Game 1 for the New Jersey Devils was an ugly one. The Carolina Hurricanes had 17 high danger chances to the Devils’ 6, and that was properly reflected by the 4-1 final score. To make matters worse, the Devils saw three players get hurt in Brenden Dillon, Cody Glass and Luke Hughes.
Related: 3 Keys to the Devils Defeating the Hurricanes in Round 1
“To a man, myself included, we’re all going to have to be better in Game 2,” said Keefe, who moved to 16-22 in his playoff career.
While the players ultimately were the ones who didn’t execute, it’s a coach’s responsibility to have them ready for each period. And in the second especially, that was clearly not the case. The Hurricanes had 10 high danger chances in that period alone, while the Devils had just two. “I thought that in the second period, we were just overwhelmed,” said Keefe. “That was not good enough. The third period was good, but the damage was done by then.”
When The Hockey Writers followed up and asked if that came as a surprise given the Devils’ number of players with experience, he clarified:
“No, I mean, to the degree that it was, sure. While we have veterans, we also have a lot of guys that are inexperienced in this environment. I think those were some of the guys that were overwhelmed and couldn’t get any real traction in the game.”
Later on, he specifically named the trio of Cody Glass, Daniel Sprong and Paul Cotter as one he moved away from in the third. They had a dreadful 3.91 expected goals for percentage (xGF%) – the second-worst output of any forward line so far in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (via Natural Stat Trick) Coming in, they had played just a combined 16 career playoff games, with a minus-4 rating.
Keefe also said to THW, “Listen, we’re going to get outshot probably every game in this series. That’s just the reality. This (Hurricanes) team is something like eight games out of 82 that their opponent outshot them. So we’re not focused on the shot clock. We’ve got to find our way to mitigate some of the pressure they put on us, and get through and get to our game a little more frequently, and then maximize the chances we get (…) but to me, there was just too much in that first part of the second period to really get to our game.”
Trending Upwards?
Keefe did start to find some combinations that worked in the third period. Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer and Erik Haula dominated the pace of play and out-chanced Carolina 2-0 in 3:54 of ice time. Similarly, Ondrej Palat, Nico Hischier and Timo Meier out-chanced them 9-1 and allowed just 0.02 ‘expected goals’ in 2:15.
It’s certainly not all on Keefe, as the Devils have been dealt a tough hand with the vast number of injuries. It’s not fair to hold a team without their best offensive forward and best defensive defenseman to the same standard they were previously held. But they knew what was coming in terms of Carolina’s style and tempo…and still got dominated.
Thankfully for the Devils, they can still right the ship in Game 2. In 2023, they came back from two games down to win their Round 1 series against the New York Rangers. If they were to face that deficit again, this Hurricanes team is too stifling to bank on having a realistic chance.
