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The trade deadline was a handicap for both teams at the start of the match, with both teams choosing to sit on the big shovel to protect their trading assets. Ottawa earned three points with 162 points: Ryan Dzingel, Mark Stone and Matt Duchene, which is currently considered one of the most sought-after commercial goals in the NHL market. Without their top three cannons, there was no Ottawa commitment to the tank in this game. Still, the Devils tried to compete with their opponent Ben Lovejoy and the dreaded Marcus Johansson to protect their market value as the Monday deadline approaches. Without these two players, Brett Seney and Steven Santini returned in training. Santini teamed with Will Butcher at the blue line and Palmieri climbed the ladder to take Johansson's wing position in the front row. The Wood line, Zajac, Coleman came back to form the second line. Kevin Rooney centered the third line between Drew Stafford and Joey Anderson, and Seney assumed the central fourth-row role between Kenny Agostino and Kurtis Gabriel. Cory Schneider has returned to the net following the victories of his last two games. Including Schneider's Rehabilitation Relay, 7 of the 19 Devils of the game have played in the AHL at some point this season. In addition to trade-related injuries, the Devils also lacked Pavel Zacha for a third game due to an upper-body injury, in addition to the usual IR suspects in the long run.
The Devils simply owned the first period against the Senators, thanks in part to a power play that was sent to work less than five minutes into the match. Ben Harpur doubled Hischier in a battle for the puck. We first examined how the new power play would align without Mojo on the goal line. Although they did not score any of their PP opportunities in the game, the powerplay game did not seem as fragile as I thought, which is entirely due to Nico Hischier's replacement. Hischer plays the goal line differently than Mojo, using Palmieri a little further but he seems to be comfortable there and the first power play gave some good results on three shots thanks to his efforts from the bottom of the zoned. The second power play unit was much more anemic than the first and seemed like a bit of a science experiment for the coaching staff. They were unable to position themselves in any position, but it seemed that it was Wood, Stafford, Agostino, Seney and Will Butcher to the point.
They did not score, but the momentum of the power play allowed the Devils to go through some solid changes and finally found the newly assembled Wood-Zajac-Coleman line, which has taken the path back she had stopped with excellent chemistry and intelligent games. . The breakaways have been a massive plague for the Devils lately, but not this match and certainly not with this line. A smooth pass from Zajac to a speed blaster led to a pass for Miles Wood, which covered Butcher Square on the point. Wood fired a shot at the net where Zajac reduced it to mark his 497th career point and the first goal of the game for the Devils. Less than three minutes later, the same formation returned to the ice and again controlled the offensive zone. Butcher was back in the offensive zone, this time actually behind the net with Blake Coleman covering his position to the point. Butcher found Bratt on the ice after replacing Wood, who dropped a pass for Steven Santini to bury a shot at his first goal of the season. The Devils finished the first period with a second strike opportunity after Brady Tkachuk decided to further improve the game by targeting the back of Blake Coleman's legs.
After being 14-4 in the first period, the Senators came back a little stronger in the second. After eliminating their penalty postponement minutes, they found themselves on the powerplay a few moments later, as Anderson and Thomas Chabot tangled behind the net and that Anderson found himself sitting for a call. The Penals seemed a little different without Ben Lovejoy: they created Eric Gryba alongside Andy Greene. The Devils canceled the penalty and immediately scored on the next puck drop. Seney handed the puck to Gabriel who walked a few feet to the middle of the ice and injured his wrist over the shoulder of 6'6 "Senator Anders Nilsson. 3-0 Devils at the start of the second was not favorable to the Senators, who fought and forced Schneider to make stops after allowing him to take a nap in the area closest to the first, but he is stayed sharp and made big stops. . Mirco Mueller made some stops on his side, including blocking an ankle shot halfway through the second, allowing him to fumble for a change of bench and forced the Devils to attract too many players. # 39; men. They chose to send Wood to the box to serve him as they often do, probably because they are looking for the rush out of the box, although he may be spending more time than everyone else there and he is now friends with the attendants. Wood had no chance of getting out of the box while the Devils were stuck a bit at the end of the penalty kick, but it would not take long for the opportunity to show up again. In his next shift, Miles Wood would find himself the target of a Damon Severson pass, which he toppled up Nilsson to increase the lead to 4-0 over the Devils and extend his series of three goals in the last three games. The Devils were outperformed 10-16 in the second period, but they certainly have not been outclassed. They had a four-goal lead in the third period.
The third period opened as the Devils threatened to give another lead to Will Butcher, who tried a blind pass for Santini and ended up giving the puck. The Devils had another turnover shortly after starting from the third row after completing the difficult stretch of the break but could not get into the Senators area. The Senators still had some good looks towards the end of the period as the Devils found themselves twice in the penalty area in the last seven minutes of play. Chris Tierney took a penalty from Eric Gryba while assaulting Gryba's elbow with his face and qualifying for the Oscars Artist of the Year title. He then continued his performance five minutes later by calling Wait Butcher on hold. Butcher started the first punitive win, then Severson took Butcher's place on the second PK and was joined by Hischier and Bratt. The dynamic duo seemed to decide that his position on the penalty kick was "good, they can not score if we do it" and rushed to the offensive zone, leading to a Bratt shot off the post at the start of the match. Bratt and Hischer were then replaced by Seney and Rooney. Rooney's play during most of the game was not exceptional: he was stripped of the puck and remained motionless on the boards and caused a breakaway at one point, but he made up for what he did. he did not do it in the rest of the game. tenfold with his game in the last minutes of the match. Rooney attempted a second outnumbered push from the PK, then turned into a conservative hero of the shutout for the last minute: blocked a shot, continued the slaughter and finally cleared the puck for the last five seconds while it doubled to half of pain. Fortunately for the overcrowded IRR of the Devils, he was all smiles after hearing him say. He then joined the rest of the team to congratulate Cory Schneider on his third consecutive win and first shutout since November 2017.
