The New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues met for the first time this season at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Jacob Markstrom was honored for his 500th game with a ceremony before puck drop. He received a Rolex and a silver stick to commemorate the accomplishment. Unfortunately for Markstrom, the happiness didn’t last long, as the Blues won 3-0. The Devils have continued a strange trend: winning 11 of their last 15, but all four losses were shutouts. Jordan Binnington stopped all 30 in this one, his first shutout of the season. He became the Blues’ all-time win leader, surpassing Mike Liut with his 152nd victory.
The Devils gave up a goal to Robert Thomas just 11 seconds in. It’s hard to fault Markstrom, though – Nico Hischier was tripped, which led to a 2-on-1, but it wasn’t called. Afterward, Sheldon Keefe said, “In my opinion, there was a missed call there.”
That seemed to deflate the Devils. Dylan Holloway scored about six minutes later on the power play to double the Blues’ lead. Ten minutes after that, Holloway scored again after Markstrom let up a juicy rebound. At the end of the first, the Blues had a 3-0 lead and Markstrom had stopped minus-2.34 goals above expected (via Natural Stat Trick).
ROBERT THOMAS NINE SECONDS IN!!!! pic.twitter.com/Kacqr2GJi3
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) November 28, 2024
In the second period, the play completely flipped, but the Devils had nothing to show for it. The Devils outshot the Blues 11-1 in the frame, but Binnington stood on his head. The score remained 3-0 after two.
The beginning of the third period was more of the same – the Devils dominated time of possession but couldn’t find twine. In fact, the Blues went over 24 minutes without registering a single shot on goal. The Blues finally got back on the shot counter, but the rest of the game was a snooze fest. The Blues were perfectly content with that, riding it all the way to their second straight victory under coach Jim Montgomery.
The Blues have improved to 11-12-1 on the season; the Devils fall to 15-8-2. The Blues will be back in action at home against the Philadelphia Flyers, at 7:00 PM on Saturday night. The Devils will play the Detroit Red Wings at 3:00 PM on Friday.
