Why New Jersey Devils Have Pittsburgh Penguins Number

The New Jersey Devils came back from their break to put a beating on the Pittsburgh Penguins. What makes this team, which is at the bottom of the standings, so good against a certified playoff team?

It really just doesn’t make sense. The New Jersey Devils just put up a six spot against the Pittsburgh Penguins. They had their starting goalie Matt Murray in net. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin combined for more than 38 minutes on the ice. This Penguins team put out their best, and they were demolished.

This isn’t the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion Penguins. They are now 1-7-1 against teams in the basement of their division. It doesn’t help that they are 0-3-0 against the Devils, but seeing that they clearly play down to their competition is an issue for this team. It’s especially a problem since this team is barely hanging on to a playoff spot.

That’s beyond the point. The Penguins are playing down to some competition, but it’s clear the Devils are playing much better against the Penguins than they do against other teams. Look at their six goals tonight. Maybe two can be considered shots that should have been stopped. Damon Severson got a fluke goal by Matt Murray, and Blake Coleman put a snap shot past Murray as he was still getting set. Still, those goals happen.

The other four goals were just great. Travis Zajac has goals against the Penguins in every single matchup. He started the scoring here tonight. This goal shows exactly what’s different between the Devils against the Penguins and the Devils against every other team. They were extremely aggressive.

More from Pucks and Pitchforks

Steve Santini threw the puck into the zone, Miles Wood was aggressive against the boards and the puck came to him, he passed the puck to Zajac, who was racing towards the net, and he put it home.

That aggressiveness did not stop. The Devils faced two penalty kills in the first period, and they did not let the Penguins rest. The last time we saw the Devils, they were starting to sit back more on the penalty kill. This allowed teams to get set and put their plan in place. That’s not how the Devils did things on this night. They went into the face of the Penguins during every possession.

So, why is this so good against the Penguins, and why aren’t other teams doing this? That’s a great question, and we might have an answer.

The fact that this team has two superstars puts opposing teams on their heels. They don’t want to be aggressive because if they are Crosby and Malkin can make them pay immediately. The difference with the Devils is they have the line of Zajac, Wood and Blake Coleman who do an excellent job of backing each other up and making up for the slack one gives while playing aggressive.

This confidence allows the Devils to make moves for the puck. According to Natural Stat Trick, Malkin and Crosby had zero high-danger chances at 5v5 on Monday night. Garrett Wilson had four high-danger chances, but the Pens two top players did not record any. Crosby had two on the power play, but he still did not score.

The other factor is how good Keith Kinkaid plays when he takes on the Penguins. He allowed two garbage time goals that probably don’t happen if the game was out of hand tonight. Even with them, Kinkaid has a 3-0 record against Pittsburgh with a 2.00 GAA. His save percentage is a ridiculous .944. Kinkaid has only played better than one team this season, and that was Dallas who he shut out in their only matchup.

Next. Nikita Popugaev Must Return To North America. dark

Kinkaid shows flashes of his old self every time he plays the Penguins. It’s the one matchup where home-road splits don’t matter. Nothing matters, because this is a different team against them. Kinkaid was ridiculous for the first 40 minutes. In the third period, he faced a barrage, and kept his team ahead the entire time. He faced 15 high-danger chances, and stopped 14 of them. That’s ridiculous, to be honest.

Think about this. The Devils lineup had Brett Seney, Drew Stafford, Kevin Rooney, Mirco Mueller and Steve Santini in it. No offense to those players on their own, but the fact that all of them are in the lineup at once tell how hurt this team is. It didn’t matter, because the opponent was the Penguins.

Unfortunately, the Devils can’t play the Penguins every night. They only have one more matchup remaining with their division rivals. Now, the Devils need to see what they did this game, and put it into place during every game. The way they won Monday night is a formula to win every night.

Home/Analysis