Maple Leafs 2, Devils 1: Goalied by Stolie

The Devils largely played an excellent game against the Maple Leafs – but one key ingredient was missing.

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A few observations from New Jersey’s overtime loss to Toronto:

The Devils were goalied again

I thought the Devils were drawing the Maple Leafs at the wrong time. The Leafs, much like the Devils, have done a fantastic job of quickly righting the ship after a loss.

Toronto entered play amid their first two-game losing skid in six weeks and their superstar captain, Auston Matthews, didn’t score in either of them. Both factors felt like a death sentence.

The Devils needed to bring their best to the table from the word go to put them on a good path to victory. And they did.

Factoring in the caliber of opponent, that Toronto had dropped back-to-back games, that Toronto is the best team in the league when scoring first, and so on, I thought the Devils had their best start of the season.

They were absolutely flying for the entirety of the opening period. They dominated territorially, Jack Hughes had the puck on a string every shift, the defense was activating to create good looks, the Devils were making things happen on set plays out of faceoffs, and they even created multiple opportunities on the penalty kill. It was a clinic.

The Devils outshot the Maple Leafs 16-1, out-chanced them 18-2, and won the high-danger battle 8-0. It was as good of a period as they possibly could have played. And they didn’t get rewarded for it.

That summed up the game in its entirety. Obviously, the Devils didn’t dominate to nearly the same extent over the final 40 minutes. As a whole, though, they were clearly the more dangerous team.

They simply couldn’t beat Anthony Stolarz, which has been a common theme for opponents this season.

He owns a .926 save percentage and is one of the leaders in goals saved above expected, proving to be one of the best off-season signings any team made.

Jacob Markstrom was fine