Posted on

Lightning Blank Devils in First Meeting of Season

After the debacle in Columbus last night, a game which team captain Andy Greene said “embarrassed” them, the New Jersey Devils looked to right the ship against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference: the Tampa Bay Lightning. The two teams had not faced each other to this point in the 2015-16 season, but would lock horns at Prudential Center tonight.

The Devils did not fare much better against Tampa Bay than they did against Columbus, as the Bolts defeated the Devils in a 4-0 romp.

First, news out of the New Jersey camp, as Michael Cammalleri might end up missing the rest of the season. Coach John Hynes said that he had a “setback” and would not rule out the possibility of him missing the rest of the year. With only about twenty games left counting tonight’s game versus Tampa, this would seem like a likely possibility.

The Devils came into the second half of the back-to-back by sitting Eric Gelinas, Seth Helgeson and Jacob Josefson. With Josefson missing from the lineup, how would the Devils do with the extra man? Turns out we would not really get a chance to find out. The Devils only had one power play on the night (against Tampa Bay’s six) with neither team scoring with the man advantage.

The goaltending matchup featured two of the front runners to mind the nets for Team USA at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey this September: Ben Bishop of Tampa and the Devils’ Cory Schneider. Schneider made 32 stops on 36 shots faced. Bishop was a perfect 21-for-21 en route to his 13th career shutout (good enough to move him into second on the all-time Lightning franchise list).

And he was tested a few times too. Adam Henrique had a chance at an open net early in the first, but he pushed it wide as he was tied up in front of the goal mouth. Henrique would also miss a chance with about 6:30 to go in the second, as he just could not get a handle on the puck in front of Bishop.

The Lightning got on the board first when Alex Killorn scored off a nice pass from Steven Stamkos at 15:36. Ryan Callahan had the secondary assist. The Devils were down 1-0 and the Bolts seemed to have things in hand as they hit the post with just about five minutes left in the first period. Cory was able to stop the rebound behind him, but Tampa was coming on strong.

Mid-second period, Tampa would double their lead when Ondrej Palat scored off an assist from Tyler Johnson at 13:02. Things seemed to be getting out of control for the Devils, but nothing they could not seemingly handle.

Unfortunately, the back breaker came when Steven Stamkos scored at 18:54 of the second. The goal was originally given to Stamkos, then changed to Anton Stralman, then changed back to Stamkos. Stamkos had tipped the puck in and it was clearly his goal. It was also 3-0 Tampa Bay.

Bishop made a great save at 10:43 of the third on Tyler Kennedy, robbing him of what was a sure chance and on an empty net.

The Lightning finished the scoring up in the third period when Matthew Carle beat Cory off assists from Palat and Andrej Sustr. The goal actually was tipped in off of Devils’ defenseman Jon Merrill’s stick, as he did not have his stick on the ice and it deflected in off of the shaft, confusing Schneider. It was 4-0 Bolts and that was your final.

The game would end 4-on-4 when Stephen Gionta went off for unsportsmanlike conduct and Vladislav Namestnikov was sent off for roughing.

The Devils have been outscored 10-1 in the last two games and though they may have been tired coming in from Columbus for tonight’s game, they are not making excuses. The team has the weekend off and will face division rival Carolina on Tuesday. The Hurricanes are battling for a playoff spot themselves and may make some deals by Monday’s 3 PM trading deadline. The Devils have not lost any points in the race with these losses. What they have lost is games in hand. Teams ahead of them, such as Pittsburgh, have more games left to play and by Tuesday, after the Penguins play two more games, we will find out exactly where the Devils stand.

Will the Devils make any moves Monday at the deadline? They could use some offensive firepower to replace Cammalleri, but we will see. Hopefully, with some rest, the Devils will be back and able to take on a Hurricanes team that is in a similar predicament to them.

Posted on

Devils Hang On For First Win versus Flames in Seven Games

The Devils were returning home after a great win against the Arizona Coyotes looking to keep the momentum going. Their opponents would be Sean Monahan, Johnny Gaudreau and the ever-dangerous Calgary Flames. It would not be easy to keep on the winning track. They had not won a game against Calgary in six tries previous.

