The New Jersey Devils are now scoreless through their last six periods, and winless in their last four games.
You can’t even blame Jacob Markstrom for this one. In fact, he’s been strong in back-to-back losses.
Instead, it’s the offense that continues to struggle to create legitimate scoring opportunities, which has resulted in a scoreless 120 minutes in New Jersey’s last two games.
On the other end of the ice, ex-Devils goaltender, Akira Schmid tended the twine for the Vegas Golden Knights.
His first start against his former club was a memorable one, turning aside all X shots he faced from the Devils.
Let’s dive into the Devils’…
Period One
Following the opening puck drop, play was all Vegas early in the first period. Through the first five minutes of the game, the Devils struggled to move the puck out of their own end of the ice to the offensive zone. The result was an early5-0 shot advantage for the Golden Knights five minutes into the first period, which forced Jacob Markstrom to start the game on his toes.
The Devils believed they scored first, however, when Timo Meier threw a puck on net from the far wall that was redirected by Nico Hischier. Yet, upon review following a coaches challenge by Vegas, Meier appeared to skate the puck offside before the goal, thus returning the game to no score.
At the 5:15 mark of the first period, the Golden Knights scored on a redirect by Pavel Dorofeyev. However, the Vegas goal was also waved off as Dorofeyev redirected the puck with a high-stick, and the game remained scoreless.
Before the clock ran out for the first, the Golden Knights sustained pressure in the offensive zone. After pinned the Devils in their own end for a bit, the tired Devils defenders lost their defensive structure. Shea Theodore found a shooting lane from the right circle, and beat Markstrom to send the game into its first intermission 1-0 Vegas.
Period Two
Trying to create some life to start the second period, the Devils showed some life and played with a sense of urgency.
However, despite creating nine scoring chances in the middle frame, the Golden Knights layered the defensive zone similarly to how the Dallas Stars did two nights ago, which led to a 3-0 shutout loss for New Jersey.
Vegas clogged their shoot and passing lanes, and kept the Devils to the perimeter in the offensive zone, which limited New Jersey’s ability to create high-danger chances.
Then, Sheldon Keefe jumbled his lines a bit, reuniting Jesper Bratt with Hischier and Meier. It resulted in a few extra even strength chances, and increased volume of high-danger scoring opportunities, but Schmid stood tall and kept the Devils off the board.
New Jersey certainly pressured Vegas in the middle frame with an 11-7 shot differential and sat on the positive side of a 12-5 scoring chance advantage. Yet, the game went into its second intermission remaining 1-0 in favor of Vegas.
Period Three
Vegas and New Jersey played for 42:16 before the first penalty was called. Brandon Saad sat for two minutes after he was whistled for tripping Simon Nemec.
The Devils’ first unit went to work, however, the two-minute advantage was gone before it could even start.
A disjointed power play struggled to settle the puck, and accumulated no scoring chances despite having an extra man on the ice.
Thus, New Jersey’s power play expired, and even strength ensued as the Devils chased a one-goal lead.
The Devils received another chance, however, after Noah Hanifin sent the puck over the glass and sat for a delay of game.
This time, the Devils’ power play was stronger, but still couldn’t solve Akira Schmid.
The man advantage expired, and then the Devils would soon-after unravel. The captain, Nico Hischier, was called for back-to-back minor infractions.
Unlike the Devils, Vegas took advantage on their power plays as Tomas Hertl redirected Mitch Marner shot past Markstrom, and Jack Eichel deposited the dagger during Vegas’ second power play to widen the gap to 3-0, and sent the Devils to their fourth straight loss.
On 27 shots, Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves.
