had been stopped on a breakaway moments before the goal, as Jones got the initial shot and Johnsson shot the rebound over the net.

Bratt would recover the puck for the Devils and make a nice move along the far wall to cut away from the Philly defense and get himself some time and space. He then made a slick pass to Johnsson in the slot and his fellow Swede did not miss that one.

He deposited it top shelf as Jones got a piece of the shot with his blocker, but no more. That made it 2-1 Devils. Dawson Mercer was originally awarded an assist on this goal, but the scoring was later changed, taking him off the scoresheet on this one.

Fireworks hit at the 6:06 mark of the second when Geertsen made his presence known to Zack MacEwen and the Flyers.

Coach Lindy Ruff mentioned in his postgame presser that Geertsen was reinserted into the lineup so that opposing teams could understand that they could not push around the Devils’ smaller stars. This includes Hughes, who was injured on a borderline dirty hit and will be making his return soon.

Geertsen did not disappoint. His scrap with MacEwen was a spirted affair that largely ended in a draw for both men. It was also Geertsen’s first scrap as a Devil. He ended up with a small cut on his nose that was bleeding for his troubles and MacEwen ended up going to the Flyers’ locker room for some repairs.

The second period ended with Bratt being stopped late on a breakways and the Devils drawing a penalty as time expired in the frame.

Philly’s Justin Braun was called for hooking Jimmy Vesey at the 20-minute mark of the second, so the Devils would open the third period on the power play.

They would not score on that opportunity, but there were plenty of goals to be had in the final stanza.

It began with the Flyers striking 3:04 in. Philly would tenaciously keep the puck in the Devils’ zone, forechecking to keep the Devils pinned in.

Pavel Zacha finally recovered the puck, having a great chance to clear, but his attempt would end up hitting the referee’s skate and going right to Laughton in front. Farabee crossed towards him ad got a pass from Laughton, beating Blackwood right on the doorstep to tie the game up at two.

It was bad luck for Zacha as he had a great chance to get the puck out of the zone and allow the Devils to reset. However, the officials are in play and when the puck hit the ref, where it ended up was out of everyone’s hand. It was just a bad break for the Devils.

The 2021-22 New Jersey Devils, however, have been nothing, if not resilient. They would claw back in the third period.

It began courtesy of Bratt – who ended the night with three points: a goal and two assists. At the 11:57 mark of the third, Provorov bobbled the puck at the Flyers blue line and Johnsson stole it. He broke into the Philly zone with Bratt on a 2-on-1, making a nice pass across to Bratt who finished nicely as he was crashing towards Jones.

That goal would go down as the game-winner, putting the Devils up 3-2 and add another point for Johnsson.

Johnsson, for his part, was not done yet, either.

But first, Bastian made his mark on the game at 14:14 gone by in the third.

Michael McLeod cut behind the Flyers net and passed in front to a pinching Hamilton. Hamilton made a nice pass to Bastian, who was crashing the net behind the play and he put the pass in backdoor. That made it 4-2 Devils.

Philadelphia would pull Jones with about 4:15 to go in regulation, trying to get the two equalizing goals with a sixth attacker.

The Devils would instead, though, ice the game instead. And it would come off of the stick of who else, but Andreas Johnsson?

Mercer got his assist on this goal as he recovered a turnover while the Flyers were controlling the play in the Devils’ end. He got it to the hot hand in Johnsson, who fired nearly the length of the rink and into the vacated Flyer net to make it 5-2, our final.

Overall, the Devils played a much better game than their outing Friday night at Nashville. As for Philly, the Flyers are now 0-4-2 in their last six games.

The Devils outshot the Flyers 35-25 while winning 46-percent of the game’s faceoffs. McLeod once again led all Devils centers with a personal winning percentage of 67-percent.

Each team ended the game with 11 penalty minutes while Philly outhit the Devils 26-21. The Flyers also had more blocked shots at 21 to the Devils’ 19. The Devils had six total giveaways to the Flyers’ five.

Severson led all Devils skaters in total ice time with 22:35 (including 3:25 on the power play and 3:13 on the PK). Jimmy Vesey led the forwards with 21:08 total (including 3:30 on the PP and 2:06 shorthanded).

In total points, several Devils ended up with multi-point games. Johnsson ended up with four points (two goals and two assists), Bratt had three points (a goal and two assists) and Hamilton finished with two points (a goal and an assist).

