Ducks 4, Devils 1: Finding Nemo

Simon Nemec's struggles were front and center in a losing effort vs. Anaheim.

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The New Jersey Devils lost by 3+ goals for the third time in four games Sunday night, falling 4-1 to the Anaheim Ducks.

Let’s get into some takeaways.

Finding Nemo 🐠

Somebody better pull out a map because Simon Nemec is lost. He’s had some stinkers this season but the performance we saw against the Ducks might well take the cake. He was an unmitigated disaster.

Nemec was able to get the ball rolling early, turning the puck over in the offensive zone with an errant pass. The Ducks’ most dangerous line quickly took the puck up ice and, just like that, it was 1-0.

That was a sign of things to come from Nemec. He spent shift after shift after shift chasing play in the defensive zone, getting hemmed in nearly every time over the boards.

It’s not an exaggeration to say every time I’d be taking notes and look back up at the replay, it was Nemec scrambling around the net while the chance was given up.

The numbers certainly back that up. Anaheim was able to out-chance New Jersey *checks notes* 15-1 during Nemec’s 5v5 minutes. 15-1!

Dennis Cholowski is not an NHL caliber player so that partnership didn’t help the cause. However, I am by no means going to let Nemec off the hook.

He had several disturbing turnovers and was as at fault as anybody for all the looks the Devils gave up.

Nemec only finished -1 in a 4-1 loss but the underlying numbers (11% xG share, 6.5% chance share) are much more indicative of his performance. He was a trainwreck.

Another slow start 🤦‍♂️