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Devils Fall to Oilers in Shootout

The Devils’ woes continue as their first win eludes them once again. They fell to the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 in a shootout after failing to pull away from the Oilers.

To begin with, the Devils would be without defenseman and captain Andy Greene. He suffered an upper body injury last night in Philadelphia and was unavailable. Mirco Mueller slotted in for the injured Greene, playing on the third pairing with Connor Carrick. In another lineup change, Pavel Zacha was in for John Hayden up front.

Former Devil Adam Larsson was out for Edmonton as he suffered a broken leg on opening night and has been on long-term injured reserve.

This game would feature five first overall picks (Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Connor McDavid for the Oilers and Taylor Hall – an Oiler pick – Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes for the Devils). Steve Cangialosi on MSG Network referred to it as the “Taylor Hall Invitational” with Hall being the most senior of the picks and the Draft Lottery “good luck charm” for both teams.

The Oilers would be a stiff challenge for the Devils, coming into the game with a 3-0-0 record and currently standing fifth in the NHL in both the power play and penalty kill and second in goals per game.

The first period began with PK Subban leaving the game with an apparent injury. He had only taken one or two shifts before leaving the game. Thankfully, he would return in the second period and finish the game.

The Devils opened the scoring just 6:14 in the game when Kyle Palmieri (playing in his 500th NHL game) blocked a shot at the Devils’ blue line and was off to the races with Taylor Hall on a 2-on-1. He faked a pass, keeping Edmonton goalie Mikko Koskinen from getting set and roofed the shot to give the Devils the early 1-0 lead.

But in a trend that would rear its ugly head all night, the Oilers struck back just about 3:03 later. Zack Kassian played tic-tac-toe to Darnell Nurse, who tapped the puck over to Leon Draisaitl. Draisaitl then put it behind Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood to tie it.

The Oilers had tied things heading into the first intermission.

The Devils would retake the lead 14:12 into the second when Jesper Bratt hung on to the puck in the Oiler zone, spinning and controlling it before finding Nikita Gusev coming off the bench. Gusev took a pass from Bratt and fired it by Koskinen to make it 2-1 Devils.

That, however, did not last long as James Neal continued his hot streak by tipping a Nugent-Hopkins one-time shot by Blackwood on the power play at 19:32 of the second. McDavid had the secondary assist. Once again, the Devils had given up a goal in the waning moments of a period and this one tied the game at two apiece.

The Devils would again retake the lead when Damon Severson scored at 15:35 of the third. The Devils kept extended pressure in the Oiler zone, something other teams have been doing to the Devils a lot this year. Hall was able to make a nifty pass to Severson, who was at the far faceoff circle. The defenseman then corralled it in his skates and shot over a fallen Koskinen to give the Devils the 3-2 lead. Hischier had the secondary assist on the goal.

The Oilers would pull Koskinen with about 1:30 to go in the game for the 6-on-5 man advantage. Then tragedy for the Devils as Blake Coleman tripped up McDavid setting up an Edmonton power play.

On the ensuing power play, an Oscar Klefbom shot got behind Blackwood and McDavid was there to hammer it home. However, the whistle had seemed to blow and the play was seemingly dead when the puck crossed the line. The call on the ice was a good goal and replays on TV showed that the whistle had blown after the puck was in the net. The goal was reviewed and the call on the ice stood: it was a good goal and now the score was 3-3.

Coincidentally, this was the first time Connor McDavid had scored against the Devils. New Jersey was the final team in the NHL that he had scored against and this was a crucial one for them.

When time ran out on regulation, the Devils were headed to overtime for the second game this season. It was an eventful, if not fruitful one, too. Hall hit the crossbar on a breakaway, then missed the net on another one where he just ran out of room. Subban missed a chance as well, using too many moves and simply running out of room.

With those chances for the Devils not going in and Edmonton not scoring, we were off to a shootout.

In the first round, Gusev lost control of the puck and Nugent-Hopkins whiffed on his attempt. In the second round, Hughes’ shot was turned aside by Koskinen and McDavid had his saved by Blackwood. In the third round, Hall was also turned aside while trying to go five-hole on Koskinen and Draisaitl scored to give the Oilers the 4-3 victory.

Draisaitl was named the game’s first star with a goal and the shootout winner. McDavid was the second star with the game-tying goal and Gusev the third with his goal for the Devils.

In goal, Koskinen made 28 saves on 31 Devils shots for a .903 save percentage. Blackwood stopped 19 of 22 for an .864 save percentage.

On the power play, the Oilers were 2-for-3 with five shots. They also registered a shot shorthanded. The Devils have still yet to score on the man advantage, going 0-for-2 tonight with a pair of shots.

As a team, the Devils won 53-percent of the game’s faceoffs and outhit the Oilers 31-26. Edmonton had more blocked shots at 14 to the Devils’ 12. Each team had six giveaways apiece.

Individually, the Devils’ skaters were led in ice time by Severson with 25:02 (including 29 seconds on the power play and 56 seconds on the penalty kill). Hall led the forwards with 20:55 (2:14 of PP time). Miles Wood led in shots on goal with five, Coleman led in hits with a whopping 10 and Sami Vatanen led in blocks with three. Coleman led in takeaways with three.

