The New Jersey Devils returned to action on Tuesday evening (Dec. 19) in hopes of gaining back some momentum following a tough defeat in their last contest against the Anaheim Ducks. Unfortunately for them, they fell short again and were only able to grab a point, falling to the red-hot Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 3-2.
Jack Hughes Struggles
Jack Hughes has established himself as one of the greatest players in the world. His 38 points in 25 games could help back that up.
But that’s why it makes it so difficult to point out that (for his standards) he’s struggled lately. If you take aside his hat-trick against a lousy and uninterested Columbus Blue Jackets squad, he has two points in six games coupled with a minus-5 rating.
Simply put, he’s human. There has been a lot of frustration in his game recently. His passes haven’t been as crisp and he’s turned the puck over a lot more. He’s often slammed his stick against the boards in anger, and even let it boil over against Anaheim, taking two penalties out of frustration.
Tuesday night, though, was his worst showing of the season. He had two turnovers which directly led to Flyers goals, the latter being Owen Tippett’s game-winner in overtime.
Head coach Lindy Ruff commented on his play afterwards, “I think Jack knows (the turnovers were detrimental), I don’t really have to say anything (to him)…it was an errant pass. It wasn’t a one-on-one play. It was a blind play that went to the middle (of the ice) and he knows, he understands, and he’s a young player that still has to learn too.”
With his rise to superstardom, it’s easy to forget that Hughes is only 22 years old. Every player has tough stretches, and this is one of them.
So yes, while he bears a lot of the blame for last night’s loss, he remains an integral part of this Devils team and deserves to go through rough patches, just like any other player. Being “Jack Hughes” doesn’t exempt him from that.
Fourth Line Thrives
Aside from the two Hughes turnovers, the Devils mostly played well. They dictated the pace for a majority of the game, as evidenced by their expected goals-for percentage (xGF) of 64.54% and a 25-13 advantage in scoring chances. (via Natural Stat Trick)
A big reason for that was the dominance by the fourth line of Curtis Lazar, Michael McLeod, and Nathan Bastian. All three of them spent nearly the entire game in the offensive end, save for maybe a few seconds. They all finished with an xGF% above 94% – the next closest on the team was Simon Nemec with 70.58%. They outnumbered Philly in scoring chances as well, a whopping 7-0.
McLeod scored the Devils’ first goal of the game, assisted by both of his linemates. The Devils’ other goal was scored on the man advantage after Bastian drew a penalty.
Bastian spoke on the line’s success afterwards: “When I’m playing with the guys I’m playing with, it’s a really simple game…it just comes down to winning all your 50/50 battles and desperation around the net, and we were lucky enough to get one tonight.”
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After going perfect in the face-off dot against Anaheim (12-for-12), McLeod won 16 of 18 (89%) in this one. That’s a whopping 93.3% success rate in the last two games, which now has him at 65.8% on the season — first in the entire NHL.
The top scorers on the Devils are going to have some off nights, Hughes being case-in-point. So for the fourth line to step up in the meantime was crucial, and the sole reason that the Devils were able to escape with a point.
Home Struggles Continue
This was the Devils’ 15th home game of the season, and they only have six wins. For a team that was widely considered to be a contender, that’s simply not good enough.
Ruff has continued to make it a point that they need to be better in front of the Prudential Center crowd, but the same results have repeated themselves. It really doesn’t make sense – they’re 10-5-0 on the road, where it would presumably be more difficult to win.
He’s repeated terms like “puck management” and “execution” over and over again. In this case, Ruff said, “We’ve had the opportunities to turn the game…part of that is being able to put the puck in the back of the net when we get (those) opportunities…”
The frustrating part about it is that the Devils have continued to make all-around strides in their game; the defense has become a lot more reliable, and offense has been more consistent. But it just seems that they continue to get in their own way, whether it’s untimely turnovers (like last night) or poor goaltending.
At this point, it almost appears as if it’s becoming a mental issue more than anything. It sometimes looks like the players are trying to do too much, rather than simplifying their game. That was exactly what we saw out of J. Hughes. The bottom line is they need to get better at home in order to be a playoff team, let alone a contender.
Credit Where It’s Due
Unlike previous Devils losses, there aren’t really a plethora of issues that came to the forefront in this one. Vitek Vanecek was solid and didn’t give up any bad goals. The powerplay converted on their only opportunity. The penalty kill was a perfect 3-for-3.
Aside from Hughes’ horrific night, they genuinely played well. And it speaks volumes about Philly’s stifling defensive play that the Devils were only able to score twice. While the Devils were creating great chances, it was often one-and-done as the Flyers always seemed to be making the right decision with the puck and limiting turnovers.
The Flyers are no joke – you don’t become 18-10-3 by accident. The Devils will need to be on their A-game if they want to get the better of them in their next contest, on Feb. 17 at MetLife Stadium as part of the NHL’s Stadium Series.
The Devils will be right back at it on Thursday night (Dec. 21) against a surging Edmonton Oilers team. There will be little to no room for error in that one, so the Devils will need to make sure their puck management and execution of minor details are exquisite.
