Win the battle, lose the war
Despite 5v5 success, the New Jersey Devils couldn't get their special teams on track and it cost them their season.
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The New Jersey Devils’ season came to a disappointing conclusion Tuesday night in Carolina.
After coming out gangbusters and piling up the high-danger chances while quickly earning a 3-0 lead, the Devils struggled to sustain their game.
It continually deteriorated well into overtime, where they looked completely out of gas, overmatched, and their season felt like a ticking time bomb only prolonged from detonating by Jacob Markstrom’s brilliance.
While Carolina was the better team over 80+ minutes, Game 5 was an epitome of the series as a whole.
New Jersey won the 5v5 battle (4-3) but were crushed on special teams, going 0-3 on the power play while allowing Carolina to score a pair of power play markers.
It’s almost fitting that the series-deciding goal was scored by Carolina’s special teams. Time and time again, the Hurricanes came through in those situations while the Devils could never get their units off the ground. That really was the difference.
The Devils were facing a 5v5 juggernaut but you wouldn’t have known it. The Devils outscored the Hurricanes 10-9 over ~280 minutes of play and were only outshot by 15, an average of three per game.
That’s next to nothing considering the Hurricanes play a lot of spray and pray and will funnel pucks and bodies to the net from anywhere.
New Jersey didn’t have the Hughes brothers or half their defense core, for that matter. Even some of the guys playing – most notably Jonas Siegenthaler, Brett Pesce, Dougie Hamilton – were fighting through injuries and/or shaking off the rust after just returning from long-term absences.
In simple terms, the Devils didn’t have their best player and the defense core was battered to an extent I’ve never seen before.
They still found a way to not only be competitive, but outright beat, an elite 5v5 side. And it was all undone by special teams.
Despite clicking above 30% sans Jack Hughes in March and April, the Devils looked completely lost on the power play each and every game this series.
The Devils spent nearly 30 minutes up a man. They only outshot the Hurricanes 20-9, out-chanced them 23-8, and never scored. Not once. They were the only team in the playoffs not to score on the man advantage.
I understand the Hurricanes are an exceptional penalty-killing team and creating offense against them is easier said than done. But the power play legitimately did the Devils more harm than good over five games, which is both unfathomable and inexcusable.
They had so many chances to come through and drastically alter the complexion of a game – or all but win one, like in the 3rd period last night – and they never appeared close to coming through.
It was a much different story for the Hurricanes, who scored six power play goals over five games, including the game-tying goal and series-winner Tuesday night. They were clinical.
This series did highlight flaws with New Jersey’s roster.
They had zero difference makers on the wing after Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt. As a result, they were forced to have Ondrej Palat and Erik Haula punching above their weight class with top-6 roles.
Center depth was also an issue (Hughes’ injury obviously factored in), and there was a lot of dead weight in the bottom-6. All of that capped the ceiling of the team and will need to be addressed.
However, it’d be ignorant not to point out the positives, of which there were plenty.
Nico Hischier and Timo Meier played elite hockey at both ends of the ice. Jesper Bratt didn’t have much to work with and still finished tied for 2nd in the series in primary points at 5v5. Jacob Markstrom (mostly) looked like a goaltender you can win a Stanley Cup with. Brett Pesce was a complete gamer. And Simon Nemec played his best, most confident hockey of the entire season. There was a lot of good to come from the series.
That won’t make the abrupt end to the season sting any less, nor should it. The Devils were right there and, despite all the injuries working against them, found a way to beat an elite 5v5 team at their own game.
Their reward – thanks largely to a pair of elite special teams units breaking at the same time – was being the first team eliminated from the playoffs.
Hockey’s a cruel sport.
As an aside, I want to thank each and every person for reading Infernal Access, passionately following, and supporting my work.
Without you guys, I legitimately don’t know what I’d be doing. You not only allow for this job to exist but make it so much fun and have me excited to get out of bed each morning and write. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
As usual, I’ll be producing #content all off-season long. I hope you’ll come along for the ride for what should be an eventful summer.
Todd - thank you for your incredible content throughout the season. You are THE go-to resource for the Devils.
Now, I need a favor from you. Fitzy, as he's affectionately known, has been with the Devils for 10 years. They've won a grand total of 7--7!--playoff games during his tenure as AGM and GM. Why should I have any faith that with him at the helm, the Devils will have any meaningful post-season success?
I think Fitz has to do a better job of drafting in early rounds - I know they have no 1st round pick this year, but I think they have 1 or 2 2nd rounders (someone please check). He seems to have had better success in later rounds. He also has to find the balance between what he did in this offseason (size/grit) and 2 offseasons ago (scoring/playmaking).