3 Takeaways From Devil’s Luggish 6-2 Loss to Penguins – Hockey Writers – New Jersey Devils

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3 Takeaways From Devil’s Luggish 6-2 Loss to Penguins – Hockey Writers – New Jersey Devils

For the first time this season, the New Jersey Devils entered the tournament officially knowing their fate, as they were released two days ago. That being said, there’s always something to play for against a team rival, but the Devils couldn’t muster any morale victories as they fell 6-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Related: Devils Stars and Coach React to Tom Fitzgerald’s Departure

Dougie Hamilton is Offensively Strong

It seems clear that the Devils will shake up their defense during the offseason. After Dougie Hamilton’s scratch on Jan. 10 and subsequent frustrated comments from his agent, JP Barry, Hamilton’s outlook in New Jersey appeared dim.

But since then, all he has done is to do. With a key assist tonight, he has seven goals and 26 points in 34 games since — a 63-point pace over a full season of 82 games. While there is still a lot of uncertainty about what lies ahead for the Devils’ season, Hamilton made an already incredibly difficult call on the next general manager.

During that time, the Devils scored 2.71 5v5 goals per 60 minutes with Hamilton on the ice – more than 11% better than any other Devils defenseman. Hamilton’s contract ($9 million AAV) runs through 2027-28. (via Natural Stat Trick)

Defense Continues to Struggle

All season long, head coach Sheldon Keefe has made it clear that the defensive side of the puck needs work. Although they have been winning more and more since the Olympic break, the defensive numbers below have remained the same; it’s all because of guilt.

Tonight, their 3.45 goals against in 55:15 of 5v5 time was the ninth-worst of the entire season – and the worst since Mar. 14.

New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes and Pittsburgh Penguins center Tommy Novak battle for the puck (Photos by Luther Schlaifer-Imagn)

In the second half, the Penguins scored two goals in nine seconds — the eighth-fastest time in franchise history (This was their #4,578 game).

“When you lose a game against a team like that, you just turn it on,” Keefe said. “It’s hard to stop.”

With Luka Hughes shut down for the rest of the season, the new pairing of Dennis Cholowski and Johnathan Kovacevic was a big reason for those numbers. The Devils were outscored by the Penguins 10-4 in 16:31 of ice time, and more importantly, they were outscored 2-0.

Number of Emotions

Between Tom Fitzgerald’s firing and their elimination from playoff contention, the vibes were nowhere close for the Devils tonight. It’s impossible to tell if that factored into their game, but based on the sentiment from the post-game interviews, it didn’t help.

“It’s hard when you know your season is over…but at the same time, your mindset should never change,” said forward Jake Allen, who lost tonight. “That’s something that comes with a little bit of maturity, and we need that in our game right now.”

Striker Paul Cotter, who scored a goal in the tournament, said, “You look around this room, you look at it on paper, you look at some of the things we can do, we can look for that opportunity. [to play in the playoffs]. It’s hard mentally to digest that and realize we’re not going to make the playoffs this year.”