Last season, the New Jersey Devils found different ways to lose. This season, it’s been the exact opposite. With their 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, we can add buzzer beater to the list of different ways to win. With the game tied at 2-2, Ryan Graves found the back of the net with 1.4 seconds remaining in regulation to give the team the victory. Here are four takeaways from what was a well-played game by the Devils.
Devils With a 5-on-5 Performance to Build On
The Devils have not played well at five-on-five over the last month and a half. And much of the time, it’s been against teams they should be out-playing at five-on-five. Last night, they flipped the script, as they were clearly the better team at that game state.
The Devils came out of the gate looking sharp and played well in the first period until about the final five minutes. After then, it was generally all New Jersey at five-on-five. They had a 23-10 shot attempt advantage over the Blue Jackets in the second period and controlled 77.5 percent of the expected goals (xG%). It was much of the same in the third, as they had a 60.29 xG%.
By the time the final horn sounded, the Devils had a 71-45 shot attempt advantage (61.21 Corsi for percentage) and a 62.78 xG% over the Blue Jackets at five-on-five. Sure, it was against the Blue Jackets, who are firmly in the Connor Bedard Sweepstakes. But it was encouraging to see the Devils have one of their best five-on-five performances in recent memory. With the St. Louis Blues up next tomorrow night, they have a chance to build on this performance.
Vanecek Continues His Winning Ways
While the Devils were the better team last night, Vitek Vanecek still faced a decent workload. He didn’t always make the cleanest saves, but he made the saves, and that’s what matters. He came up big in crucial moments, as he did against Kirill Marchenko with about five minutes remaining in the third. Vanecek got enough of Marchenko’s shot with his skate to help keep the game tied. Otherwise, Graves’ goal probably doesn’t happen.
Vanecek finished the night making 31 saves on 33 shots while stopping 0.52 goals above expected. With the win, he’s 11-0-1 in his last 12 starts and has a .926 save percentage over that stretch. The Devils can afford to lighten his workload a bit for the rest of this month with the cushion they’ve built in the standings and Mackenzie Blackwood’s recent strong play. And it probably makes sense to do so, as the schedule gets much more difficult in March and once the trade deadline passes.
Graves & Marino Pair Returning to Form?
Before John Marino’s injury, head coach Lindy Ruff had a reliable shutdown pair he could turn to with Ryan Graves and Marino. They’ve been paired back together over the last couple of games. And while it didn’t go well initially, they looked like the shutdown pair they were pre-Marino injury.
Of course, there was Graves’ goal. But the Devils really controlled play at five-on-five when these two were on the ice; the team had a 29-8 shot attempt advantage and an 81.87 xG% in their 15:40 together. Marino looked the best he has since returning from an injury, as he was a defensive force. And it’s not like he played soft minutes; he logged most of his ice time against the Blue Jackets’ top line:
Graves finished the game with a game score of 5.10, ranked first among all skaters from both teams, while Marino was second at 4.46. That kind of play isn’t sustainable in every game. But getting the Graves and Marino pair back to where they were in the first half of the season will go a long way to the team controlling play at five-on-five consistently. We’ll see if it continues against stiffer competition over the weekend against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Winnipeg Jets.
Devils May Have Found His Third Line
With Jack Hughes still out of the lineup with an upper-body injury, Ruff has turned to a second line of Yegor Sharangovich, Erik Haula, and Fabian Zetterlund. They’ve played well as a unit but hadn’t managed to score over their previous couple of games. Last night, they broke through in the first period when Sharangovich scored to make it a 1-0 game.
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Even after Ruff made some minor line changes to start the third period, the Haula line remained intact. It was the right decision since they were again creating chances at five-on-five as they have been since Hughes’ injury. They finished the night with nine scoring chances and six high-danger chances as a line to go along with a 69.69 xG%.
Even once Hughes returns, this looks like a trio Ruff should stick with as the Devils’ third line. All three players seem to complement each other well, and they’re generating chances at five-on-five. If so, that could put Ondrej Palát and Dawson Mercer alongside Hughes, giving the Devils a threatening second line.
Devils Quick Hits
- The one line change Ruff made to start the third period was swapping Ondrej Palát with Tomáš Tatar on a line with Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt. I think it was more so to give Jesper Boqvist and Mercer some support, but keeping Tatar alongside Hischier is something Ruff should do more often. The two always control play at five-on-five as a pair, and they did so yesterday. The Tatar, Hischier, and Bratt line finished with a 66.67 CF% and 54.94 xG% in the third period. That trio has been one of the team’s best lines this season, so it’s worth keeping them together.
- The BMW Line (Miles Wood, Michael McLeod and Nathan Bastian) gets a lot of criticism, plenty of which is warranted, but they stepped up yesterday after a poor first period. They ended up above water in CF% and xG%, and McLeod was the one who made a great play to set up Graves for the game-winner. Credit where credit is due, and hopefully, the Devils can get more contributions from their fourth-liners moving forward.
- Palát is looking more like the player he was with the Tampa Bay Lightning. After undergoing groin surgery in October, he’s picked it up since returning five weeks ago. He collected the secondary assist on Graves’ goal and has 11 points in his last 11 games. His game score of 2.66 ranked third behind Graves and Marino yesterday, while his 78.82 xG% ranked second among Devils skaters.
The Devils’ road trip continues tomorrow night against the Blues in St. Louis. They’ll look to make it five of six points on the trip if they can pick up another win to try and help them keep pace with the Carolina Hurricanes, who are three points ahead of the Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
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