Devils Week in Review: Mom's Trip, Markstroms Milestone & Allens 200th Win

 

The Devils saw themselves get a well-deserved break from action after a successful trip down to Florida. They had four days off in between games which was their longest break since returning from Prague. On their schedule this week were two crucial matchups against Metro Division rivals who are chasing us in the standings.  They look to finish their gauntlet of a schedule on a strong note. The game vs the Hurricanes was Markstroms 500^th start of his career and started the mom’s trip for the team as well.

11/21 Devils vs. Hurricanes

They faced off at home against the Hurricanes who were playing the second game of their back-to-back. This season the Devils have struggled to take advantage of teams in this situation and the challenge was no easy feat against a team as conditioned as the Canes. This game was no different with the Canes dominating the first ten minutes of the period, they established their forecheck and neutral zone trap and outshot us 6-0. At the 11:30 mark of the first the Devils entered the zone on an odd man rush, where Noesen slipped a backhand pass through the D where Nico redirected it off the post and straight out. The Canes corralled the rebound and immediately countered on the rush where Pesce was banged up blocking a shot. Moments later the Canes got a shot through from the point and Roslovic out battled Pesce in front to bury the rebound. This immediately woke up the team, who went on to dominate play for the rest of the period dominating in shots, establishing offensive zone pressure and finding the tying goal. Jack entered the zone on a 2 v 2 and had the puck knocked off his stick and Roslovic tried to clear the zone but threw a pizza straight to Palat. Palat walked in a ripped a low hard shot which Jack was able to deflect out of midair and delivered a tape to tape pass that Bratt buried back door.

The Devils started the second period with an abbreviated 5 on 3, and this time it was Noesen to show of his hand eye skills. Jack received a pass from Bratt at the bottom of the circle where he laid of a saucey pass back door where Noesen batted it in from about a foot off the ice. The rest of the period was filled with both teams creating grade A scoring chances but not being able to capitalize. The closest both teams came to finding the back of net was the exchanging of stops coming from the post & cross bar. The period was ending when Paul Cotter took an unnecessary slashing penalty on Orlov with eighteen seconds left.

The Canes came out buzzing to start the third and used a set play off a dump in to tie the game twelve seconds into the period. While Svechnikov placed the puck perfectly into the top left corner, this is goal Markstrom would like to have back. He went into the RVH position which allowed Svech to find the far corner. Marky keeping his edges and overlapping on the post would have prevented that puck from going in. He did go one to stop the rest of the shots the Canes took, with his biggest and best save coming against Staal a few minutes after the tying goal. The Devils went on to take the lead after Spencer Martin misplayed a dump in and Dawson picked up the loose puck. He then laid off a pass to Dougie who was creeping in from the point and snaped a laser that beat Martin over the glove. Dougie was looking to place a shot here all night but put his first few chances above the cross bar. They then iced the game and when Bratt let one rip from the top of the slot over the blocker to give the Devils a 4-2 lead. The fans were hoping to see Bratt get his second hat trick of the season when the Canes pulled their goalie, but they were happy enough leaving the rink with 2 points.

11/23 Devils @ Capitals

The Devils and their moms took a quick flight down to the nations capital to face off against the Ovechkin-less Capitals for the third time of the season. The first two matchups the Capitals have been the kryptonite for the Devils defense & goaltending. Going into this matchup the Devils had given up 58 goals on the season in which the Capitals were responsible for 11 goals or about 18.96% of our goals against.

The game started out relatively slow with some 4 on 4 action and only six total shots on goal through the first fourteen minutes of the game. The Capitals broke the deadlock on a shot from the point by Matt Roy that deflect of Nolan Footes glove and completely fool Jake Allen. The Devils then went to work on the powerplay moments later where Charlie Lindgren came up huge against out first unit. PP1 ended up getting seven shots on goal which were all stopped with a few big saves by Lidngren. The PP2 unit came out with 29 seconds left on the man advantage. Timo and Luke overlapped with each other at the point where Timo dropped him the puck. Luke used his vision to hit Haula with a beautiful cross ice pace where Lindgren made another huge stop, but Tatar was there to put the puck across the goal line as it sat in the crease for a few seconds. The period ended with the Devils up big in the shot category 13-3 but tied 1-1.

The Capitals came out and settled into the game some more in the second period, forcing Allen to make a few big stops in the opening minutes. The Devils were able to break the 1-1 tie with a harmless shot from the point themselves that redirected off Carlsons stick a few feet in front of Lindgren. This was Dillons first of the season and thirty-eight goal of his career. The following eight minutes of the period, both teams exchanged shots on goal, but no one was able to get on the scoreboard. Bratt was able to draw a penalty as he drove behind the Capitals net and was tripped up by Rasmus Sandin. The first unit did not waste any time with Dougie scoring off a set face-off play. Nico won the face-off to Bratt on the left wing, who one touched the pass to Dougie at the point who ripped the shot low blocker.

The Devils looked to keep their perfect record of winning when leading after two periods intact. Paul Cotter went to the box for a slashing minor at about the sixteen minute mark of the third period. The capitals cut into the two-goal lead off what was deemed to be an own goal by Dillon and credited to McMichael. At this point in the game Jake Allen decided to step his game up and shut the Caps down for the remainder of the period. He made a great save on Mangiapane backdoor and his biggest save coming against McMichael with the goalie pulled. John Carlson found him creeping down the back door where McMichael unleashed a slap shot from one knee and Jake Allen slid over and robbed him with the glove. That was the last chance the Caps had, and the Devils secure the 3-2 win in what was Jake Allens 200^th career win.

Key Takeaway

The Devils took their hardest stretch of games and used it to continue to build and get better. After the 1-0 loss to the Sharks, many fans only saw 1 or 2 wins coming from these games. They ended up going 4-1 with two wins vs the defending champs and two huge wins vs division rivals. Not only were the wins impressive but in these games, they only had 1 truly poor period which came in the third vs the Lightning. I am excited to see if this team can start to put away the teams they should be beating when they face off against the Predators & Blues this week.