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Five observations from New Jersey vs Ottawa:
1. Not good enough
Pathetic. That’s the word that comes to mind every time I think about last night’s game. I know the Senators have been playing better of late – I wrote about their recent progress in my preview – but they are a rebuilding team seriously devoid of talent. They entered play with six wins in 17 games and only one of them came against a playoff team. They beat Carolina before getting trounced 8-2 by them two days later. The Senators are supposed to be bad and, well, they are.
If the Devils are going to make this season remotely interesting and dig out of their early season hole, they absolutely must beat teams like the Senators. Especially while rested and playing on home soil. Any remotely decent team takes care of business. The Devils didn’t and it’s hard to say they deserved better.
The Senators had more shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances, and Grade A looks. Not because they generated a lot – they didn’t – but rather due to stout defense. Yes, the same Senators team that ranks 30th in attempts against/60 and 28th in chances against/60 held the Devils to 38 attempts and eight Grade A looks, which still even felt generous, in better than 50 minutes of 5v5 play.
The offense was completely lifeless and did little to test Craig Anderson, owner of a .893 save percentage.
It was a truly awful performance.
2. The top line was quiet
Taylor Hall, Jack Hughes, and Kyle Palmieri have mostly been very good together. They were anything but vs Ottawa.
Beyond Hughes hitting Hall with a couple stretch passes to jumpstart an odd-man rush, or breakaway, they didn’t really do anything. Hall wasn’t his usual dynamic self through the neutral zone. Palmieri couldn’t find space to get any dangerous shots off. There was no flow or sustained zone time from the top unit.
All in all, they combined for just three scoring chances – not what you’d expect, especially against a team that had been struggling mightily defensively.
3. Nico Hischier continues upwards trend
I thought Nico was one of the best players from either side. With him on the ice at 5v5, the Devils controlled 73.91% of the shot attempts (17-6), 70.17% of the expected goals, and they managed to net one after he blocked a shot to help spring the Devils the other way. Hischier also drew a penalty and led all forwards with eight shot contributions. He was fantastic.
4. That kind of season
I’m not sure anything is more 2019-20 New Jersey Devils than blowing a lead at home to a bad team, and getting beaten by a ridiculous shooting percentage spike in the process.
J.G. Pageau, who averaged 14 goals per 82 games prior to this season, entered last night’s contest with a ~20SH%, which is obviously unsustainable. He did anything but regress, scoring on all three shots to push that number to 24%(!!!) on the year. Call me crazy, but I think goaltenders will be able to stop more than 76% of his shots moving forward.
That Pageau’s crazy run got crazier, rather than dying down, speaks volumes to the way this season has gone for the Devils. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
5. Nikita Gusev showed life
I’m not sure anything was more encouraging than the Goose’s performance. All season long he has been caved in at 5v5. Even on nights when he made a few things happen with the puck, the bad mostly outweighed the good. Not against Ottawa. With Gusev on the ice, the Devils controlled more of the attempts, expected goals, etc. than they did without him. Gusev was a big part in that, too, contributing to more shot attempts than all but Hischier. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come.
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