Devils Postgame: Goaltending, Penalty Kill ‘Leak Oil,’ Keefe Highlights Mistakes

ELMONT — When the New Jersey Devils hit the ice for warmups, they did so without Jack Hughes despite the belief the 18-man lineup would dress before heading to Prague. According to the Devils, Hughes’ absence was strictly to give the superstar forward rest after skating with two groups on Friday morning.

READ: Jack Hughes OUT for Devils vs. Islanders on Friday

In Hughes’ place on the first line was Paul Cotter who centered Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt. Nolan Foote skated in Cotter’s spot on the fourth line.

It wasn’t the Devils’ night again as they lost 5-1 to Semyon Varlamov and Co. The Devils’ preseason officially ends winless. They’ll head to Prague hoping to start the 2024-25 regular season on a better note.

Devils Recap

Nathan Bastian took an early tripping in the first period that saw the Devils down a man quite early. With just seconds left on the clock for the Islanders man advantage, Fredrik Karlstrom scored to give the Isles a 1-0 lead. It didn’t take long for the Islanders to find the back of the net again. Kyle MacLean collected a puck at the Isles blue line for a breakaway and scored for the 2-0 New York lead. Just before the first period ended, the Islanders went back to the power play and Bo Horvat gave New York a 3-0 lead.

The Islanders picked up where they left off in the middle frame, taking a 4-0 lead on the stick of Liam Foudy. Timo Meier finally answered back for the Devils, scoring their first goal on the man advantage. The Islanders eventually regained a four-goal lead on another power play goal, this time by Oliver Wahlstrom.

Jake Allen remained in for the full 60 minutes despite allowing five goals on 17 shots.

Devils Takeaways

Devils Special Teams

In a game where the Devils deployed a roster that was mostly indicative of what it’s going to look like on October 4th vs. the Buffalo Sabres, the special teams didn’t show up.

In just the first period, the penalty kill allowed two goals, one by Karlstrom who scored from the right circle with three Devils’ backs turned to the shooter. The other was scored by Horvat, who sniped one past Allen while left uncovered in the slot after he won a faceoff draw in the offensive zone.

Rather than creating a tight-knit box or diamond to clog shooting lanes and push the attack to the perimeter, the Islanders forwards were allowed to creep into high-danger areas far too easily.

The Islanders went two-for-five on the man advantage.

The Devils’ one goal on the power play by Timo Meier doesn’t excuse the rest of their special teams play. The man advantage, sans Meier goal, didn’t look confident and assertive. They’ll need to be more than just a Jack Hughes-led man advantage.

They went one-for-four on the power play, however, the three they didn’t convert on felt very empty.

Jake Allen

Look, it’s easy to pile on Jake Allen for that performance, but the truth is it wasn’t entirely his fault. The Devils found themselves in the penalty box far too often, thus playing short a man five times on Friday.

They’ll need to be more disciplined. But still, the Devils needed Allen to steal a save or two on occasion, and he couldn’t come through.

He allowed three goals on just the first five shots of the game, and it didn’t take long for the Islanders to start piling more on in the second. On a breakaway chance for Liam Foudy, Allen happened to get a piece of the puck, but it just trickled over the blue line for an Islander goal.

It’s difficult not to read too much into this kind of performance, especially since this is the team, minus Hughes, that Keefe claimed is going into the regular season.

The hope is that Allen got this blunder out of the way early.

“I thought not a lot of volume of shots, and then some high danger chances. So it was a tough night for our goalie that way,” Keefe explained to New Jersey Hockey Now. “There’s probably one there, for sure, that he definitely wants back. But aside from that, there’s some pretty great shots from very dangerous areas. So we didn’t do a good enough job protecting him here tonight from those high danger chances. And then in other areas, we did a good enough job to not let him get a feel of the puck and get confident and get comfortable. So a strange game for our goalie.”

Piecing It Together

The score after the first period was far worse than how the game actually looked. The Devils lost by a large, four-goal margin, however, they actually held onto the puck longer than the Islanders did, and out chanced them at 5-on-5 18-15.

That margin only increases in all situations, as the Devils totaled a positive chance differential of 28-16.

Of course, all that matters is the result at the end of the game, and the Devils still have strides to make. But, Keefe thought the score wasn’t indicative of the effort, and there were positives to take away from this game and heading to Prague.

“I actually liked lots about our first period, especially the [Nico] Hischier line,” Keefe said. “Their group had some really good shifts in the game. That’s probably the major positive in the game, is that line. So, I mean, we’re not happy with the results here at all today, but I feel differently about this one than I did the other night.”

The Nico Hischier line has been really strong since Dawson Mercer has returned and reunited with the Devils captain and Tomas Tatar. It seems like the ol’ fire has been reignited with that trio. They ended Friday night’s contest accruing a 69.57 CF%, 54.60 xGF%, and a positive 7-2 scoring chance differential.

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