Devils 3, Penguins 2: Wedgewood stars in surprise start
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Five observations from New Jersey vs Pittsburgh:
Put on the spot
Mackenzie Blackwood was announced as the starter Thursday morning. He prepped all day for the game, took the warmup, and then…bam. Late scratch with an upper-body injury.
With almost no notice, Scott Wedgewood went from expecting a leisurely night on the bench to starting against a red-hot Pittsburgh team that entered play having won eight of 11.
He certainly didn’t look like someone thrown off by the late news. From the word go he was very comfortable between the pipes. The Devils started fairly strong and allowed him to ease his way into the game. That didn’t last too long, though.
While the Devils definitely had their moments, the Penguins generated a ton of offense over the final 40 minutes. They piled up 33 shots, 27 chances, and 11 Grade A opportunities over that time. That’s a solid game’s worth of action in two periods. It didn’t matter.
Wedgewood was on the ball, stopping almost everything that came his way. There were some scrammbly moments, for sure, but he never gave up on a play and stopped plenty of 2nd and 3rd chance shots.
He didn’t give the Penguins the lifeline they were pushing for, and they had all of five seconds to actually get back in the game.
Awesome performance from Wedgewood, who has been nothing short of spectacular for the team this season; especially considering expectations.
Wedgewood owns a .920 save percentage, miles above league average of .902, and has saved 3.5 Goals Above Expected through nine appearances.
Jack Hughes finally broke through
I think most would agree Hughes has played quite well this season. He’s had a ton of the puck and created chances in bulk – for teammates and himself – on a pretty consistent basis. It hasn’t always led to production; especially of late. Hughes entered play with just two points in his previous 10 games.
With Pavel Zacha out of the lineup, Lindy Ruff shifted some lines around and elected to put Jesper Bratt and Kyle Palmieri, the team’s two best wingers, on his line. It paid off.
Hughes posted a ~58 Corsi For%, piled up 10 shot contributions (2nd among Devils skaters), and scored a beautiful goal. And that’s just at 5v5. Hughes also picked up a power play assist, giving him his first multipoint game since…wait for it…the 3rd game of the season.
It was nice to see him get rewarded in a big way on the scoresheet.
Andreas Johnsson showed life
He only played ~10 minutes (again) but I really liked what I saw from Johnsson vs Pittsburgh. He was quick to the puck and very creative with it, assisting on six attempts (T-1st) despite playing less than all but Nathan Bastian (injured) and Michael McLeod (injury replacement).
Johnsson is quite skilled and has shown that in spurts throughout the year. I think Ruff’s concern is with his battle level/urgency getting to pucks. I don’t see any way last night isn’t a step in the right direction; he was all over it.
Hopefully this can serve as a building block and a step to start moving up the lineup.
A tall order
Janne Kuokkanen, Travis Zajac, and Yegor Sharangovich took on the Sidney Crosby assignment. I can understand why.
Zajac has played toughs for years and those kids have made real strides in recent weeks. I think Lindy Ruff was asking a tad much, though.
The attempt battle was close and they didn’t get dinged for a goal against while going H2H. That’s the good news.
The bad news is they deserved a worse result. In ~13 minutes of H2H time, Pittsburgh controlled a hair under 90% of the Expected Goals. They generated 13 shots on goal and won the Grade A chance battle 5-0.
If not for excellent goaltending from Wedgewood, the Pens probably score a goal or two in that time.
The Crosby line is one of the toughest matchups you can draw so perhaps they’d do a little better vs other top lines. But I’d be a little wary of throwing them to the wolves to the extent Ruff did (they were hard-matched and started the bulk of their shifts in the DZ).
Maltesers
Another game, another impressive showing for Mikhail Maltsev. He’s not super flashy, he’s just so effective.
He is comfortable with the puck on his stick and can make plays as a creator or a shooter. Without the puck, he’s seemingly always in the right spot and really takes away the middle of the ice. I’ve noticed that often while watching him play so I took to the numbers to see if my suspicions were right. Turns out, they were.
The Devils concede only 6.5 high-danger opportunities per 60 with Maltsev on the ice. That’s best – by nearly two HD chances – among the 24 skaters to appear in multiple games for the Devils.
A lot of you have mentioned he seems like the guy in waiting to play Zajac’s role and, quite honestly, you’re right. He looks capable of playing that type of role, and the numbers back that up.
Shot Contributions
numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and MoneyPuck.com
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I really have been happy with how Kuokkanen, Sharangovich and Maltsev have all progressed this year. Do you think Maltsev projects better as a center or as a winger? I think the other two project better as wingers in the middle 6 (or bottom 6), but Maltsev could go either way it seems.
It usually feels like there are two tiers of bad teams, ones that for some reason or another are just abjectly terrible (i.e. Senators, Sabres), and then others that what separates them from being a playoff team is that they just can't get to their game against other teams consistently. While you don't want to be in either group, theres a path forward if you fall into the latter. Even though this season has been rough, the Devs are finally starting to distance themselves from the first category and move firmly into that second one, thankfully.