NJ Devils Scoring Chances: Weekly Post: Part 7

This week we will look back at two rather disappointing games from late February. Both the 2.23 game at Washington and the 2.28 game at Winnipeg were losses; each with their own personal flavor of unpleasantness. Lets first take a look at the Washington game, but before we do, I just want to provide a link to my introductory post which reviews the definition of a scoring chance for anyone who is not familiar or wants a refresher. This was suggested weeks ago by Bar Man, and its a very good suggestion, so I will be linking to that first post from now on, in case anyone is looking for a quick refresher.

2.23.13 Devils at Capitals

This was a game that really got out of hand in the third period. At the time, I think many Devils fans (myself included) looked at this as a game we should have won. Looking back, this was a meeting of two teams headed in opposite directions. I was surprised to see that the Devils came out almost even at 5v5. They really got crushed by the Washington power play. Also, it was very disappointing to see just how few chances the Devils were able to muster in the third period, putting up just two while trailing the entire way. Part of the reason was how much time they spent on the penalty kill. Here are your charts for that game.

2.28 Devils at Jets

This was the game where the Devils gave up an immediate goal off the opening faceoff and trailed 1-0 just 8 seconds into the game. Despite tying it up in the second period, they would end up losing 3-1. Winnipeg added an Andrew Ladd goal halfway through the third plus an empty netter at the end. The chances were fairly even overall. The Devils came out slightly behind at evens. The real story here was not that they played poorly, but they trailed throughout the game after making a very early mistake. After a good second period, the Devils played a bit of a down third period and were held scoreless. Please take a look at the numbers below:

Thanks, as always, for reading. Commentate away.