Next up for the Devils, they ship up to Boston for a Saturday night tilt against the Bruins. Boston is another team that has yet to suffer a loss and will be a good test for the Devils. Hopefully, things break right and we can all breath a sigh of relief then with a “W” on Saturday.

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Devils Fall to Jets in Shootout, Drop Season Opener

The regular season is finally upon us and with it, the first heartbreak of the season. The Devils blew a 4-0 lead to the Winnipeg Jets, eventually losing in a shootout 5-4 in their season opener.

The day began with the now-annual red carpet arrival for the Devils players. A good crowd showed up on a workday afternoon to welcome the players to the Prudential Center for the new season.

Once that was done, it was on to the business of hockey.

The show began with the annual player on-ice intros and hoopla. With the big additions of the offseason, hope was running high among the sellout crowd on hand.

Once the game began, that hope was quickly rewarded. Nikita Gusev, one of the aforementioned new acquisitions, got the scoring started on the season at 18:00 of the first period. Gusev created a turnover on the forecheck and funneled the puck to Jesper Bratt who whiffed on his initial try and then fed Gusev on the doorstep. He beat goaltender Laurent Brossoit to make it 1-0 Devils going into the first intermission. This was Gusev’s first career NHL goal and point in his debut game.

In the second period, Blake Coleman struck for his first of two on the night when he scored just 1:42 into the second frame. It came when Travis Zajac created a turnover in the neutral zone and passed cross-ice to Wayne Simmonds. Simmonds gathered the puck out of his skates and shot, with the rebound coming back to him. He guided it to Coleman in the slot, who fired, beating Brossoit to make it 2-0. The assist to Simmonds was his first point as a Devil in his debut.

The Devils were building a nice little lead for themselves and it continued at 12:34 of the second when Sami Vatanen notched his first of the season from Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall. It came when Hall took a hit behind the net to get the puck to Palmieri at the far half wall. He dropped it to Vatanen at the point. Vatanen fired with the puck knuckling by Brossoit to make it 3-0 Devils.

Coleman would make it 4-0 with his second of the night in what was a great individual effort 13:52 into the second. Pavel Zacha won a draw in the Devils’ end back to PK Subban who stretched a pass out to Coleman. Coleman then beat the Winnipeg defender, fell to his back, and one-handed the puck by Brossoit while sliding. It was a great highlight reel goal that will likely show up everywhere in the next few days. For Subban, the primary assist was his first point as a Devil in his debut. Coleman would be named the game’s second start by the media.

From there, though, the wheels began to fall off for New Jersey. It began simply enough when Dmitry Kulikov scored from Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele with 11 seconds to go in the second. That made it 4-1.

The Jets got another back just 2:41 into the third period when Jack Roslovic cut the Devils lead in half to 4-2. Neal Pionk and Mathieu Perreault had the assists.

After that goal, seeming disaster struck as Devils starting goalie Cory Schneider went to the bench seeming to favor his right knee. He came out and Mackenzie Blackwood came on in relief. It did not look good for Cory watching live, but hopefully by later on Saturday, there will be an injury update on him.

Blackwood gave up a goal to Perreault at the 7:17 mark to make it 4-3 Devils. Andrew Copp and Patrik Laine had the assists on that one.

Pionk would tie the game at four when he scored at the 12:35 mark from Scheifele and Ville Heinola. The Jets had completed a remarkable comeback all within the space of about ten minutes in the third period.

After a frantic final few minutes of play in regulation and a five minute overtime that settled nothing, we were off to a shootout.

Gusev again gave the Devils hope when he converted on his first try. Kyle Connor evened things for Winnipeg and in the second round, Brossoit stopped Jack Hughes and Blackwood stopped Laine. In the third round, Taylor Hall was stopped for the Devils and Scheifele was turned aside for the Jets. Kyle Palmieri then had the game on his stick for New Jersey, but could not convert in round four. Blake Wheeler finally finished things for the Jets, beating Blackwood in the fourth round.

In goal, Brossoit made 35 saves on 39 Devils shots. Cory stopped 19 of the 21 he faced and Blackwood 7-of-9. The Jets finished with 30 shots after only being held to four in the first period.

As a team, the Jets were 0-for-2 on the power play with no shots on the man advantage while the Devils were also 0-for-2 with eight shots. The Devils also managed a shot while shorthanded.

The Devils won 51-percent of the game’s faceoffs and outhit Winnipeg 21 to 13. The Devils also had eight blocked shots to the Jets’ six, but had more giveaways at 12 to the Jets’ three.

Subban led all New Jersey skaters in ice time with 26:21 (2:50 on the power play and 1:36 on the penalty kill). Hall led the forwards with 22:48 (2:50 on the PP).

Hall also led in total shots with six. Simmonds, Coleman and Vatanen led in hits with three each. Vatanen also led in blocked shots with two. Nico Hischier registered two takeaways to lead in that category.

Next up, the Devils will need to shake this one off because they next play Saturday night at Buffalo. We will see you here then for coverage of that game.