Game #41: Sad-sack Sunday – Vegas 3, Devils 2

Posted on January 6, 2019 by hasan4978
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1082060148749885441

Ironically as the season lurches further and further into irrelevance there’s less and less to say after each game. What’s to say after a game like this? Still no Taylor Hall, no Marcus Johansson and now no Mackenzie Blackwood spelled doom against a solid Vegas team on the road. Even after getting a 2-0 lead with the Golden Knights playing Malcolm Subban. You just knew no lead was safe with this defense and anyone other than Blackwood in net, and sure enough before the end of the second period Vegas caught and passed us in predictable fashion, with more bad goaltending, bad defense and bad turnovers.

To be fair the defense wasn’t really that bad today, only giving up 28 shots to Vegas. Usually it’s more like 45. However, for the second straight game Pavel Zacha had a horrendous turnover lead directly to a goal, and Keith Kinkaid gave up at least two stoppable-bad goals. Last year’s Spring heroics seem a long way away now. Then again, Kinkaid was bad last year before February so it’s not like he was ever going to be any sure thing to replicate his February-April success. While for Zacha, he darn well better cut out the defensive errors since his offense still leaves a lot to be desired.

Maybe it serves me right for getting a chuckle over Subban’s second goal allowed in the first period when BEN LOVEJOY of all people faked him out in front with a shimmy and turnaround goal, which gave the Devils a 2-0 lead after an early marker from Nico Hischier. I remarked it was nice to see bad goaltending from a non-Devil goalie from a chance. Too bad it wouldn’t last, as Subban made 36 saves and shut us down late – especially during what was basically a three-minute power play to end the game including 6-on-4 time with the net empty. Kinkaid for his part did not step up and get a game that was there for the taking.

Even before this afternoon I was a little disillusioned when I saw the standings and the fact we were ten points out from our nearest playoff competitors and would have to pass two of Buffalo, Montreal, Columbus and a hot Isles team. I said 2-1-1 was a bare minimum from this trip, now they won’t even achieve that. Our last road game happens to be at Buffalo, if there’s any hope left of making a pre-All Star break run it has to begin with a regulation win against one of the playoff bubble teams.

It sucks when games become irrelevant in January. We’ve had that feeling far too often this decade, and Derek’s getting that feeling again this season after a number of years of the Rangers being competitive. This is the first year I can remember being agnostic about the Ranger scores, in part cause they were expected to be bad anyway and also because we’ve been so bad ourselves. I didn’t even realize how bad things have gotten over there till my friend’s been texting me updates of their scores in recent games.

Of course we have more than enough problems of our own right now. With only four home games before the All-Star break I don’t have much worrying to do with tickets until the end of January but then it’ll be interesting to see how many games I can sell and for what. Thank goodness for the eight-game ticket buyback (for credit you get towards next season’s season tickets), I’ll probably wind up using all those games in February and March, assuming they don’t jack up the price of season tickets to where I consider not renewing.

I’m going with one friend to the Toronto game on Thursday mainly cause of the promo, another friend who’s a Blackhawks fan is buying my tickets from me Monday (thank god), and I’m even debating punting out (selling) the Flyer afternoon game on Saturday. Yeah it’s a great rivalry and will probably be a good game in a vaccum but what’s the point with two teams going nowhere? I wasn’t even all that upset with today’s game. I’ve passed the point of acceptance apparently. Plus I have other things on my mind at the moment which aren’t worth getting into.

Sure there’ll be things to watch in the second half – maybe Kyle Palmieri pushes for 40 goals, Nico continues to improve and other young players like Blackwood make even more of a mark. Sadly the biggest points of suspense left is what we wind up getting for rentals like Johansson, Lovejoy and Brian Boyle at the deadline, and where we wind up in the draft lottery after the dust settles.

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Game #40: Frenzied Friday – Devils 3, Coyotes 2 (SO)

Posted on January 5, 2019 by hasan4978

After getting less than four hours of sleep Thursday in the middle of a stressful weekend, I wasn’t even thinking of watching the Devils’ game in Arizona Friday. Particularly after their horrendous loss in Dallas two nights ago. So I wound up sleeping through the early part of the night but actually woke up in time for the replay on MSG+ or whatever they’re calling it now. I did see the final result before but figured I’d at least watch the superextended highlight version.

Essentially that’s what a late-night game replay is, they show the periods of the game where goals are scored and the most intense action (late third, OT/SO) and cut out parts of the early game that aren’t as action-packed. I did get at least a feel for the action, seemed like a bit of a weird game or as eventual SO hero Drew Stafford described it, a ‘greasy’ game. I do like Stafford but giving him the first star based on a game where he played just over nine minutes and only scored in the shootout is just normalizing the shootout as a ‘GW goal’ a bit too much for me, but whatever. After a rare road win it’s a good problem to have.

I was actually a bit surprised the refs and Toronto gave Nico Hischier a goal in the first minute plus of the game – granted, he earned it with a nice finish off a Kyle Palmieri feed but a sliding attempt by Clayton Keller to block the pass had already dislodged the net and resulted in no goal called on the ice. Correctly, the refs ruled it didn’t impact the play (and indeed arguably was a nonintentional intentional dislodging of the net caused by Keller), and gave birthday boy Hischier a goal.