The statistics of the game: the Game summary NHL.com | the NHL.com Summary of the event | the NHL.com Play by Play Log | the Shooting summary of NHL.com | the Game Stats Natural Stat Stats
Opinion of the opposition Check-out Silver Seven Sens for their interpretation of tonight's match.
The highlights of the game: Of LNH.com:
It looks like a pre-season game! seemed to be the cry of a lot of social media and the AAtJ game, and that's not wrong. Devil's fans, welcome to the pre-season before the off season before preseason, AKA Tryouts 2.0. With most of our veteran players, whether in the trading block or in the IR, and the chances of a playoff series totally lost this season, the Devils leadership has nothing left to to see with this season, she has to face her AHLers and rookies, and spoil her combinations of lines and special teams to find out what works.
What works:
Wood-Zajac-Coleman: The Devils second row was reunited against the Senators after being separated due to injuries suffered by Coleman and Zacha. Their game together was as much fun to watch as I remember. Zajac had some of his best skating and puck moves and Wood's points series continued with a third goal in as many games plus a helping hand on the end of Zajac. The line continues to offer the best two-way game of the team, with a 61.5 CF% for the first two periods. Wood left the game at the end of the second period after a check in the back of Thomas Chabot in front of the Senators net and did not return for the third period. In the post-match interview, Hynes was unsure of the extent of the problem because he had not spoken to the coaches yet, but said he did not think it was serious. Good news for the Devils and Miles Wood, even though we've heard this line before.
Butcher-Santini: Butcher will need a new lineman if Lovejoy is actually traded by the deadline, and it seems that he may have found it at Steve Santini's. The third pair D played the most ice time 5×5 and allowed only 3 HDCA, compared to 12 SCA in total. In comparison, Severson and Greene gave 6 HDCAs out of 8 chances in total, and Mueller and Gryba gave 2 HDCAs a total of 6 chances 5×5. With a relative HR% of -1.22, the new couple can still improve, but there is still plenty of time to do it. Butcher and Santini have played only 3 or 4 games together this season and with the last-minute decision to remove Lovejoy from the lineup and play against Santini, they did not have time to train together before the match . The blind pass offered by Butcher at the beginning of the third period brought to light the extent of the new partner's blues for the couple, but they played well together and did it in the past. I therefore hope to see good things as they stay together for the rest of the season.
Eric Gryba: I know there are a lot of people who hate Gryba, but I like his game more and I'll say he played well, especially tonight. His 5×5 stats were generally positive across the board, with the exception of a slightly negative Corsi, resulting from a difference of 6 shots blocked between Gryba and Mueller during the match. His penalty shoot-out was strong and he also posted some of the team's top penalty kill statistics. He brings a strong presence to the net that the Devils defense and goalies, in particular, could use a lot – I'm tired of seeing the goals scored because we let a guy set up a tent and a barbecue in the trough of the Screen and sift the life of the goaltender without defense pressure – and it also seems to bring the confidence of Mirco Mueller. The play of the Mueller puck has improved in the pair games since it was paired with Gryba. I intend to continue this momentum.
Cory !! Schneider's return to the winning column has earned the fanfare, the songs, the gold medals, and all we can give him after the season he had to go through to get back to it. Schneider has made a .988 save percentage in his last three games, scoring only one goal on 80 shots since coming into play against Minnesota in relief on Kinkaid last week.
Other scatter positives: Kurtis Gabriel scored his first NHL goal in the second period. Will Butcher has 20 assists. Travis Zajac finished the game at 81.8% in the faceoffs, which is ridiculously good.
What does not work?
Brett Seney as a center: I love Seney's play and I think he can contribute as a striker among the last 6. His number seems to be better when he crosses a line than when he plays, but his faceoff percentage is not at all good. He won a faceoff that led to Kurtis Gabriel's goal. Unfortunately, he participated in five faceoffs and that is the only one he won. He even has a Nico Hischier faceoff percentage of 20%, but Hischier's percentage in the season is just under 44.5%, while Seney sits at 37%. If he stays in the lineup as a center, he needs to improve his faceoff percentage for next season.
Palmieri with Hischier and Bratt: It is usually difficult to compare the game from the front row when they play often by being opposed to the best line of the opposing team, but as the senator's best line was sitting in pajamas (or in press, I do not really know when they were scraped) I do not have much excuse for the single point, CF% 35, FF% 20, SF% 0, and numbers more depressing in what should have been an easy game for a top line. The statistics of the season online are better, but far from comparable to the ones they produced with Johansson for this couple. Palmieri is also an excellent player. He has been great this season, but he does not seem to be very good at playing with Hischier and Bratt together.
The takeaway sale: Starting Thursday, the Devils have a 11.5% chance of winning first place in the draw. At this point in the season, I see that it's no longer a question of chances or points in the playoffs, but to take advantage of the few victories won and to follow the development of the players for the next season. You look who
Your catch: Are the days of Lovejoy and Johansson as Devils counted, or are they simply suspended in case they decide to make an agreement? If they go there, where do you think they go and what should we get them? In your opinion, which AHL order has the most impact in this part of the season? Who do you want to see more / less? What did you think of the Bratt-Hischier-Palmieri line instead of the line with Mojo? Do you think that will influence the decision to trade with Mojo?
Thanks to Chris for watching the game this morning and thank you all for reading!
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