Devils Postgame: Keefe Ticked With Soft Effort, Defense Too Loose

NEWARK — It’s just the preseason, but New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe was not happy with his teams effort on Wednesday.

The Devils opted to play a heavier NHL lineup as opposed to Tuesday in Montreal. Keefe expected the team to play a lot better than they did, however, he was surely disappointed.

After the Devils started well by creating a handful of scoring chances in their first few shifts, Keefe’s team took their foot off the gas pedal. Despite the late push, it was too late to complete a comeback.

Devils Recap

The Devils were on the attack from the moment the puck hit the ice. Washington Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson had to be strong from the very beginning, but it was the Devils who broke through first. Brenden Dillon from the blue line unloaded a heavy slap shot that beat Thompson to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. It wasn’t until the third period was three quarters of the way through for the next goal of the game, this time from John Carlson to tie it.

From there, it was all Capitals. Dylan Strome scored twice and Brandon Duhaime added a tally between Strome goals to take a commanding 4-1 lead. Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes each scored within the last five minutes of the game, one coming with Jacob Markstrom pulled with over four minutes left to play. However, Markstrom remained on the bench as the Devils tried to tie the game. Instead, Duhaime scored his second goal of the game on the empty net.

Jacob Markstrom was left out to dry a few times, but did turn in a 60-minute game. The Devils goaltender made 22 saves on 26 shots in the loss.

Logan Thompson was quite strong on the other side of the ice, making 25 saves on 28 shots and was 6/6 on the penalty kill.

Devils Takeaways

Loose Defense

Let’s start with the negative. Yes, the Devils lost this game, but the games don’t matter right now. So, it’s not worth harping on yet.

However, the defense as a whole, not just the blue line, was lacking. On the Capitals‘ first goal, John Carlson took advantage of an inexperienced fourth line featuring Xavier Parent and Chase Stillman. Kurtis MacDermid rounding out that line doesn’t help either. That’s a goal that’s to be expected.

However, on the Capitals second goal, Nick DeSimone and Colton White both pinched too high in the neutral zone, allowing Dylan Strome to score on a breakaway. And on Washington’s third goal, the coverage in the Devils’ slot was particularly bad, leaving Brandon Duhaime on Markstrom’s doorstep with little to no pressure. In fact, Jack Hughes’ back check wasn’t all that helpful. He took a lazy swing at Duhaime to try to interfere with his shot, but barely reached the tip of his blade to the shot.

It’s certainly not the way Keefe wants the defense to look, and the Devils’ head coach chalked it up to not playing hard enough.

“If you’re not going to play hard, you’re going to have defensive breakdowns. It’s as simple as that,” said Keefe.

Meier — Hughes — Bratt

It was encouraging to see, from puck drop, the Jack Hughes line create a high-danger scoring chance immediately. Hughes dropped the puck to Jesper Bratt who found a streaking Timo Meier in the slot for a prime, high-danger scoring chance. Logan Thompson had to make a difficult save, and did. But, the sequence was encouraging to see given that it was Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson as the defenders on the ice at the time.

It also didn’t take the Devils’ new first line very long to create another high-danger chance early in the first period. It was again turned aside by Thompson who needed to be strong to start the game, but the chemistry was evident for Meier, Hughes, and Bratt in their first spin on the ice this preseason.

However, following those chances, there wasn’t very much created from the trio of highly skilled forwards. They had some good sequences with the puck, but mostly came up empty and didn’t even get a shot toward the net.

If you ask head coach Sheldon Keefe, he didn’t think that line was particularly very good.

“They didn’t play hard enough. But it was their first game. Jack and Timo in particular, it was their first game coming off a difficult offseason with surgery and all those things,” Keefe explained. “So we’re just glad that they got through the game, and they got their touches and all of that. They got better in the third period, their first couple shifts they looked good. Then they were not great for a long stretch.”

Keefe did, however, like what he saw from the trio on the man advantage.

“But once they got on the power play, they really started going. The power play was exceptional,” said Keefe. “So I was thrilled that we finally got a power play. Then seeing those guys moving around, and seeing the group work together was really good to see that. I thought they were, they were real good the rest of the way. So, you know, it’s a good building to block for them.”

Seamus Casey

Seamus Casey skated in his second game in as many nights. It was surprising given the fact that he was part of the game group in Montreal on Tuesday night.

Perhaps he got another look because Keefe praised his game the night before. Given the injuries the Devils are already dealing with, it’s fair to wonder if he’s being observed for a chance to be on the 26-man roster heading to Prague.

Casey looked even better — more confident if you will — on Wednesday. He was just as good defensively, putting that active stick to good use. But where the confidence is growing is offensively. Continuing to walk to blue line well while on the attack, Casey continues to find shooting lanes to create scoring chances.

Further, Casey handled the puck with more confidence against the Capitals, walking the puck lower in the attacking zone and distributed the puck to create scoring chances.

Casey certainly didn’t look out of place, again. In fact, he looked like he belonged which is great news considering the Capitals dressed a 3/4 NHL lineup.

The only issue that Casey will continue to face is his size. On an occasion or two, the 5-foot-9, 162-lb defenseman was too easily pushed off the puck. He created far more than he gave up for it to be too concerning, but it’s a concern no less.

“As a coach, especially a guy coming in trying to learn who everybody is and what they can do, you’re just watching. And, each day he’s just getting better and better,” Keefe started.

“I wanted to play him again here tonight with more of our NHL guys in. I think the skill sets match up really well. And if he showed enough positive things yesterday, that he certainly earned an opportunity to play in the game here today. Despite it being back to back and travel and all the other things we might look at for some guys in a situation like this, he thrived. So, I was thrilled with his game, and it was a no-brainer to put him out late in the game.”

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