Things went from good to shaky to bad though when an extended five-on-three saw Mackenzie Blackwood make some brilliant saves but one too many split stretches during that sequence resulted in what apparently looked like a slightly pulled/tight groin (fellow goalie Keith Kinkaid admitted as much in a postgame interview). Blackwood did stay in the game for several minutes after that but eventually gave way to Kinkaid, who as things have gone this season gave up a goal on his first shot although ‘credit’ for the goal should go to Pavel Zacha for a dreadful turnover in front of his own net.

For once, the D and non-Blackwood goaltending actually held up for the most part in a game where they outshot the Coyotes 35-25 despite that extended five-on-three (despite Travis Zajac and Blake Coleman both being in the box during it!), and Brian Boyle’s double-minor in the third period that our vaunted PK unit shut down. I say for the most part because a blocked shot led to a fatal two-on-one for the Coyotes in the middle of the period. While defenseman Ben Lovejoy actually did what he was supposed to and took the pass away while not overcommitting early, Kinkaid allowed a shortside dart by Christian Fischier to get past him to give Arizona a 2-1 lead.

It was Zajac and Coleman who got the Devils back on equal footing late in the period, keeping their poise on a broken play in front with Zajac getting the puck through a defender to Coleman who basically redirected it under Darcy Kuemper to tie the game. While I didn’t realize this while watching the replay initially, apparently during the second period the refs did disallow a goal by the immortal Blake Pietila with a (possibly quick?) whistle and we could have won the game in regulation instead of just being tied. Oh well…we might have blown it if we had to protect a third period lead anyway.

With the game tied, the Devils killed off the aformentioned four-minute PK but otherwise controlled the action late. Even in the dreaded OT the Devils were for once the better team, but of course couldn’t convert despite Nico being on the doorstep after some lovely work from fellow soph Jesper Bratt to get him the puck. Although the shootout has seldom been kind to us, at least we had SO specialist Stafford in the lineup, along with leading goalscorer Kyle Palmieri who’s improved at the skills competition the last couple years. Both scored while Kinkaid only had to make a pair of saves to seal the win. Kinkaid’s exaggerated can’t look reaction during Stafford’s winner said it all about how big a win it was for the team. Although they’re still far out of a playoff spot – essentially they’re 10 points behind and have to pass two of Buffalo, Montreal, the Isles and Columbus to get back in a playoff position – any extended run was going to have to start with at least a couple of wins on this trip.

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Game #40: Undisciplined Rangers get Avalanched 6-1

Posted on January 5, 2019 by Derek

With one eye on what amounted to a Finland 6-1 blowout over Switzerland in the World Junior Championship semifinals, I kept flipping back and forth between our team’s latest disaster and the poor Swiss. At least those kids will play Russia for the bronze later today before the gold medal game tonight between Finland and Team USA. I’m sure the Swiss led by leading goalscorer Philipp Kurashev (Blackhawks) will give it everything.

I just am not as certain what we’ll get the rest of the way from the Rangers, who ran into a Avalanche in a uncompetitive 6-1 loss in the rocky mountains. Prior to the game, Kevin Hayes got sick with coach David Quinn indicating the altitude and cold temperatures might have had something to do with it. At that point, my reaction was, “Oh well.” I knew what was coming.

Colorado didn’t wait until the second period like the Penguins did. They scored twice on a Cody McLeod boarding major penalty. He got defenseman Samuel Girard in the back of the numbers as the Avalanche blueliner turned to play the puck. The end result made it look much worse.

The Rangers penalty kill wasn’t able to bail McLeod out. After killing off the first two minutes, they gave up power play goals to Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. MacKinnon scored his 25th from Tyson Barrie and Gabriel Landeskog when he used a Ranger as a screen for a great wrist shot past Alexandar Georgiev. Poor Georgiev deserved a better fate than the six goals he allowed on a ridiculous 47 shots. Eighteen of which were down a man due to a unbelievable amount of undisciplined penalties. The Avalanche lived in the power play going 3-for-10.

It’s kinda pathetic when you can’t stay out of the penalty box. The Rangers never gave themselves a chance. Especially against the world class skill the Avalanche present. Normally, our players do a better job in front of Georgiev. Not on Friday night. He made 41 saves and played well despite a barrage of shots. It was a huge discrepancy the first two periods. Colorado held a 16-3 edge in shots in the first with goals from MacKinnon and Rantanen having them up by two. It could’ve been much worse. So many bad penalties were taken. That included Pavel Buchnevich, Mats Zuccarello and Chris Kreider.

Astonishingly, Colorado’s only goal in the second came at even strength when Landeskog had a Erik Johnson one-timer deflect off him past a helpless Georgiev for a 3-0 lead. Even though they were a little better getting seven shots on Philipp Grubauer, they were outshot 17-7 for a two period total of 33-10. The worst aspect is every time I turned it on, Colorado scored. Talk about bad timing.

