Devils Room: Markstrom Save Reactions; Third Period ‘Took Our Breath Away’

NEWARK—The New Jersey Devils needed to be better in front of their home crowd.

For about 35 minutes, they were. However, things got away from them before heading to overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning. One of the biggest points of emphasis coming out of Thursday’s overtime loss against the New York Rangers was to sustain more offensive zone time in their opponents end. It’s something they dominated before the holiday, but not so much after.

Offensive Zone Pressure

The first period was far and away the Devils’ best. And as the game went on, things tailed off a bit and the Lightning played even to the Devils, if not better at certain points.

So did head coach Sheldon Keefe see what he wanted in terms of playing with the puck in the offensive zone more?

“I saw that from [the Hughes] line, for sure,” Keefe started. “First period, those guys were unbelievable. They were all over it. Lots of zone time for them, lots of chances, both in the offensive zone, they scored an offensive zone goal. They had a number of chances on the rush, Bratt got a breakaway. So those guys were really good in the first period. I thought it was a little bit of a slower pace for both teams in the second period, but I still liked our game. Huge goal from Jack [Hughes]. There wasn’t a whole lot of those on time. I didn’t think for either team really in the second half of the game, but certainly there was plenty, and they were really gone. And I thought that line was really good tonight.”

Rough Third Period

The Devils really struggled in the third period. They started with nearly a two-minute penalty kill as a result of a Paul Cotter high-stick at the very end of the second period.

Then as soon as they killed off the Cotter infraction, Brenden Dillon headed back to the box, also for high sticking.

Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler explained that had great impact on the ensuing 16 minutes after both penalties were over.

“I think the penalty kill took our breath away a little bit, and then it was hard to find our game again,” Siegenthaler explained. “But we stuck with it. We didn’t open up the game, and then we finished it in OT.”

The Devils’ head coached echoed the sentiment, and added fatigue has been an issue.

“It took us a long time,” Keefe said about the Devils getting their legs going in the third period. “It took a long time to get to the next TV time out as well. So it was hard to really gather the group. I thought we had a push coming out of that, you know, but certainly that’s two games in a row now that we didn’t have much gas in the tank in the third period.”

Jacob Markstrom Reactions

The Devils are certainly happy Jacob Markstrom is there to bail them out when they need it. However, they’re not naive to the fact that it’s unsustainable to continue putting him in that position on the regular.

“I mean, yeah, we don’t want him to keep making those,” Stefan Noesen started. “Well, we do, but we don’t. Yeah, it’s a hell of a job. You know, he’s been, he’s been locked in pretty good here for the last little bit. We’re just gonna try to maybe not make him make those highlight real saves. He’s gonna have top 10 [saves] all year long here.”

According to the Devils’ superstar, there might not be another better goaltender in the NHL right now.

“Yeah, he’s been unbelievable,” Jack Hughes said. “So, like, I don’t know what’s going around in the league in terms of goalie play, but, I got to think he’s right there at the top. He’s been playing unreal for us. And, I mean, I think this is what we expected, but maybe not to this degree of how good he is.”

Keefe explained his instant reaction was relief, but chalked it up to Markstrom’s compete level.

“I’m glad [Brayden] Point didn’t raise [the puck]. And you know, probably the reason he doesn’t raise it is he figures he doesn’t need to,” Keefe explained. “Like, it’s an empty net, let’s go ahead and put this in here, but Markstrom is never out of it. His competitive fire that he has to stay with it and keep it up is impressive, and he’s bailed us out lot’s here of late.”

New-Look Man Advantage

For Sheldon Keefe, using all forwards on an advantage is nothing new. He recognized he needed a change from three forwards and one defenseman to all four forwards and pulled the trigger, which wasn’t a pre-meditated idea.

“I’ve done it a bunch in my time in Toronto. But, at this moment, it wasn’t something we were considering to start,” Keefe explained. “But we just sort of recognized that we could use Noesen’s presence there. And obviously it’s a little unnerving in the last minute, just because you know if the time runs out, you’re going to be stuck with no defenseman out there. But we had a plan to filter them off if that was what was going to happen. Of course, you’re hopeful it doesn’t come to that, and it didn’t.”

It was the first time the Devils’ players saw it, and whereas they weren’t successful in the extra frame on Thursday, Hughes was able to see how it all unfolded in their favor on Saturday.

“We’ve had success with Dougie [Hamilton] up top on 4v3s. We’ve had success with Luke [Hughes] up top on 4v3s,” Hughes explained. “But I think tonight they were fronting the top three guys pretty good. So the fourth forward, he was left alone. Obviously, Noesen is our best in that front guy. He’s been really good in front of that all year, and that was kind of just like a broken play, and boom, it pops on his stick, and he ends the game for us.”

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