Five observations from New Jersey vs Boston:
1. Ty Smith was better I don’t think there’s much debate his performance last night was a step in the right direction. Was he perfect? No. Did he show the offensive flashes you’d hope to see from a player of his pedigree? Not really. But his play in the defensive zone was significantly better. He wasn’t involved in a few obvious blown coverages. Check that, he wasn’t involved in *any* obvious blown coverages. The Devils didn’t give up a single high-danger chance at 5v5 with Smith on the ice. He played nearly 17 minutes in that game state, too, so it’s not like his ice was limited and it was an easy feat.
2. Michael McLeod put it together McLeod has been a mixed bag this preseason. On one hand, his shot contribution numbers have been at or near the top of the leaderboard for Devils forwards in each game. He has facilitated a lot of the offense – much more so than in previous years. Generally, though, the Devils were still giving up more than they were creating with him on the ice. That finally changed vs Boston. McLeod led his line with seven shot contributions (good) while finishing 3rd in Corsi For% (good) and 2nd in Expected Goals For% (good). I still don’t think he makes the final 23 but performances like that will at least make John Hynes and the front office think.
3. Jesper GOATvist continues to impress Every time I watch Boqvist I become more and more confident he’s ready to be an NHL player. There’s no doubting his talent. He’s also very polished for a player his age. I love the creativity, I love the playmaking – he made a nice play hitting Wayne Simmonds in the high slot, and another to create a Grade A look just outside the paint – and I love his ability to improvise when it looks like nothing is going to be there. The guy just makes plays. He has to be in the lineup opening night. Has to.
4. Goaltending strong again The Devils’ projected Achilles Heel has been anything but through preseason. I thought Mackenzie Blackwood was excellent last night. He stopped 30 of the 32 shots he faced (.938 SV%) and one of the goals went off Jack Studnicka’s face and deflected in. Not much could be done about that. Blackwood particularly stood out – at least to me – in the 1st period. The Devils no-showed and spent the majority of the frame in their own zone. They gave up volume and quality but it didn’t much matter because Blackwood was up to the task. Let’s hope he and Cory Schneider continue to play like this a week from now.
5. The Andy Greene - Damon Severson pairing had a tough night As mentioned previously, the Devils spent a lot of the 1st period in their own zone and Greene-Severson were on the backfoot as much as anybody. They had a ~8CF% through 20 minutes, which is hard to comprehend against a watered down squad. They found their footing a little bit as the game progressed but, on aggregate, it was still a really tough night. They finished with the worst xGF percentages on the team (~35%) and were on for the lone goal against at 5v5.
Shot contributions Below are the 5v5 shot contribution numbers sorted by line and pairing. It was almost shocking to see trigger-happy Miles Wood lead the way in shot assists.