Quinn spoke about how his team didn’t quit. That is sadly true. They wound up with more shots (15) in the third than the first two periods. Ryan Strome also scored their only goal when he converted his fifth unassisted on a clean breakaway. However, Colorado was leading 5-0 by that point. Alex Kerfoot redirected a J.T. Compher shot to make it 4-zip. Then following a foolish cross-checking minor Kreider took on MacKinnon, Rantanen tipped home the Avs’ third PPG for his 19th from Barrie and MacKinnon.

The only goal I didn’t see was the all too predictable first and probably only goal from former Ranger Ryan Graves. Graves never even got into a game last year before the organization dealt him to Colorado for nobody Chris Bigras. Who? Exactly.

Nice assist by Zuccarello below. He stinks at five-on-five. It’s sad to watch him. They’ll be lucky if they get a third round pick at this point. He’s clearly not into it and some of his play at even strength shows.

Graves certainly had plenty of reasons to celebrate and smile. He’s now played in five more games than he ever played in New York. Good for him.

It was a night of milestones for the home team with Graves getting his first NHL point (goal) and Barrie (3 assists) passing John-Michael Liles for the most points (278) by an Avalanche defenseman.

For the Rangers, the game wasn’t fun. Filip Chytil replaced Hayes at center on the second line. Due to all the penalties, he only played 12:23 with four shots, and went 5-for-9 on draws. The only part I liked was seeing Vladislav Namestnikov mix it up with Rantanen in front of the benches. I wish more of our guys played with his passion every shift.

No three stars. There’s no point. At least first round pick Vitali Kravtsov has looked good in the WJC. He had eight shots in Russia’s 2-1 loss to USA. A nail biter of a semifinal between classic rivals. We’ll see if the Americans can deliver a fifth gold medal Saturday night starting at 8 EST/5 local time in Vancouver. Tune in on NHL Network.

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BREAKING: Devil coach Hynes signs contract extension

Posted on January 3, 2019 by hasan4978
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1080858856643874817

This season I’ve been sticking to game recaps/reviews but had to interrupt the normally scheduled programming for a breaking news update of moderate importance. Of all things, I found out about coach John Hynes’ extension while listening to WFAN during the 11 AM update, host Evan Roberts made mention of Devil news and I was worried it had to do with either Taylor Hall’s injury or an update on Andy Greene who also left last night’s game due to injury. When I heard in fact it was an extension for Hynes, I was…bemused to a degree.

I haven’t been as anti-Hynes as a lot of Devil fans this season and still like and respect the man personally, but to be honest last night’s game really soured me a lot on the current staff including the head coach. When you have veteran defensemen continually making rookie mistakes, they’re either not getting taught anything or the system is just horribly wrong. I never figured he was getting fired in-season, mainly because the win-now urgency clearly isn’t there from the organization. Not to mention there really wasn’t anyone on the staff worthy of even being an interim in-season replacement. And as I’ve said before Joel Quenneville was a pipedream, no GM is going to hire a high-wattage head coach and pay him more money/give him more control and clearly Shero has prerogative in hiring and firing coaches unlike some organizations (cough Philly cough).

I wasn’t neccesarily expecting an in-season extension either but it probably isn’t a real surprise given his contract was likely up at the end of the year (he was hired four years ago and hadn’t been extended before so this was likely an option year or his last year on his initial contract). With word coming out it was a multi-year extension, it’s safe to say Hynes is now under contract at least through the end of 2020-21. You can argue whether or not Hynes’ ills and the team’s step back this year was because of goaltending, or decisions made above him with GM Ray Shero’s quiet offseason. If there is a good thing about this extension it’s that Shero didn’t scapegoat Hynes for his own failings toward making the team better this season compared to last year.

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Game #39 Penguins blow out Rangers 7-2

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Derek

When I saw this game on the schedule, I knew what to expect. The Penguins have been red hot lately. Even the two consecutive road wins the Rangers had over the Predators and Blues to end last year, didn’t mean anything. They were out played by the Blues badly with only Henrik Lundqvist bailing them out for a 2-1 win.

When you face an explosive rival such as the Pens, you’re not gonna get away with it. Sadly, the Rangers played the Penguins on even terms through a scoreless first period. The roof caved in literally in the second period. They were outscored 4-1 by the Pittsburgh machine. As I was taking in the wild conclusion of Finland stunning Canada 2-1 in the World Junior Championship quarters, I kept getting text updates with Pittsburgh goals. They came in with rapid fire over the final two periods- turning a competitive game into a 7-2 blowout over the Rangers at MSG on national TV.

Why the executives at NBCSN thought it was a good idea to show our team against the Pens is inexplicable. I guess it’s similar to NHL Network not at least providing a scoring update of Finland’s dramatic overtime win over Canada during the second period of USA’s 3-1 quarterfinal victory over Czech Republic.

