Devils’ Offense Fails to Show in 3-0 Loss

The Red Wings came to town for the Devils’ 2nd to last home game of the season. Both teams went with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen. For the Devils, this meant Ty Smith was back in the lineup, as Nico Hischier was out with a non-covid illness.

1st period

A Hamilton shot hit the post about 15 seconds in, starting the game with a ping. Tatar got a chance but missed wide.

Hammond made a big save with 17:35 left

The first few minutes went by quickly, as the first stoppage didn’t come until 16:15.

Kuokkanen set up Foote for a great chance in front with 15:53 left but Nedeljkovic made the save.

McLeod took a dumb penalty, an obvious cross-check of Raymond with 10:23 left in the first, giving Detroit the first man advantage of the game.

The Devils prevented the Red Wings from getting any top quality chances on the power play and killed the penalty.

Kuokkanen set up Foote for a good chance again with 5:25 left, but Foote only got a piece of it went wide.

Johnsson lost the puck in his own end, Smith didn’t pick it up, but Sundqvist did, putting the Red Wings up 1-0.

The Red Wings had control in the last minute, but eventually the buzzer sounded without another goal.

2nd period

The first several minutes went by, and the Devils had no offensive pressure. This is the Red Wings, not the Bruins or Avalanche. You should not be struggling for offense against Detroit, and yet the Devils were.

Bertuzzi set up Erne with 15:25 left and Hammond made the save.

Finally, over 5 and a half minutes into the period, Johnsson and Tatar had the puck in front, but couldn’t get a shot on net.

Boqvist drew a penalty, as he was hooked by Vrana in the neutral zone. A minute in, Bratt set up Mercer in front from behind the net but Nedeljkovic made the save.

That was the lone good chance of the power play. After it was over, Vrana took another penalty after getting out of the box, giving the Devils another 2 minutes on the advantage.

The Devils had possession for a while on the delayed penalty, but the only shot was from Graves near the point.

The power play itself went by without a Devils shot.

Foote set up Kuokkanen with 3:35 left but he ran out of room

It certainly felt like, and Dano even commented that the Devils were missing the net on a lot of their shots, something it seems like they’ve been doing all season long.

With less than a minute in the period, the Devils finally scored a goal. Sharangovich shot a puck from a sharp angle, and it went off Nedeljkovic’s pad and in. However, Blashill challenged for offsides, and it turned out the puck never crossed the line before Severson let go of it and took off, making it offsides.

Sharangovich must’ve been upset by this, because he had 2 great chances immediately after, but Nedeljkovic stopped him both times.

3rd period

With 17:39 left in the 3rd, Zacha took a penalty while the announcers were talking about him.

The Devils killed the penalty (although Suter did hit the post) and Zacha got a breakaway coming out of the box. In Zacha fashion, he missed the net. Fortunately, he got another chance, but Nedeljkovic made the save.

With 14:46 left Tatar had a wide open chance and missed the net.

The Devils had some good possession time in the Detroit zone, but could not score.

Bastian then broke his stick slashing Hronek for no reason, and the Red Wings had a 6 on 4.5 for a while before the Devils could touch up.

The Devils killed the penalty, but only 8 minutes were left in the game. The Red Wings scored right afterwards. Fortunately for the Devils, Erne fell into Hammond, and it was overturned for goalie interference.

The Devils emptied their net with about 3 minutes left, but Bertuzzi hit the empty net with about 2 minutes left, doubling the mountain.

With 1:23 left, the Hammond left for the bench once again. With 12.6 left, Rasmussen scored an empty netter, making it 3-0 Detroit.

No Offense

The Devils finished the game with just 17 shots against Detroit, 5 of which were from one player, Yegor Sharangovich. 17 players combined for 12 shots. That’s not good. And 0 of 18 players had a goal, except for one that was overturned. Against the Red Wings, you should be getting more offense than that. More than half the forwards (6/11) had 0 shots on goal.

The defense and goaltending was good at least, only allowing 1 non-empty net goal on only 22 shots. Good game for them, even if it’s just the Red Wings.

Is it next season yet?

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

Your Thoughts

What did you think about today’s game? Anything stand out to you? Annoyed about the overturned goal? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thank you for reading.