It’s been a long week. Wait, it’s Tuesday?
The New Jersey Devils turned what was already an exciting game on Tuesday against the Winnipeg Jets into a media firestorm. They put out a statement moments after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs, saying they were not going to play Connor Hellebuyck against his former team in his former home. Hellebuyck had a press conference on Tuesday, which didn’t answer many questions except to reinforce the fact that there were certain threats against him and his family that soured his relationship with the team.
Then, the puck dropped. Hellebuyck was on the bench, and the Devils had to try to get two points in front of a raucous crowd.
The Devils struggled a bit in the first period, going into the intermission down 2-0. Dawson Mercer scored, because of course he did, and Jake Allen didn’t look great. However, it was a complete turnaround in the second period. The Devils scored twice, with one coming off one of the best passes of the year by Arseny Gritsyuk, and the Devils should have been feeling good going into the third period.
We don’t know what happened in that second intermission, but the Devils stunk in the third. Mercer ended up scoring his second goal of the game, Nico Daws shut the Devils down, and the Jets got themselves the win on a very important night for them. Most of the NHL was rooting for the Jets on Tuesday, and it’s a feel-good win for a franchise that’s mostly been good.
A few bad people should not change how we look at an entire media market. Truly, this has to feel good for Winnipeg, and the Devils did not handle this in the best way. If Hellebuyck is in net, the Devils probably still lose, and that’s because they were dreadful in the third period.
The New Jersey Devils failed themselves in the third period
The Devils were dreadful in the third period. There were few, if any, dangerous chances that felt like they should have led to goals. This is very surprising since the Devils went into the period tied at two and lost the lead a little after the middle of the period.
According to Natural Stat Trick, the Devils had just six 5v5 chances in the third to the Jets’ 12. They lost the high-danger chance race 4-1, and the Jets doubled them up in xG.
It wasn’t a great effort by the Devils in that period. Mercer’s goal came on a too-many-men penalty, and there were more icings than we can count. It was sloppy, slow, and very unlike the Devils hockey we’ve seen all season.
This needs to be the kind of game the Devils erase and move on from. The media situation was mostly self-inflicted. If the Devils just didn’t release a statement, this would have been a small footnote in the overall media landscape. The Matvei Michkov story would be the biggest in the sport. Bill Guerin mentioning that keeping Quinn Hughes past the trade deadline would get a lot more traction.
Instead, the Devils and this loss are the biggest thing in the sport. That’s okay. Sunny Mehta is new, and it’s November 10th. If the Devils wash their hands of this, then the bad third period won’t be that big a deal. If it turns into something bigger, then know the rest of the league will never stop talking about this.
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