For the first time this season, the New Jersey Devils headed into a contest officially knowing their fate, as they were eliminated just two days prior. With that being said, there’s always something to play for against a division rival, but the Devils couldn’t grab any moral victories as they fell 6-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Related: Devils’ Stars & Coach React to Tom Fitzgerald’s Departure
Dougie Hamilton Strong Offensively
It seems pretty obvious that the Devils are going to shake up their defense over the offseason. After the scratching of Dougie Hamilton on Jan. 10 and subsequent frustrated comments from his agent, JP Barry, the outlook for Hamilton in New Jersey looked bleak.
But since then, all he’s done is perform. With a primary helper tonight, he has seven goals and 26 points in 34 games since — a ~63-point pace over a full, 82-game season. While there’s still a lot of uncertainty in terms of what lies ahead for the Devils’ offseason, Hamilton has made an already-tough call incredibly difficult for the next general manager.
In that span, the Devils have scored 2.71 5v5 goals per 60 minutes with Hamilton on the ice — over 11% better than any other Devils defenseman. Hamilton’s contract ($9 million AAV) runs through 2027-28. (via Natural Stat Trick)
Defense Continues to Struggle
For essentially the entire season, head coach Sheldon Keefe has made it very clear that the defensive side of the puck has needed work. While they have been winning more often than not since the Olympic break, the underlying defensive numbers have remained the same; it’s all thanks to the offense.
Tonight, their 3.45 expected goals against in 55:15 of 5v5 time was the ninth-worst rate of the entire season — and worst since Mar. 14.
In the second period, the Penguins scored two goals in nine seconds — the eighth-fastest time it took to do so in the history of their franchise (This was game #4,578 for them).
“When you lose structure against a team like that, you kind of open the ice for them,” said Keefe. “It’s hard to stop it.”
With Luke Hughes shut down for the rest of the season, the new pairing of Dennis Cholowski and Johnathan Kovacevic was the bulk of the reason for those numbers. The Devils got outshot by the Penguins 10-4 in their 16:31 of ice time, and most importantly, were outscored 2-0.
Emotional Toll
Between Tom Fitzgerald’s firing and their subsequent elimination from playoff contention, the vibes were nowhere near high for the Devils this evening. It’s impossible to tell whether that seeped into their play, but based on the sentiment from postgame interviews, it certainly didn’t help.
“It’s tough when you know that your season is done…but at the same time, your mindset should never change,” said netminder Jake Allen, who took the loss tonight. “That’s a thing that comes with a bit of maturity, and we need that in our game right now.”
Forward Paul Cotter, who scored in the contest, said, “You look around this room, look at it on paper, you look on some of the things we can do. We would want that opportunity [to play in the playoffs]. It is hard mentally to kind of digest that and realize we’re not going to make the playoffs this year.”
Moving Forward
The Devils — now 40-36-3 — will head to Detroit to face the Red Wings on Saturday (5:00 PM EDT).