On a day they revealed that Henrik Lundqvist would represent our team at the All-Star Game in the four division format, he had what he claimed was his “worst game.” It wasn’t all his fault. These things happen. It didn’t take long for the Rangers to implode in the second period. Consecutive goals from Zach Aston-Reese and Jake Guentzel (off Marc Staal) made it 2-0. A dreadful turnover at the Rangers blueline allowed Kris Letang to score his ninth unassisted with a clear path shot by Lundqvist over a minute later.

Ryan Strome temporarily stopped the Pens’ momentum with a neat deflection of a Brady Skjei point shot 26 seconds later to make it 3-1. But that was short-lived. Less than three minutes later, Dominik Simon finished off his fifth from Evgeni Malkin and Patric Hornqvist for a 4-1 Pittsburgh lead.

There were so many blown assignments in last night’s forgettable game. Even the normally reliable Kevin Hayes was late picking up Simon on his goal. Staal was on for two goals against with partner Neal Pionk. Though the Guentzel tally was unlucky due to Staal doing his job covering Bryan Rust, only to have the puck go off his stick and in.

That’s what happens when you lose badly. It wasn’t their night. I couldn’t understand why Lundqvist was left in for the start of the third. Interestingly, he took most of the blame for the six goals he let in on 18 shots, indicating the the team didn’t play that badly. They led in shots 24-15 after two periods. However, coach David Quinn took him off the hook by blaming himself for keeping Lundqvist in. He even went as far as to say he shouldn’t have played him due to all the saves he made the previous two games. That kind of accountability from both coach and star player is commendable.

Unfortunately, Lundqvist was victimized for two more before giving way to backup Alexandar Georgiev (6 saves on 7 shots). He had Malkin bang into him after his weird shot went by him to make it 5-1 just 63 seconds into the third. Even though Pavel Buchnevich got it back with his seventh only 19 seconds later on a rebound of a Fredrik Claesson shot, the nightmare wasn’t over. Tanner Pearson ended Lundqvist’s night with a power play goal from Letang and Guentzel at 4:40. It was a unscreened shot that whizzed by our poor goalie. Yikes.

Sidney Crosby closed out the scoring by beating three guys to a spot for a rebound past Georgiev for his 19th. It was bad. Much earlier in the contest when it was scoreless, he slew footed Jesper Fast for a tripping minor and complained about it. I don’t get why.

Filip Chytil returned and was minus-two with three shots. Jimmy Vesey was a healthy scratch along with Tony DeAngelo and Brendan Smith.

The Rangers will burn the DVD of this one. They now hit the road. Colorado is up first on Saturday. The same night as the gold medal game in Vancouver. I think you know which one I’ll be watching. Some of our prospects could be playing in the championship game. Vitali Kravtsov has been a standout player for Russia, who posted a blowout win over Slovakia to set up a must see semifinal against USA tomorrow. The other semifinal is surprising Switzerland, who upset Sweden 2-0, against Finland.

Tune into NHL Network for both games.

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Game #38: Weird Wednesday – Stars 5, Devils 4

Posted on January 3, 2019 by hasan4978

If there was ever a night to scratch your head over a tale of two games, last night in Dallas was that night.

Perhaps even more noteworthy than yet another Devils road defeat is just how striking the difference was in the first half to the second half in the run of play and shots allowed. From the time Kyle Palmieri scored early in the game it was all Dallas after that for the first twenty-seven or so minutes. At one point, the Stars registered twenty-four straight shots on goal. That’s not a typo. For over an entire period’s worth of hockey the Devils didn’t register a single shot on net, and the Stars’ defense isn’t exactly what you’d compare to the ’76 Canadiens as the second half of the game proved.

Of course it was this first half, and the non-effort tacked on with a contreversial result-based major called on Miles Wood that led to the Devils finally getting in a deserved hole – despite heroic goaltending from Mackenzie Blackwood (again). The fact it was only 1-1 in the second period before Wood got into the act was remarkable enough. Unfortunately, it was at this juncture that Wood hit Jamie Benn late and got tagged with a five-minute major despite it not being with an elbow, to the head or against the boards. Likely it would have been a two-minute major if Benn didn’t have to leave the ice with a concussion. Or perhaps prior history was taken into account since it was these same two players that got in an old-fashioned scrap early in the season at the Rock.

Whatever the case, the resulting five-minute major led to two goals. Although only one of them actually dented our second-ranked PK, since a Dallas penalty did cancel out the first couple minutes of the major, leading to a four-on-four. Not that it helped our defensive coverage any. Can you tell what Damon Severson was doing on the game’s first goal earlier on? Or where either defensemen was on the second when Stars rookie sensation Miro Heiskanen danced through the middle of the ice to score? Heiskanen by the way, is also a defenseman.

Perhaps our ‘defensive’ core has visions of doing fancy stuff like that. Of course I benched Heiskanen in one of my fantasy leagues last night, not cause he was playing us but because his role had diminished lately with the return of John Klingberg. After Tyler Seguin added a third goal toward the end of the long power play it looked as if last night was about to get out of hand. Hell I wanted them to pull Blackwood right then, not for inefficiency on his part but a lack of effort and competence on everyone else’s. And because I didn’t really feel like having him get tagged with six or seven goals and dent his confidence.