Hamilton also led in shots on goal with a whopping total of ten, far outpacing everyone else in the game – on either team – in that category. Nico Hischier led the Devils in total hits with four. Blocks were led by Bastian and Hamilton, both with a total of three. Giveaways were distributed through the lineup to Johnsson, Zacha, Bratt, Tomas Tatar, Severson and Ryan Graves, who each had one to co-lead in that category. Siegenthaler had two takeaways to led in that stat.

Next up, the Devils will try to keep the momentum going as they will host the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday to close out the season series with them. That game will be shown on ESPN+ and we will have a recap up for you following the game.

Until then, I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and we will see you on Tuesday!

Devils Drop Game at Music City, 4-2

Happy Thanksgiving to all yesterday!

Having spent time with their friends and loved ones and had some turkey and stuffing, the Devils jetted off immediately to Nashville to take on the Predators. The game did go the Devils’ way as they fell 4-2.

First, some roster news, as usual.

The Devils went with largely the same lineup as Wednesday night against Minnesota. Ty Smith was a healthy scratch for the second straight game. Colton White was again in on defense. He joined Fabian Zetterlund and Mason Geertsen out of the lineup.

In addition, as per Kevin Weekes of ESPN+, Jack Hughes participated in the Devils’ morning skate today. Weekes noted he was in a non-contact jersey – which it being the morning skate does not signal that much, but he is hopefully on his way back sooner rather than later.

The Devils decided to go to Jonathan Bernier as their starter tonight after turning to Mackenzie Blackwood for the last week or so of games. Bernier stopped 27 of Nashville’s 30 shots against for a nightly save percentage of .900. He turned aside the Preds’ two power play shots and 25 of their 28 shots at even strength. Nashville added an empty net goal for a 31st shot on the night.

Juuse Saros started for the Predators and stopped 23 of the Devils’ 25 total shots. He had a save percentage of .920. He stopped the Devils’ lone shorthanded chance and made 22 saves on 24 shots at even strength.

The Devils finished the game 0-for-1 on the power play while the Predators ended 0-for-3.

Of note in this game was that, as reported by Weekes, this game featured the first-ever NHL matchup between two Swiss-born and trained captains of NHL franchises. It was Nico Hischier of the Devils against Roman Josi of the Predators in their first game against each other since Nico became captain of New Jersey. Remember, the Devils and Predators did not play last season due to the pandemic-reduced season and the realigned divisions and in-division only games.

And speaking of Roman Josi….

Nashville got on the board at the 7:31 minute of the first period when Josi scored. This was a 4-on-4 goal and was set up when Andreas Johnsson took a boarding penalty against Eeli Tolvanen at the 6:27 mark of the first.

The Devils spent ten seconds on the man advantage before the Preds’ Matt Duchene hooked Ryan Graves and went off at the 6:38 mark. That evened things up, but with more room on the ice, Nashville would capitalize.

The goal came off the rush as Ryan Johansen dished off to Josi, who dashed up the left-wing boards into the Devils zone. Bernier never got a chance to get square to the shooter and Josi fired a shot that ended up trickling through Bernier to make it 1-0 Predators. Alexandre Carrier had the secondary assist on his goal.

Bernier would follow that up with a nice glove save. But the Devils’ problems on the power play continue to mount. After this game, the Devils are now 1-for-their-last-24 on the power play on the road.

Their lone power play opportunity tonight came at the 13:03 mark of the first when Filiip Forsberg was called for slashing Dougie Hamilton. Nashville would kill that off.

The Predators would double their lead in the second period. It came just 3:30 into the new period when Nick Cousins centered the puck out of the corner to Philip Tomasino in front of the Devils net.

Tomasino chipped the puck towards Bernier’s cage. Bernier was playing extremely deep in his net and Tomasino’s shot ended up chipping over him and in. Josi had the secondary assist.

The Devils had nine shots through the first two periods of this game, two in the first and seven in the second. That is the second lowest 40-minute shot total for a team in the NHL this season according to ESPN+.

Nashville had 22 shots through that time frame and Mikael Granlund would make one of their first shots of the third period count.

At the 6:45 mark of the third period, Matt Duchene took a pass from Forsberg behind the Devils net. He collected the puck with his skate and deflected it to his stick. He then centered it to Granlund, who in the slot in front of the Devils net. All of the Devils defenders were watching Duchene with the puck behind the net and did not cover Granlund. Granlund put the puck in to make it 3-0 Predators.

But the Devils would finally get on the big board a the 11:58 mark of the third. It was then when Johnsson worked along the boards behind the Nashville net. He worked it over to Jesper Bratt, who fought off a check in the near corner in the Preds’ zone and passed to Dawson Mercer at the near side of the Predators net.

