Lightning 8, Devils 5: Thunderstruck

The Devils had a lot of holes in their game Tuesday night and paid the price for it.

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A few notes following New Jersey vs. Tampa Bay:

The Devils laid an egg 🥚

Hockey is a high-variance sport where it’s not unusual for a team to play well and still be on the wrong end of an ugly scoreline. Last night was not one of those times.

The Devils were rested at home facing a Lightning team that was playing its third road game in four nights. Not only that, the Devils had the luxury of facing off against Jonas Johansson rather than Andrei Vasilevskiy.

All the stars aligned for a big bounce-back effort after a disappointing showing against the Capitals.

If the Devils, who made it well known how unhappy they were with their last effort, could come out and match Tampa Bay’s intensity, and use their fresher legs to sustain it, a comfortable win was very much in the cards.

Instead, the Devils gave up eight goals in a messy loss where they were completely embarrassed.

The Devils could not defend a lick against the Bolts. They conceded 37 shots on goal (a season-high for Tampa Bay) and 4.34 expected goals.

Those are insane outputs to give up at any time, let alone at home against a top-heavy Lightning team facing a big disadvantage in terms of scheduling.

Jake Allen wasn’t able to help the Devils mask their mistakes, posting a .784 save percentage in the worst performance we’ve seen from him. It was a burn the tape kind of showing across the board.

The good news is the Devils’ strong start to the year makes this kind of game much less dire.

They also have high-end reinforcements coming in Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes. Based on the last two games, it sure looks like they need them.

Jack Hughes showed flashes 📸