New Jersey Devils Start Another Series Poorly With 5-1 Loss To Hurricanes
The New Jersey Devils started out another series with a 5-1 loss. This one was somehow worse than Game 1 of the New York Rangers series. The Rangers dominated thanks to the powerplay and a few bad Devils mistakes. Meanwhile, the Carolina Hurricanes just outplayed them all night. The Hurricanes might be banged up but they are still a good team and look like they are going to run away with this if the Devils don’t figure it out real quick.
The Good
The BMW line was the Devils’ best by a mile. Not only were they really good defensively, they had the only sustained offense on the team. Nathan Bastian and Michael McLeod played 18 minutes which they 100% deserved. Miles Wood played 13 without taking a stupid penalty. The Devils finished with 19 shots. Four were from Bastian, three from Mcleod, and one from Wood meaning the fourth line was nearly half the team’s offensive production. That’s insane.
They played physically and like always, McLeod and Bastian killed penalties and didn’t let anything in. They also chipped in offensively. Bastian had the team’s only shot in the first and got the team’s second, five minutes into the second period. That was the team’s first goal which was assisted by a smart little chip pass from McLeod. They were the only forwards who were going Wednesday night.
John Marino was a monster on defense. His pairing with Ryan Graves has been unreal in the playoffs. Marino’s block on Martin Necas in the first saved a goal, and in the second, he probably saved a second by blocking a wrap-around attempt. If this pairing wasn’t playing at such a high level this game would have gotten out of hand very quickly.
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The Bad
Getting one shot in a period is laughable, and the fact that it was not a real shot and just a soft dump-in that bounced to the net was pathetic.
This team was dominated 5v5 and no line could get much of any sustained pressure. There is just not a lot Lindy Ruff can do at this point. This team’s top nine is stacked even without Timo Meier. They got nothing going they just flat-out need to be better. If we have to keep saying the same things about the big guys not scoring, it would take a miracle to get this series to 6 games.
The powerplay was once again bad enough that if they could, they should decline them but barring that they need to shake it up in a big way. Jesper Bratt has done nothing, so get him off and toss Timo Meier (when he returns) in that spot.