For some reason it was only after we were down 3-1 that the Devils decided to start playing and immediately the tide turned swiftly and dramatically. Before the end of the period the Devils had scored three goals to eventually tie the game, although not without further defensive incompetence from Severson and Will Butcher on the Stars’ fourth goal (yes this is becoming a pattern), with Butcher getting caught trying to push the play up ice and Severson being slow to recognize the danger in front.

Yet none of that was as bad as what happened in the third period when Sami Vatanen provided the coup de grace of bad defense on the night, for reasons known only to him trying to push forward off a lost faceoff and leaving the front of the net wide open for that man Heiskanen again. His goal wound up sealing our fate, despite the fact the Devils wound up outshooting the Stars 32-13 in the latter part of the game after the disgraceful opening. It was a result Blackwood didn’t deserve, but the rest of the team – particularly this joke of a defense – did. It wasn’t a result this team could afford if they have any delusions of grandeur of getting back into the playoff hunt before the trade deadline.

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Game #38 A Happy Henrik New Year: Rangers edge Blues 2-1

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Derek

Sometimes, you’re only as good as your goalie. For the Rangers, they can thank Henrik Lundqvist for last night’s 2-1 victory over the Blues. It was indeed a Happy Henrik New Year with our franchise netminder standing on his head by making 33 of 39 saves the last two periods to preserve the team’s second straight road win in regulation.

Without him, it would’ve been a forgetful night. After a strong performance in Nashville, Lundqvist pulled within two wins of thing Terry Sawchuk for sixth on the all-time wins list. He won number 443 by stoning a disappointing St. Louis team that has difficulty scoring.

It’s hard to fathom that with Ryan O’Reilly, Vladimir Tarasenko, Brayden Schenn, Jaden Schwartz and David Perron, they are inconsistent offensively. Only O’Reilly and Perron have performed up to expectation. No wonder there are trade winds swirling on the Blues considering breaking it up and starting over. Tarasenko and Alex Pietrangelo could be on the block.

I doubt outshooting the Rangers 40-23 helped their confidence. In fact, after a first period that saw the Blueshirts outshoot the Blues 14-7, they outshot us by a wide margin the rest of the way. It’s crazy to think St. Louis held a ridiculous 33-9 edge the final two periods. They didn’t score on one of the 33 shots against Lundqvist. Absurd. He was that good.

St. Louis beat him just once. It took a well executed play too. Perron fed a covered O’Reilly for a good one-timer that went in for his 15th to give the home team the lead at 10:08. Like I said, the coverage was good. Nobody did anything wrong. It was simply a good shot by O’Reilly, who’s having his best year after coming over from Buffalo. Jesper Fast was on him.

A game changer was a late power play goal from Mats Zuccarello at 19:40. On the play, Chris Kreider did all the work by skating to the left and in one motion making a terrific pass across for a Zuccarello one-timer that beat Jake Allen. Just his fourth of the season. It was his first goal since Oct. 30. For the year, he has four goals and 10 assists for 14 points in 25 games. Encouraging is he’s looked better the past three. A good sign with the trade deadline eight weeks away.

For the first time this season, coach David Quinn scratched rookie Filip Chytil. Citing that he’s hit a lull as evidenced by just over 10 minutes in the recent win at Nashville, he decided to give Chytil a night off. Replacing him was gritty rookie Boo Nieves. Ironically, he scored his second for the game-winner only 3:11 into the second. Taking a pass from Ryan Strome at the point, Nieves made a strong move and beat Allen with a good backhand for the game-winner. On the winning play, Cody McLeod parked himself in front as a perfect screen to distract Allen. That type of gritty work is why the team continues to have more success with McLeod in the lineup. They improved to 13-6-0 with him playing on the fourth line.

Admittedly, I didn’t catch much of the final two periods due to the exciting Russia game versus Canada in the World Juniors. A game won by Russia 2-1. Rangers top prospect Vitali Kravtsov had a primary assist on Russia’s tying power play goal. He’s had a good tournament with five points in four games. Russia plays Slovakia in the quarters. Canada must face Finland. For more WJC coverage, please refer to Hockey Prospects. I’ll have a review of USA’s big 4-1 win over Finland up later.

St. Louis certainly created some excellent opportunities to tie the game in crunch time. But a stingy Lundqvist wouldn’t allow it. Following a loose puck that hit the goalpost, he thwarted Schwartz from in tight by closing up the five-hole. His rebound control was superb.

After the final sequence, Lundqvist gave a stick tap to the goalpost before getting congrats from his happy teammates. It was nice to see. He was number one, number two and number three star.

Kevin Shattenkirk also returned just in time to face his former team where he had some good memories as a Blue. He picked up a secondary assist on Nieves’ winner in over 16 minutes played. Tony DeAngelo played over Fredrik Claesson with Brendan Smith the other healthy scratch.

