The New Jersey Devils gave it everything they had in their Eastern Conference First Round series against the Carolina Hurricanes. But with their top player, center Jack Hughes, out of action following season-ending shoulder surgery in early March and three key defenseman also sidelined with injuries, it wasn’t enough.
The depleted Devils saw their season end Tuesday and became the first team eliminated from this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs when they lost 5-4 in double overtime to the Hurricanes at Lenovo Center in Game 5 of their best-of-7 series. Sebastian Aho’s power-play goal at 4:17 of the second overtime sent the Devils home for the summer in painful fashion.
The Devils raced to a 3-0 first-period lead in Game 5, let it all slip away, but regained the lead, 4-3, on Nico Hischier’s second-period goal. They blew that lead too on Carolina’s fourth goal of the second period, and wasted a tremendous effort by goaltender Jacob Markstrom, who made 49 saves and gave them a chance to win despite being outshot 34-12 after the opening 40 minutes.
“Right now it’s tough to think about,” Hischier said after the game. “We battled our asses off. They got the momentum, and we just panicked a little bit. We found ourselves back on our heels.”
Markstrom kept the Devils alive, making a number of critical saves late in regulation and throughout overtime. Carolina outshot New Jersey 15-8 in the third period, 14–3 in the first extra period and 5-1 in the second OT, but Markstrom made 33 consecutive saves during that span before Aho’s game-winner. The winning goal came with New Jersey forward Dawson Mercer sitting out the second half of a careless double minor for high-sticking.
“He made some unbelievable saves,” Devils forward Timo Meier said. “Not just this game but through the whole series.
“It’s not a great feeling, losing like that. Everybody competed so hard, worked so hard. We can be proud of the way we battled through adversity. We have to get better. We’ve got to get better.”
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Devils give it their all but lose to Hurricanes in first round of playoffs
Poor goaltending was the biggest reason the Devils missed the playoffs last season. General manager Tom Fitzgerald acquired Markstrom from the Calgary Flames last summer and got the kind of goaltending his team lacked a year ago, even though the Devils came up short against the Hurricanes.
“It’s tough right now. Put up four goals on the road in Carolina against a good team — we should have brought it home,” a disappointed Markstrom said. “That should have been enough.”
Jack Hughes, who had 70 points in 62 games this season before season-ending shoulder surgery in March, was the most notable injured Devils player. But he wasn’t the only one sidelined during the series.
Defensemen Luke Hughes (Jack’s younger brother) and Brenden Dillon each sustained an undisclosed injury during a 4-1 loss in Game 1 and missed the rest of the series. New Jersey also lost defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic with an undisclosed injury in the first period of its only victory in the series, a 3-2 double-OT win in Game 3. They began the series without injured defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, though he returned during it.
The absence of the Hughes brothers was especially noticeable on the power play. They Devils were third on the power play (28.2 percent) during the regular season but were 0-for-15 and allowed a short-handed goal against the Hurricanes, who led the NHL in penalty-killing during the regular season at 83.6 percent.
In contrast, Carolina was 6-for-19 (31.6 percent) with the extra man, including the tying and winning goals in Game 5.
The good news for the Devils is that Jack Hughes should be fully healthy by training camp, as should the three defensemen. Markstrom has plugged the hole in goal, and there’s and there’s more talent on the way – most notably young defensemen Simon Nemec (who scored the overtime winner in New Jersey’s only victory against Carolina) and Seamus Casey.
Devils coach Sheldon Keefe had nothing but praise afterward for the way his team competed despite the rash of injuries.
“I loved the fight in our team,” he said. “We competed hard.”
But in the end, giving everything they had with a diminished roster wasn’t enough.
“It’s a hard league. It’s hard to win,” Meier said. “But this group never quit.”