For the Devils, there would be some give and take in the lineup. Jon Merrill is out, placed on injured reserve retroactive to January 16. He was injured in the Coyotes game, but was able to gut out the rest of the game in Glendale. His injury gives Eric Gelinas a chance to show the coaching staff what he’s got, as he will be getting an extended look with Merrill out of the lineup.

The good news is that the Devils would welcome back leading scorer Michael Cammalleri for tonight’s game. Cammalleri, who revealed that he prefers “Michael” over “Mike,” had been out since the beginning of January with an upper body injury.

Getting the start in goal for New Jersey was workhorse Cory Schneider, who with this win could lay claim to his first back-to-back set of 20 victory seasons. He would get that win and make 26 saves on 28 shots tonight. Opposing him was Jonas Hiller for the Flames. He stopped 22 of 25 shots seen.

The Devils knew they needed to score first in this game and would do so at 5:12 of the first period when Sergey Kalinin fired the puck in deep. It was picked up by Adam Larsson who moved it to Reid Boucher behind the Flames net. Boucher centered it to Larsson in the high slot who beat Hiller and the Devils were up 1-0.

But that lead would not last long. The Devils knew they had to control Calgary on the power play and Tuomo Ruutu took an interference call at 8:48, giving a team that has had struggles on the power play recently, but could always strike, the extra man.

And sure enough, at 9:16, Sean Monahan connected off a pass from Johnny Gaudreau to tie it up at one. Dougie Hamilton had the secondary assist. “Johnny Hockey,” the South Jersey native, was one of four players with multi-point games tonight. The others were all Devils: Larsson, Lee Stempniak, and Boucher. For Gaudreau, it was his 12 multi-point game already this season.

Time would run out on the first period as Travis Zajac would have had a breakaway, but the buzzer went and the teams went to their locker rooms tied at one.

The second period was when the Devils made their mark. Fifty seven seconds into the frame, Adam Henrique grabbed a turnover in the neutral zone, giving it to Cammalleri to setup a two-on-one with Stempniak. Cammalleri passed to Stempniak who beat the left-handed goaltender five hole. It was 2-1 Devils with more to come. The assist to Henrique was his 100th career NHL assist.

Seventeen seconds later, Tyler Kennedy (playing in his 500th NHL game) dumped one in on net and Kalinin chopped at it in front of the net but missed. Finally it squirted out to Boucher who wristed it past Hiller to give the Devils a 3-1 lead. Damon Severson had the secondary assist. Boucher showed with this goal that he could, as coach John Hynes pointed out in his post-game press conference, score gritty, front-of-the-net goals as well as the skill goals, as he scored on Saturday.

Calgary coach Bob Hartley immediately used his coach’s challenge, citing goalie interference. It was ruled a good goal, as the Flames defenseman had fallen into Hiller and Calgary forfeited their timeout.

It was now 3-1 New Jersey. However, the Calgary power play would strike again as Henrique was sent off for slashing at 15:27. The team that went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill versus Arizona on Saturday would give up a second power play goal at 15:55 when Kris Russell beat Cory with a snap shot, assists to Gaudreau and Mark Giordano. It was now 3-2 Devils and we seemed in for a wild finish.

But, instead, we got a pretty stable third period. No penalties were called (including a tripping call on the Flames when Joseph Blandisi went down that could have easily been called) in the period and, while the Flames had some chances, the Devils and Cory Schneider were able to ward them off.

Eventually, Calgary pulled Hiller and Andy Greene scored into the empty net (assists to Stempniak and Larsson) to make it a 4-2 game, and the Devils pulled out the victory.

It was a rough night for the Devils on special teams. They gave up two power play goals and their power play, which was 0-for-17 going into the night, did not score on two chances.

But they got the two points and have moved back into a playoff spot in the crowded Eastern Conference. Next up is Ottawa at The Rock on Thursday. The Devils have played well against the Senators of late and with Michael Cammalleri back in the lineup (who has been a Sens killer in his career with the Devils), they have a good chance to pick up even more ground in the standings. We will find out what the Devils have in them come Thursday.