BONY 3 STARS:

3rd 🌟 Ryan O’Reilly, Blues (15th of season, +1 in 21:25 with 13 of 22 draws won)

2nd 🌟 Boo Nieves, NYR (2nd goal of season for game-winner in over 10 minutes)

1st 🌟 Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (39 saves including the last 33)

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Game #37 – Merry Monday: Devils 4, Canucks 0

Posted on December 31, 2018 by hasan4978
https://twitter.com/NJDevils/status/1079845521085399044

Another home start, another shutout. The Mackenzie Blackwood hype train is officially moving at high-speed now after becoming the first Devils goalie since Martin Brodeur (in 2010!) to post back-to-back shutouts.

Honestly I didn’t know what to expect in today’s game, with the Devils going up against a Canucks team that’s been better than expected (which is to say they were expected to be bad and are mediocre), thanks to the breakout of Calder favorite Elias Pettersson. While the two teams aren’t rivals, they do have a Prudential Center connection, thanks to the Canucks and Devils’ draft-day trade of Cory Schneider for the #9 overall pick in 2013. Showing how hindsight is everything in some cases, at the time it was hailed as a steal for the Devils and a massive underpay for Vancouver. Of course, as things worked out the Canucks picked Bo Horvat with that pick, and he’s fast become a legit top-line center while Cory’s own game has fallen off dramatically in the last couple years.

Another case of heavyweight hindsight nonsense is now the people who are pining over the fact we didn’t somehow get Pettersson instead of Nico Hischier in last year’s draft. While certainly Pettersson has burst onto the scene dramatically this year and has none other than Wayne Gretzky making self-comparisons, drafting is an inexact science. You don’t always get the best player at #1, such is life. You can only make the best pick you can with the information you know and at least 99% of pundits had Nico and Nolan Patrick going in the top two spots. God help Devil fans if Nico and Nolan’s current production had been reversed. Nico’s been nothing but a solid top six center so far and still has more than enough time to grow into even more. Sometimes you just gotta be happy with what you got.

If this were early in the season, no doubt Pettersson would have embarassed us to the tune of multiple goals and points to further rub it in (and Cory would have been lit up) but the Devils gave one of their most confident performances of the season in this shutout win, only allowing the Canucks twenty-five shots on net. New Jersey jumped out to an early lead with goals from Brian Boyle and Miles Wood in the first period and never looked back, though Blackwood had to hold the fort in a nervous second period. Still, it was a rare game without any third-period drama as one-timer goals from Sami Vatanen and a suddenly hot Pavel Zacha put the game safely on ice early in the third period. For good measure, Wood and Vatanen’s goals were both on the power play. Is the Earth rotating off its axis on New Year’s Eve? TWO power play goals?!

Finally the Devils have a three-game winning streak for the first time since the beginning of the season, but as the team begins a four-game road trip through Dallas, Arizona, Vegas and Buffalo the question remains whether this team’s improvement is coming too late to salvage anything tangible out of the 2018 season. Especially with Taylor Hall and Marcus Johansson missing another game today and their status for the road trip is still uncertain. I don’t want to play the game of ‘well they’re a playoff contender if you pro-rate their record in games not played by Cory’ since it’s not likely they would have won many of Cory’s games with another goalie anyway but it is a breath of fresh air finally having a goalie that can stop pucks. As things stand now they’re still eight points out of the last playoff spot with a bunch of teams to jump over.

Before I can discuss the playoffs seriously the Devils have to do two things…get back over NHL .500 overall (currently 15-16-7), and improve the road record which is still awful with just four road wins in nineteen games. This team, or at least the nucleus of this team has it in them to play well on the road, they did so last year. If they’re really going to be a factor going forward in the second half they have to make a statement on this upcoming trip and do no worse than 2-1-1.

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Game #37: A Statement third period gives Rangers deserving 4-3 road win over Predators

Posted on December 30, 2018 by Derek

Jesper Fast celebrates one of his two goals with Mika Zibanejad in a Rangers 4-3 road win over Nashville. AP Photo via Getty Images

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot going into Nashville. Anyone who’s followed this team knows how much of a disaster they’ve been on the road. On paper, it seemed like a mismatch. Maybe for that reason, I was more focused on the Canada vs Czech Republic game in the World Junior Championship. Plus the big clash between Team USA and Sweden, which lived up to the hype thanks to an amazing comeback by our country in a 5-4 overtime loss.

Sometimes, when you least expect it, your teams rise to the occasion to surprise you. That is exactly the scenario that played out in Nashville. The Rangers showed a lot of character and heart in coming back for a well deserved 4-3 road win over the Predators. Even more significant is that it was their first road victory in regulation.

Look who they did it against. I know the Predators have been struggling. But they’re a very good team that should be in the hunt next Spring. They just got back Viktor Arvidsson and P.K. Subban. One would think they’ll come out of the funk they’re in soon. It didn’t happen on Saturday night due to a relentless bunch of scrappy Blueshirts, who refused to lose.

Maybe the best thing for them was to get away from MSG. All the frustrating overtime losses had left our players at a loss for words with John Giannone. One look at Henrik Lundqvist the other night and I remarked that they should remove all sharp objects away from him. Haha. Kevin Hayes sounded even worse following the faceoff screw job. Considering that I saw an even worse screw job last night in the St. John’s/Seton Hall game, I’m becoming numb. That btw was the worst officiated game I’ve ever seen. Nothing else needs to be said.

