It just wasn’t their night.
The New Jersey Devils fell behind early and couldn’t generate any offense on Sunday night as they lost 4–0 to the Colorado Avalanche at Prudential Center in Newark.
Avalanche goaltender and former Devil Scott Wedgewood stopped all 25 shots he faced, earning his seventh career shutout and his first of the season.
Colorado’s Ross Colton, in his second game back from a 17-game injured reserve stint, opened the scoring 4:07 into the first period, quickly snapping in a Casey Mittelstadt pass. Colton, surrounded by three Devils players — Brendan Dillon, Erik Haula and Dawson Mercer — was left alone in front of the net. It was his ninth goal of the season.
The defensive miscues were only the start of New Jersey’s bad night. The Devils had two disallowed goals in the first period, and failed to generate any other offence during the game.
“From there we had a real lull rest of that period,” said Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe. “We sort of carried through a lot of our second period as well, so that’s the disappointing part.”
The lull Keefe was referring to was evident in his team’s lacklustre second period. New Jersey managed just two shots on goal in the middle frame. They were booed off the ice at the second intermission.
Another mistake in the second period cost the Devils. A Dougie Hamilton turnover combined with poor defensive recognition from Dillon and Jack Hughes left Avalanche forward Arturri Lehkonen wide open at the Devils’ blue line.
Mittelstadt, with another nice dish, hit him with a stretch pass. Lehkonen made no mistake. He beat goaltender Jake Allen over the glove for his seventh goal of the season to put the Avalanche ahead 3–0.
New Jersey got a chance to crawl back into the game with an early third period power play. The speedy winger Jesper Bratt was hooked by Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard 38 seconds in.
The Devils created chances. They could not score. They went 0–3 on the man advantage, a unit that ranks at the top of the league, converting on 33.7% of its opportunities.
“They didn’t do enough to get enough of those opportunities,” said Keefe.
What the Devils did do well, according to Keefe, was shutting down Colorado’s big three — Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar. The Devils held the trio to just one combined point — a Rantanen assist. MacKinnon ranks second in league scoring with 40 points through 29 games. Rantanen is tied for seventh with 35. Makar leads all defensemen with 34.
“That’s what was most disappointing with being down two after the first,” said Keefe. “You know, Nico’s line going head to head against MacKinnon, and we’d done a pretty good job against those guys through 20 minutes.”
“But to be down 2–0 is a bit of an indictment on the rest of our group.”
The Devils lacked energy and an emotional response like a big fight, hit or scoring chance, Keefe added. Colorado held the fort. They defended the Devils well through the neutral zone, which Keefe said also cost his team the game.
“We didn’t manage that well enough,” he said. “Both through skating, moving the puck quickly to play in behind them, all the things we do when we’re playing well.”
Above all, the message is simple: You can’t win if you can’t score. And the Devils will have to rectify that on Tuesday for their next game, when they face the Toronto Maple Leafs, Keefe’s former team, at Prudential Center. The Maple Leafs are tied for the third-fewest goals against in the NHL this season, having conceded 71 so far.
The Devils have scored the fourth-most goals in the league, making Sunday’s performance an anomaly.
“Offensively, clearly it wasn’t our night,” said Keefe.
