Devils Eliminated As They Blow Lead to Maple Leafs, Lose 5-2

First Period

Nolan Foote made his first appearance for the New Jersey Devils when he won a faceoff in the offensive zone early on in the game, forcing Jacob Woll to glove a Luke Hughes wrist shot. The two teams were hesitant to get things going, in stark contrast to Toronto’s 25-shot first period when these teams first played against each other this season. However, Toronto would take the lead when Nicholas Robertson found a rebound and beat Jake Allen from the edge of the faceoff circle about nine minutes into the game. 1-0, Leafs — and Allen should have had that puck frozen on the point shot.

Not long after the goal, Jonas Siegenthaler left the game when he blocked a Robertson shot with his hand. He returned to the ice a few minutes later. He sprung the Devils ahead with a shimmy around a forechecker and a pass ahead to Shane Bowers, who sent it to Nico Hischier. The puck kept moving along to Simon Nemec down the wall in the offensive zone, and he tried to center the puck for a Jesper Bratt deflection. Woll made the save.

Later, Kevin Bahl fought off Max Domi in the corner, backhanding the puck calmly to Dawson Mercer out to the left of Jake Allen. Mercer averted the forecheck by giving it back to Brendan Smith, who sent it through two sticks back to Mercer. Mercer then sailed a perfect saucer pass to allow Nico Hischier to fight through two defensemen at the far blueline. On the breakway, Nico slowed in on Woll and snuck the backhand in around his pad! Tie game, with just over five minutes to play in the period.

Simon Nemec was called for interfering with Matthew Knies with under four minutes to play. John Marino almost cleared the puck after Haula had it knocked off his stick, but it was kept in. Then, Marino tapped the puck between his legs back to Haula when the puck was sent through the middle, and Haula cleared it. With fresh penalty killers on, Jake Allen gloved a Jake McCabe shot from the faceoff dot. Tyler Bertuzzi tripped Brendan Smith at the end of the kill when he was trying to clear the puck, but Ondrej Palat grabbed it and sent it down to get Nemec out of the box without a goal against. Then, Timo Meier was called for tripping Matthew Knies with 48.8 to go in the period.

On the second kill, Allen made a big save on John Tavares early on. The Leafs kept the puck moving, and the Devils were able to completely clog the passing lane to Auston Matthews when he took a pass from below the goal line, preventing him from getting a dangerous shot on and allowing Nico Hischier to kill the remaining seconds of the period.

Second Period

Hischier, Bratt, Smith, and Marino started the kill in the second period. Bratt cleared it early after the defensemen won the puck away from the Leafs below the goal line. Auston Matthews then had a deflection saved by Jake Allen — and John Tavares was stuffed by the pad on the rebound. The Devils cleared the puck down the ice, and they were able to stifle the Leafs for the remaining time on the penalty clock.

Dawson Mercer intercepted a pass in the defensive zone and tried to take it down the ice by himself, drawing a slashing call from Matthew Knies. Nico Hischier had an initial shot saved blocked in front, and he got the puck back after a bad pass from Mitch Marner. He had Bratt open to his left, but he took the shot with Dawson Mercer in front as the Leafs closed in on him. Woll couldn’t handle the shot, and Mercer one-handed the puck in as he went falling to the ice, giving the Devils a 2-1 lead! This was Mercer’s 20th goal of the season.

Brendan Smith shot the puck over the crossbar off a backhand feed from Nico Hischier. Not too long after, Jake Allen kept the lead by stopping Pontus Holmberg on a breakaway. Holmberg had a second shot off the rebound, which Allen also saved. Still, Toronto tied the game with five minutes left in the period when Kevin Bahl lost Tyler Bertuzzi, who was open for a one-timer and was set up by Domi. 2-2. Then, Mark Giordano took the lead with a slap shot from the point. 3-2, Leafs.

John Marino let Noah Gregor jump around him for the puck in the corner, resulting in Chris Tierney taking a reactive holding penalty. The Leafs got the sixth skater on for quite awhile, but they missed the net before the Devils touched the puck in the neutral zone. The Devils got a couple of shot blocks early, and Dawson Mercer put a shot on the other way. Late in the power play, though, Jake Allen appeared to have the puck under his glove, and Tavares dug it out for William Nylander to poke in. After a discussion, referee Chris Rooney waved the goal off. Jesper Bratt sped down the ice after the following draw to kill the remaining time on Tierney’s penalty.

