The New Jersey Devils fell to 1-4 in overtime this season. A team with Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, and Dawson Mercer is awful at 3v3 hockey. How is that possible?
The Devils overtime period versus the New York Rangers on Thursday night was terrible. There is no other way to describe it. The Devils lost the faceoff, but Nico Hischier made an amazing play to steal the puck a little over 10 seconds in. He passed the puck to Jack Hughes who made what we guess was a pass that went right to a Rangers player. We think he was trying to get the puck to Jesper Bratt, but he was nowhere near the puck.
The Rangers went on to dominate the rest of the period. Artemi Panarin just completely skated through two Devils and got a breakaway, and Jacob Markstrom stoned him at the net front. Mika Zibanejad also got his own chance all alone, and Markstrom made an insane glove save. Third time's the charm as Sam Carrick scored on a one-timer off a pass from Reilly Smith.
It was breakdown after breakdown and turnover after turnover in the overtime period. It was probably the worst period the Devils have played all season. And they had a chance to win the game on a Dougie Hamilton shot. It came after another bad period, as the Devils were very forcefully outplayed in the third period.
The New Jersey Devils lose to the New York Rangers after playing the worst overtime period we've ever seen.
The overtime woes are not new. Like we mentioned, the Devils have played five overtime games this season and lost four of them. That's dreadul. The Devils left four points on the table there. Even if they win four of those five games, the Devils would be five points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes and one point behind the Washington Capitals. Instead, the Caps clear them by four points with three games at hand. The Hurricanes are two points behind the Devils with two games at hand.
Because of the Devils issues in overtime, they are clearly the third team in the Metropolitan Division. They appear to be full-steam ahead for a matchup with the Canes in the playoffs. That should be fun.
Looking at the numbers, the Devils actually had some bad luck prior to Thursday night's game. They had just one high-danger goal against them in overtime according to Natural Stat Trick. The Devils are also ending games early, as they have just 13 minutes on the ice in five overtime games. It shows that the Devils chaotic play style doesn't actually work well in overtime, where puck possession is paramount.
Another interesting situation is the Devils have only taken seven faceoffs in overtime. They are not getting stops or plays worthy of stops. Again, it's just too chaotic and it's not working in their favor.
The Devils don't need to spend too much time on overtime, as this is not something they have to worry about in the playoffs, but they do need to practice with the offensive players. They keep making mistakes with the puck on their stick in OT. It's almost like they get too high during the overtime period.
If Sheldon Keefe can get the team playing the way the plays seem like they should be, the overtime period won't be an automatic loss. If not, then just score at the end of the game and avoid OT entirely.