New Jersey Devils Force Lightning To Play Undisciplined

The New Jersey Devils got under the skin of the Tampa Bay Lightning in their win Monday night. This caused them to make mistakes and end up in the box seven times.

The New Jersey Devils defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in game three of their first-round playoff matchup. It was the first Devils playoff win since game five of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals. It was a great win for a team that let their opponent dictate play a majority of the previous two games.

Things completely changed when the Devils played on home ice. They used the energy from the crowd to pick up their game. However, one thing was markedly different from the previous two games, the Devils successfully got under the skin of the Lightning. That caused them to play extremely undisciplined.

The Devils power play has not been very good this series. It still wasn’t great in this game. They scored on just one of their five power plays coming into this game, and scored one out of seven power plays on Monday night. A lot of that has to do with Andrei Vasilevskiy’s play, but two things come out of those penalties.

For one, and this is the obvious one, forcing the Lightning to take 14 penalty minutes takes away crucial time in the offensive zone for Tampa. They thrive on taking the momentum of the game, and controlling play in the offensive zone. It’s hard for them to control anything when they are a man down.

On the other hand, the Devils were able to tire out the Lightning by putting them on their heels for that long. That became a major factor in the Devils game-winning goal by Stefan Noesen. It came just one minute after the Lightning penalty kill ended, where he took a cross-ice pass from Taylor Hall and sent it past Vasilevskiy.

There’s no denying the Lightning power play has been the difference in this series. They scored five power play goals in three games. However, they’ve given up many more opportunities than they draw. They’ve given up 12 power plays in three games. It’s clear that the Devils are getting their opponents to make mistakes.

Just look at one play, that wasn’t even called on the ice, to show the bonehead mistakes the Lightning are willing to make because of their opponent’s play.

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That’s a clear spear, and a dirty play that should have been called on the ice. Victor Hedman, the Lightning lead defenseman, made this mistake with 90 seconds left in the game, his team down one and enjoying a power play. They had a perfect opportunity to tie the game, and Hedman was willing to put that on the line for a cheap shot on Nico Hischier. That shows just how undisciplined the Lightning were playing.

The Lightning dug their own grave on Monday night. At the end of the game, they completely lost it as things eventually went awry and players started to fight. Brian Boyle even got into a scrum with Mikhail Sergachev.

The Devils need to mimic that when they return to the ice on Wednesday night. If they can set up camp inside the Lightning stars, then the series will go back to Tampa even.