Third Period

The New Jersey Devils failed to bring the pressure early in the third, but Jake Allen did make a huge save on John Tavares, who tried to deflect a puck and then shot the rebound — but Allen came diving out with the blocker to stop it. Allen had to bail Alex Holtz out when Holtz made an inexplicably terrible pass across the blueline, allowing Matthew Knies to intercept and hold the zone for the Leafs. Knies was denied by Allen’s glove. When Auston Matthews got his chance, though, Allen’s glove was not up to task. 4-2, Leafs, with over 12 minutes to play in the game.

Shane Bowers was denied at the front of the crease when Bratt made a great pass to set him up. As time ticked to the final five minutes, all the Devils had succeeded to do in the third period to that point was look defeated. Still, they drew a power play when Tyler Bertuxzi went to the box with 4:29 to play. On the power play, Bratt missed an early shot and did a lot of the puck handling leading to a Woll glove save on a Luke Hughes one-timer.

Jake Allen went to the bench with 3:20 to play. Ondrej Palat joined the power play for some six-on-four time. Luke Hughes took a few one-timers, but the Leafs blocked the last one and got the puck out. After the Devils failed to establish good possession, Mitch Marner iced the puck with 1:20 to play as he attempted to flip it down the ice at the empty net. Tyler Bertuzzi got it off the draw. 5-2, Leafs.

That’s All, Folks

With this loss, and the presumptive New York Islanders win over the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils have been eliminated from the playoff race. Sure, they would be in a playoff spot if they didn’t blow so many of their leads under Travis Green, but some will tell you that this season was over in November. That nonsense aside, today was just another reminder that while this season was not always doomed in a mathematical sense, it was certainly a cursed one.

When the Devils announced that Jack Hughes would undergo surgery tomorrow for his shoulder, I felt this was likely going to be the end. Would Jack have made a difference tonight? Probably. But does it matter? Even in the 1 in 5,000 or 10,000 chance the Devils made the playoffs after hypothetically winning tonight, the odds were even worse that Jack would have survived multiple rounds of playoff hockey. And then what? We would potentially be in the same boat next season due to Jack having a lessened recovery time. The only chance to save this season was to go Vegas on it when Jack hurt his shoulder in January. Jack deserves a ton of respect for toughing through the injury for so long, but it was never worth it for him to personally try to drag the Devils to the playoffs.

As for the specifics of this game, the same usual crap served to infuriate me underneath a nihilistic veneer of calm acceptance. John Marino was repeatedly victimized as a puck carrier in the defensive zone. Tripping penalties were called one way and not the other. The forward lines looked incredibly disjointed, and Green refused to make adjustments.

Why not line Mercer up with Nico Hischier when the two combined for the team’s only offense in the game? No, Mercer belonged with Tomas Nosek and Ondrej Palat — on a line that had an xGF% of 12.02. That said, they were just meeting the team’s par: 13 of the 18 Devils skaters had an xGF% under 25.00 tonight. And while Bowers would have been the victim of moving Mercer up, Bowers did have the highest xGF% at 47.07. So, credit to him for going to the right spots to try to score. I’d like a more skilled player, like Mercer, with Hischier and Bratt, though, as long as Travis Green was intent on keeping Timo Meier with Alex Holtz and Erik Haula serving as his ankle weights. I honestly found myself wishing Lindy Ruff could have appeared to drag Alex Holtz off to the press box the moment he sent that pass across the blueline for another interception when he had loads of open ice around him and about one foot to skate until he could take the puck out of the defensive zone by himself to force the Maple Leafs to tag up.

Tonight was a great way for this team to go out: in the game, ahead, despite not having a great attack going, they tried to play survival hockey despite only having 12 shots through two periods. And that just encapsulates Travis Green’s brand of Devils hockey — turtle with the lead, turtle when the opponent takes the lead in the span of 10-30 seconds (and yes, Allen needed to get the Giordano shot), and turtle for the entire third period. It was disgusting, and I look forward to most of these guys being back next year with a more competent approach.

Your Thoughts

What did you think of the game? How do you feel about being eliminated, finally? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.