Devils 3, Hockey Club 0: Clinical

The Devils put forth an A+ defensive effort in a shutout victory over Utah.

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A few notes following New Jersey’s shutout win over Utah:

The Devils locked things down 🔒

Utah didn’t just enter the game undefeated. The Hockey Club had been scoring at will and outpacing every offense in the entire league.

Utah scored 16 goals over the first three games of the year, finding the back of the net at least five times in each. And the Devils held them off the board entirely.

This wasn’t a case where they had a goaltending performance of the ages (although Jake Allen did play well, which we’ll get to) and made the defense look better than it was. The Devils largely suffocated the Hockey Club from start to finish.

At 5v5, in particular, UHC had a miserable time creating offense. They generated only five high-danger chances over nearly 39 minutes of hockey. Perhaps more impressive, the Devils didn’t give up a single Grade A opportunity at 5v5 during the 3rd period.

Utah had to go pedal to the metal to try and crawl back into the game and the Devils slammed the door in their face.

I mean, Utah amassed only 0.18 xGF in more than 11 minutes of 5v5 play in the final frame. They couldn’t make anything happen.

For the Devils to do that – sans Brett Pesce and, to a much lesser extent, Luke Hughes – to an offense featuring Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, Nick Schmaltz, Logan Cooley, et all is certainly a feather in the cap.

Sheldon Keefe has the complete buy-in of these guys. They’re playing as structured, and as stable, of a style as we have seen from a Devils team in a long, long time. And it is paying off.

Making his Case(y) 🧳