Mercer looked for a second and had a shot but made the split-second decision to pass to Johnsson, who had by now gone to the other side of the Nashville net. Johnsson was able to tap the pass in on one touch to make it 3-1 Predators.

And now, with time ticking down in regulation, the Devils were looking at pulling Bernier. They eventually would with 1:42 left in the game. Weekes did question why Devils coach Lindy Ruff played it relatively conservatively. Weekes did feel that the Devils could have pulled their goaltender sooner as they were down by two and had time. He cited their puck possession numbers and that they lost time when a faceoff came in the Devils zone, giving them a late defensive zone start.

But either way, Bernier was out and the Devils had the extra attacker on. A good situation for them as they have not been a team you would count out late in a game while down by a few goals.

But a comeback was not in the cards this time.

Carrier got a helper from Johansen and deposited the puck into the empty net, nearly 200 feet away. He shot nearly the length of the ice and hit his target to make it 4-1 and ice the game for the Predators.

The Devils would tack one on at the end when Tomas Tatar beat Saros to a loose puck in the Nashville end. Saros went for a poke check, but Tatar got there first and slid it five-hole and into the empty goal behind the Predators goalie. That made it 4-2, our final for the night.

The Devils ended the game being outshot 31-25 (logging 16 shots in the third period to up their game total a bit). The Devils did win 57-percent of the game’s faceoffs – with Michael McLeod (newly reunited with Nathan Bastian, who played tonight) leading the Devils centers with a personal 69-percent winning percentage.

Each team ended up with six total penalty minutes. The Preds outhit the Devils 16 to nine. They also had more blocked shots at 14 to New Jersey’s seven. Nashville ended up with one more giveaway than the Devils at five to New Jersey’s four.

Hamilton led all Devils in ice time with a total of 23:43 (including 1:13 on the power play and 44 seconds on the penalty kill). Jimmy Vesey led the forwards with 18:23 TOI (1:13 on the power play and 2:12 on the PK). He beat Pavel Zacha out by one second. Zacha had 18:22 of total time on ice, and he only played on the power play, logging 1:13 there.

Johnsson led the Devils with two points (the goal and the assist on Tatar’s window dressing). Damon Severson led the team in shots with four and hits with two. Hamilton led in blocked shots with three and giveaways with two. Janne Kuokkanen and Bratt co-led in takeaways with three each.

So next up, with the Devils having garnered only one point in their last two games, they will try to right things on Sunday against the Philadelphia Flyers at home in Prudential Center.

That game, a 7 PM start and will be back on TV on MSG+, will be Hockey Fights Cancer Night for the Devils. The Devils will honor 12-year-old Lucas Files from Manahawkin, New Jersey, a Devils fan and cancer survivor.

He was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in October of 2015. He was treated at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital starting in December 2018.

Also being honored as “a special Hero Among Us” will be Christian Koncewicz, a 9-year-old from Middletown, New Jersey. He was diagnosed with Leukemia last April and is undergoing treatment currently at the same facility as Lucas.

The Devils will help raise funds on the night for both the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and The Cancer Center at Saint Barnabas Medical Center. The Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center in New Jersey.

The Devils will wear the special lavender-colored Hockey Fights Cancer warmup jerseys and will auction them (as well as the locker room nameplates) following the game through December 8.

Fans will also again have the chance to hold up their Hockey Fights Cancer placards – which can be printed out at newjerseydevils.com/HFC. This will be featured during the game and on the team’s social media outlets. Fans can write who they are fighting for on the placard, which can also be displayed digitally on their phones.

The Devils kicked off the week by announcing that the renovation of Clara Maass Medical Center’s Infusion Center will be dedicated to former Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment employee Dean Brzuskiewicz, who passed away in 2020 of cancer.

The renovations were paid for by proceeds from last season’s Hockey Fights Cancer according to a press release put out by the Devils.

And finally, one other bit of news that I will wrap up quickly because this post is going way long anyway.

The Devils released the remaining 12 games that they wear their new black alternate “Jersey” jerseys for.

They will be December 18 at the Red Wings, December 23 versus the Canadiens, January 6, 2022 versus the Blue Jackets, January 10 versus the Lightning, January 19 versus the Coyotes, January 25 as the Devils host the Stars, February 24 when the Penguins come into town, March 12 against the Ducks at Prudential Center, March 23 versus the rival Rangers, April 3 versus the Islanders, April 5 against versus the Rangers and, finally on April 29 versus Detroit, this time in Newark.

And that wraps things up. We will see you back here on Sunday for Devils-Flyers coverage. Until then, have a great weekend everyone!