The road can present unique challenges for teams at this point of the season. We’re almost at the halfway point. Now, we’ll see what this team is made of. With the playoffs moving So Far Away like a classic Dire Straits song, most of these players are playing for jobs. Pride is on the line. Whether their futures are in the Big Apple, or another NHL city, they know what the situation is.

The Rangers got back a couple of key players. Both Jesper Fast and Cody McLeod returned to the lineup. The second player I was surprised about. But I forgot that when McLeod plays, the team has a good record. I believe they improved to 12-5-0 with him in the lineup. Strange coincidence? Or does his veteran presence on the bench have a positive influence on the guys? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

I guess it isn’t too surprising that the club sent Lias Andersson down to Hartford. He needs to play more minutes, and won’t here. So, it makes plenty of sense. Encouraging was that the 2017 first round pick showed improvement recently. But I don’t want him buried on the fourth line. The picture could be a lot clearer following the February 25 trade deadline.

I didn’t see much of the first two periods, and only caught the key parts of the third period comeback. I’ll just say that what we got was nice. Finally, a team that made the most of its breaks and did to a good opponent what’s happened far too often since both Fast and McLeod went down. Maybe it’s not a off occurrence that Fast’s imprints were all over the win. He recorded three points, including the game-winner on a well executed play by all five skaters.

Mika Zibanejad had been a bit cool lately. His plus/minus has suffered going up against the opposition’s best. But tonight, he had a great game recording a career high four assists. That included the primary helper on Fast’s second of the game. A perfect centering feed from behind the net for a quick Fast one-timer that beat Pekka Rinne with 12:25 left in regulation. Three of Zibanejad’s four assists were primary. He’s having a much better year at five-on-five than last season. He’s on pace for more assists and a new career high in points. That contract which pays him an average cap hit of $5.35 million thru 2022 looks like a bargain. Especially when you consider that the Penguins gave Jake Guentzel a five-year extension worth a AAV of $6 million. That’s insanity. What the heck do you think Kevin Hayes (assist to extend point streak to nine) is gonna ask for? What about Chris Kreider, who is up to 20 goals a year away from unrestricted status?

For the pro Artemi Panarin crowd who want to see this regime overpay a good playmaking left wing into his 30’s, taking care of their own should be a higher priority. Hayes is making the decision very difficult. It’s a good thing Filip Chytil can shift to center if Hayes does go. Otherwise, I would definitely re-sign him. But the cost continues to go up. It’s no longer going to be $6.25 million AAV. It could be closer to $7 million for him. What the heck do you think Panarin is gonna cost? Same for Mark Stone. I believe the organization should go after a good defenseman over a perimeter oriented Russian forward, who’ll likely see his point production drop here. D is a more pressing need.

Marc Staal continues to be the best defenseman they got. He’s continuing to improve with and without the puck both defensively and now offensively. He scored his third of the season by coming out of his own end following a good defensive play, and making a smart pinch for the tying goal from Fast and Zibanejad at 4:23 of the third. This is the best he’s looked since 2012. He’s more confident at reading and reacting. Similar to how he played under John Tortorella. He really could be movable if a contender comes calling.

Two of the three Nashville goals came via the power play on a pair from veteran Nick Bonino. That means the Rangers had the edge five-on-five, outscoring the Predators 3-1. The shots were also tighter with it favoring the Preds 27-20. But Kevin Fiala got the only tally at even strength.

Lundqvist outdueled Rinne to finish with 34 saves. Rinne only had 18 on 22 shots. That had to feel good for our goalie, who hasn’t been getting wins. He looked a lot calmer in the postgame, heaping praise on his teammates.

I want to comment on one other thing that annoyed me. That dirty bastard Zac Rinaldo got away with a sneaky high hit from the blind side on Zibanejad late in the second. He’s such a poor excuse of a hockey player. How is he even still employed? Of course when McLeod had words with him, he didn’t fight. He’s a piece of garbage! This guy has been pulling these cheap shots forever. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Flyers, Coyotes and now the Predators. It’s ridiculous. Of course, there was no call. It better be reviewed by NHL Player Safety. He better be suspended.

BONY 3 STARS:

3rd 🌟 Chris Kreider, NYR (power play goal-20th, 2 assists, +3 in 23 shifts-15:51)

2nd 🌟 Jesper Fast, NYR (2 goals including the game-winner, assist, +3 in 28 shifts-16:17 in return)

1st 🌟 Mika Zibanejad, NYR (career high 4 assists, +3 in 28 shifts-17:37)

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Game #36: Shutout Saturday – Devils 2, Hurricanes 0

Posted on December 29, 2018 by hasan4978

In honor of kids’ day at the Rock this afternoon I’ll go back to the future with my clip – a interview with new Devil sensation Mackenzie Blackwood after he was drafted in the second round of what has been a highly discussed and even contreversial – to this point – 2015 draft so far. Drafted at #42 after a draft-day tradedown, Blackwood was thought to be one of the top prospect goaltenders in the draft that year but his development curve has been arguably even a bigger roller-coaster than Pavel Zacha’s (our #6 overall pick that year) to this point.

