Devils Postgame
Devils Postgame: Meat Line Impresses Keefe; Fatigue Sets In
The Meat Line impresses Sheldon Keefe, fatigue sets in as the Devils drop the first game of the preseason 4-2 against the Islanders.
NEWARK — For the first preseason game of the 2024-25 season, the Prudential Center was pretty packed. Could you tell New Jersey Devils fans missed watching their team? That’s what ending your season in April does to a fan base.
Regardless, hockey is back, and the Devils hosted the New York Islanders at home for the first of seven preseason matchups this fall.
Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe revealed on Saturday that core players including Jack Hughes, Timo Meier, Simon Nemec, and Dawson Mercer would not dress in Sunday night’s game against the Islanders.
However, the lineup was still pretty NHL-heavy, featuring only a handful of players who are likely Utica Comets-bound.
Devils Recap
Early in the first period, the Devils went to the power play after Adam Pelech was called for holding.
Keefe deployed a unit featuring Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Shane Bowers, Johnathan Kovacevic, and Dougie Hamilton. After the Devils gained the offensive zone on the rush, Islander forward, Maxim Tsyplakov turned the puck over in New York’s right circle to Bratt — who found Hischier in the slot a buried the puck for the 1-0 lead.
In the second period, Anders Lee sniped a goal over Markstrom’s glove on the rush to tie the game at one. However, Bratt on a breakaway slid the puck between Islanders goaltender Marcus Hogberg’s five hole and regained the Devils’ lead.
With just about three minutes left in the middle frame, Maxim Tsyplakov fed Julien Gauthier on an odd-man rush and redirected the puck past Markstrom to the game at two.
Nico Daws took over for Jacob Markstrom in the third period. Islander forward, Camden Thiesing, gained the Devils zone with speed and fired the first shot Daws saw into the net, giving New York a 3-2 lead early in the third period.
Simon Holmstrom deposited the empty-net goal to secure the Isles victory.
Markstrom made 14 saves on 16 shots. Daws in relief stopped six pucks and gave up one goal.
Devils Takeaways
The Meat Line
The newly constructed fourth line of Paul Cotter, Curtis Lazar, and Nathan Bastian was undeniable in the opening 20 minutes. The trio collected a positive scoring chance differential of 7-1. They didn’t score in the opening frame, but they consistently forced the puck into the offensive zone with authority, and were relentless on the forecheck away from the puck.
READ: Devils Paul Cotter Impressing, More than Just ‘Meat & Potatoes’
They accrued five hits as a line, three from Nathan Bastian specifically. Perhaps their most impressive stat of the night was creating four high-danger chances as opposed to giving up one.
Folks are going to enjoy watching that trio all season.
“Yeah, that’s the real positive for me. You know, there’s the one sequence that led to the first goal against. Other than that, I thought those guys had a really good game,” Keefe explained.
“There’s going to be a number of things we’ll pull out of the game, specific to that line, that looked like what we need it to look [like]. And that was really a positive to see those three guys working well together. I thought Cotter did his thing. He did a really good job getting the puck to the net without shooting it or bringing it there himself. So that was encouraging for his first game. I thought Lazar and Bastian worked and did what I expected them to do.”
Fatigue Sets In
Perhaps it was the bag skates in the first three practices of the season that did the Devils in.
New Jersey controlled the tempo through the first 30 minutes of the game. They were quick to pucks, winning puck battles, and controlling the pace of play with the puck on the end of their stick.
The Devils also matched the Islanders’ physicality, with each team laying 21 hits on the opposition.
In the final 30 minutes of the game, however, the Devils began to slow down. That’s when the Isles took over and swung the momentum in their direction.
After 40 minutes of play, the Devils totaled 21 shots and help the shot advantage lead. Yet, they were only able to manage four shots in the final frame.
Keefe explained that fatigue is to be expected after a tough first few days of training camp when the players are still shaking off the cobwebs.
“I thought we showed signs of fatigue, which I guess is somewhat expected,” Keefe said. “At this time of the season, in particular, on day four camp up to three long days, and it just didn’t have enough gas in the tank to make much of a push there at the end, unfortunately.”
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