On Saturday evening, the New Jersey Devils faced a pivotal Metropolitan Division contest against a Carolina Hurricanes squad they’ve mightily struggled against. With a chance for a statement win, they instead floundered, falling 4-1.
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Power Play Woes Against Carolina
The Hurricanes ended the Devils’ 2024-25 season solely due to special teams. In their playoff series, Carolina’s special teams goal differential was +7. The Devils did not have a single power play goal, yet allowed a shorthanded goal and six on the man advantage.
While a Timo Meier quick shot did find its’ way through tonight, the power play once again mightily struggled. They consistently failed to enter the zone, leading to widespread boos from the crowd.
Even with Meier’s goal, the Devils are just 1-for-their-last-28 on the man advantage against the Hurricanes…and get this: since 2022-23, they’re getting outscored 7-4 on their own power plays. Wow.
“They pressure. They pressure hard,” said Meier. “They got a lot of guys with good sticks, and sometimes on the entry, you’ve got to put it in and go get it. They pressure all over the ice, so I think it’s important to be able to make some plays, roll off some guys, and catch them running around. And we didn’t compete hard enough to do that tonight.”
Jacob Markstrom Struggles Again
This season has been an absolute roller coaster for Jacob Markstrom. Unfortunately, the bad has seemed to overshadow the good.
Coming into the night, his .879 save percentage (SV%) was 36th among 38 goalies to play 20+ games this season. With the Devils already down 1-0, Andrei Svechnikov streaked down the right side. His shot — from 34.4 feet out at a 35.5-degree angle — went through Markstrom’s five-hole. Per Moneypuck, the shot had just a 5.9% chance of being a goal. It was just another of many instances where the Devils needed a big save and couldn’t get it.
When Timo Meier pulled the Devils within a goal, the building came back to life. But a few minutes later, Hurricanes forward Jackson Blake was in alone. Again, Markstrom had a chance to redeem himself, but instead, Blake completely undressed him with a gorgeous backhand.
While the game was likely over at that point anyways, with about 4 minutes to go, Markstrom awkwardly moved post-to-post and only was able to get a small piece of another Svechnikov shot, losing his balance in the process.
SVECH HATTY
— Carolina Hurricanes (@Canes) January 18, 2026
SVECH HATTY
SVECH HATTY pic.twitter.com/gNILhqPyw1
When all was said and done, he stopped minus-1.06 goals above expected, bringing his season total to minus-10.8. His SV% actually went up a point; it now stands at .880%.
*Sigh* Finishing…
Finishing has severely hindered this Devils team. It’s like beating a dead horse with how many times this has been brought up. But sometimes, the horse is quickly revived, just to die again:
In this one, the Devils scored 1.31 goals below expected. (via Natural Stat Trick) And that was against Frederik Andersen, who sported an abysmal .863 SV% coming into the night.
“We were in alone on their goalie six times tonight,” said head coach Sheldon Keefe. “As much as there’s not an abundance of offense or sustained offense, or lots of shots a bunch of times, some of our best people have got to make them count. The game changes significantly.”
This season, the Devils have scored 29.75 goals below expected and given up 7.81 goals below expected. Extrapolated, if they were just getting average finishing and average goaltending, that’s an extra ~37-38 goals to their differential. That would flip them from minus-22 (worst in Eastern Conference) to plus-15 (3rd-best in Eastern Conference). Essentially, their goaltending and shooting deficiencies are spotting the opponent around a goal per game on average. That can’t happen in a league with such parity.
Rightfully so, Keefe was frustrated after the game, saying to a reporter, “You’re not talking about any of this [process] stuff if we put some of those pucks in the net.”
Keefe can’t go out there himself and score goals. He can’t stop the puck either. The team desperately needs a finisher, but coming into the night, Moneypuck had their playoff odds at just 17%. Would one player make a big enough difference — with additional holes in the bottom-six, defense, and goaltending departments? Likely not.
Moving Forward
The Devils — now 24-22-2 — will head on the road to face the Calgary Flames on Monday (9:00 PM EST).