Blackwood had a solid post-draft year in the AHL in 2015-16, then a promising first season in Albany at age 20 in 2016-17 before the bottom fell out in 2017-18. Blackwood’s 3.41 GAA and .882 save percentage in 38 games with a demotion to the ECHL didn’t exactly scream promising future last year. Of course the minor league stats for another balleyhooed young goaltender initialed MB weren’t that great in 1991-92 either, but it was a different world back then. Check out save percentages twenty-five years ago compared to now. Nothing that happened in 2017-18 suggested Blackwood would be anywhere near the NHL this year, if at all. Especially with Keith Kinkaid coming off a heroic spring leading the Devils out of their playoff drought, and supposed starter Cory Schneider having had offseason hip surgery that was supposed to get him healthy.

Yet here we are in the middle of the 2018-19 season with Blackwood having supplanted both Kinkaid and the again-injured Schneider in both the staff’s goalie rotation and the fans’ hearts after three straight good starts including today’s sterling 37-save shutout. In fact if you include Eddie Lack – who’s been injured for much of the year down in Binghamton – Blackwood came into the season at #4 on the depth chart. Just goes to show sometimes if you stick with things, good stuff can happen and sooner than anticipated.

For our marquee pick in 2015, the road hasn’t been quite as mercurial – in fact it’s been mostly down for Zacha after his scintillating debut on Fan Appreciation Day in 2016. His two assists and +4 when Patrik Elias played his last-ever game seemed like a symbolic passing of the torch from one Czech star to another one in the making. Arguably Zacha wasn’t ready for the NHL full-time in 2016-17 but a bad roster and the belief he had outgrown the OHL contributed to him getting a trial by fire. His eight goals and 24 points in 70 games with a -17 was meh at best. Things improved a little last year but not neccesarily with scoring since he only put up eight goals and 25 points in 69 games, though his +/- got a lot better and his PK work was starting to become a key on a solid unit.

This year Zacha seemingly hit rock bottom with ten ineffective, scoreless games that got him briefly demoted to the AHL. Soon after he returned he went on a three-game goalscoring streak, putting four goals on the board but aside from that his offensive production has still been muted for the most part. Even when giving a solid effort it just wasn’t happening for him and he came into today with a mere five goals and zero(!) assists in 31 games played. If he was the main draw with Blackwood an undercard in 2015, today Zacha was a supporting actor in Blackwood’s coming out party, but his own second star performance today with two points including his first assist of the year and a spectacular shorthanded goal was almost as meaningful in both the short and long-term.

Zacha’s late second-period goal that broke a scoreless tie actually came during an uninspiring period of the game for the Devils, who to be honest really did not have the better of the play for any long stretch in the final fifty minutes of regulation today. After a failed first-period power play led to a shorthanded breakaway and penalty taken to stop the scoring chance it felt like another one of those dreary days at the Rock. Oh, the post-holiday sellout crowd with many kids in attendance was a lot more engaged than they were last Sunday but there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot to cheer about until ironically after a dumb penalty by John Quenneville led to the pivotal moment of the game. While Blackwood was keeping the team in the game with save after save they still needed a goal or two to actually win, and Zacha provided what turned out to be the margin of victory with an electric unassisted breakaway.

Not that it was going to be easy to hold a slim lead in the third. It never is with this team.

There were two seperate instances in the third period where I thought Carolina had tied the game. The first came on this otherworldly save by Blackwood of what looked a sure goal by the Canes’ own wunderkid Sebastian Aho.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1079113245137518592

The second – more contreversially – came with the Canes’ net empty late when Justin Williams apparently scored to tie the game, causing me to momentarily lose it at the thought of this team blowing Blackwood’s great game but then I realized to my disbelief the goal was being waved off due to contact with the goalie. While I was counting my lucky stars at both the call and the quick upholding of the play after the Canes challenged the goal, goshdarnit we deserve a break, and anyway looking at the replay of that one there was contact by Williams with both the body and the stick of Blackwood in the blue paint. I’ve seen far worse goals than that stand, especially during our neverending review sagas last year.

For once the Devils – with an assist from the refs and a series of big saves from the 22-year old rookie – held a tight third-period lead, and even extended it with Andy Greene’s empty-netter, which finally got Zacha off the assists schneid. And for only the third time all year, the team won more than one consecutive game. Sad, isn’t it? Other than beating the Pens and Flyers back to back in early November, our only actual winning streak was the 4-0 to start the season. Amazing a difference going from bad goaltending to great goaltending can make. That’s really what this is, I can’t say the team’s playing all that much better than they have this year only at least they’re not scoring on Blackwood themselves I’ll give them that. Still, 117 shots against in three starts suggest this team better hold the barrage in check sooner rather than later, to give the kid a more realistic chance to grow and show promise for the second half of the season and beyond.

At least for one afternoon we get some relief and hope going forward.

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