Pucks and Pitchforks
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New Jersey Devils Drop One In D.C.

By David Holliday

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - FEBRUARY 20: Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils takes the puck in the third period against the Buffalo Sabres at Prudential Center on February 20, 2021 in Newark, New Jersey.The Buffalo Sabres defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-2. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - FEBRUARY 20: Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils takes the puck in the third period against the Buffalo Sabres at Prudential Center on February 20, 2021 in Newark, New Jersey.The Buffalo Sabres defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-2. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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After a hard loss yesterday to the Buffalo Sabres, the New Jersey Devils have now dropped both of this weekend back to back losing a lot of the room they had with so many games in hand. The momentum is completely gone. On the positive side, they were awake this time for the early game and came out of the gates flying, but as time wore on it was clear who the better team was.

The Good

Aaron Dell had a fantastic game after being a surprise start over back up Scott Wedgewood. Putting up an above .900 save percentage as a third string goalie against the Capitals is a great way to start your season. It should give the Devils another option when Mackenzie Blackwood isn’t in the crease. Making 34/35 saves at even strength gives the coaching staff confidence in Dell. This is absolutely incredible and a Blackwood-esq performance. If the Devils’ could stay out of the box or learn to kill a penalty, it would have been a win and a lot of it thanks to Dell.

The top 6 is finally filled out with healthy players and the deployment on paper and going forward looks really solid.

Zacha-Hischier-Bratt
Johnsson-Hughes-Palmieri

While not filled with superstars, this inspires a lot of confidence moving forward especially with the ages of these players. The top line needs some time to get things together and for Hischier to get his legs under him. It is a very good idea to put three skilled players together and three players who can all play solid defensively. They can take a lot of hard matchups in every situation. It will be exciting to see if they can build some chemistry in the next week or so.

Jack Hughes continues to look like a star in the making and Kyle Palmieri is stepping up his goal scoring like predicted. He had good chances again today including a post and this line will continue to make things happen.

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P.K. Subban has settled down on the back end in a big way since the return which is huge to see even with the new depth the team has. After his first goal Saturday, he had a near miss Sunday but also was making smarter plays.

The Bad

The penalty kill continues to social distance from the rest of the league going 3/6 today and once again costing us the game. Every game fans can call it out but until the change comes and they don’t leave players like Alex Ovechkin in the open with no defender within 10 feet of him it will continue to lose the Devils games. Without a full on system change in this spot it will continue to fail and the players need to look at what they are doing here because at 5v5 the coverage is far better this season and there is no reason for it to regress so bad just by losing one player for 2 minutes or for thirty seconds most times.

Nikita Gusev scored today with 11 seconds left on a wide open net, but overall he had a terrible game. His hands and hockey IQ looked to have plummeted this season. It is hard to pinpoint what exactly is going on. He will need to settle things down moving forward and take his time making plays to stop giving away the puck after losing his top-six spot or will be looked at being either moved at the deadline or even taken out of the lineup for Kuokkanen.

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