New Jersey Devils Weekend Wrap-up and Observations

The New Jersey Devils are 4-1 coming off a victory over the Hudson River Rival New York Rangers. Let’s take a look at some of the big takeaways from this weekend.

Too Many Penalties

The New Jersey Devils lost to the Washington Capitals Friday night 5-2. The game was much closer than it appeared with undisciplined play costing the Devils. Everyone knows the Capitals have one of the best power plays in the NHL, and it was on display Friday night.

Kyle Palmieri scored 53 seconds into the 3^rd period which was immediately followed by a penalty. The Caps would score two power play goals in the 3^rd and end up burying the Devils.

This is a game that shifted on the Devils undisciplined play leading to two Capitals goals. The Capitals ended the night 3/4 on the power play.

Everyone knew going in the Devils couldn’t afford to take penalties, and it held true.

The Short Leash Continues

After a disappointing Friday night, Coach John Hynes was quick to try and turn his team around. After a miserable first period Hynes benched Pavel Zacha, Jimmy Hayes, and Marcus Johansson.

The short leash ended up working as the Devils turned the game around early in the 2^nd period. Despite being outshot (again) 31-19 the Devils continued to capitalize on the opportunities they’re generating in close.

Hopefully Zacha, Hayes, and Johansson view this as a wake-up call as the Devils face-off against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night.

The Defense is Starting to Take Shape

John Hynes has maximized his defense’s potential by shifting pairings around well. Playing Steven Santini on the first pair with Andy Greene has turned the top pair into the Devils shut down pair.

Doing so allowed Hynes to drop Damon Severson to the 2^nd pair where he and John Moore can act as a puck moving pair designed to generate offense. It’s working.

This chart is from Sean Tierney, @ChartingHockey on twitter, and it shows the Devils defense is essentially doing exactly what Coach Hynes wants. Greene and Ben Lovejoy were the Devils “shutdown” duo last year.

It really wasn’t effective but it’s clear that the Greene-Santini duo is doing a better job early on. That benefits the Devils in two ways:

It allows the Moore-Severson pair to face weaker opponents and increase offensive output.

It also allows Will Butcher to play in a more sheltered role with either Lovejoy, Mirco Mueller, or Dalton Prout. We’ve seen Butcher set NHL history as the first rookie with 8 assists in 5 games and his sheltered defensive role is likely what’s helping him exceed offensively.

Player Safety

The Devils are healthy right now, but it seems like they dodged a bullet against the Rangers on Saturday.

https://twitter.com/dockelley41/status/919944059304730624

More from Pucks and Pitchforks

• Should New Jersey Devils Try Load Management With Vitek Vanecek?
• New Jersey Devils Will Prove That Last Year Wasn’t A Fluke
• New Jersey Devils: Luke Hughes’ Playmaking Will Outshine His Mistakes
• New Jersey Devils: Chase Stillman’s Performance Causes Concern
• Can Devils Fans Separate Zach Parise Heartbreak From Achievements?

While Nico Hischier escaped this hit without an injury it was a dangerous play.  Luckily for New Jersey Nash’s elbow only caught the side of Hischier’s head but it was still an extremely dangerous play.

This is supposed to be the kind of play the NHL is attempting to remove from the game.  Hopefully we’ll hear something from NHL Player Safety on this at some point this week.  While the play didn’t result in an injury the potential was there.

Injuries result when plays like this go unpunished.

It’s obviously very early but the Devils are off to a red-hot start. We’ll see if they can continue with another tough matchup against Tampa coming up.