Well, well it appears the Devils' demise was greatly exaggerated. There was a lot to like last night, and about 12 minutes not to like.
What a first period. Not just the scoreboard, but process, game flow, breakouts, transitions, O-Zone pressure.. Every line was clicking, the PP looked smooth and fluid and led to our first of the night off a nice redirect from Nico off a Bratt point feed. We've needed Nico to take his leadership to another level in both play and emotion and (as discussed on the podcast - you should listen!) he was a menace against Philly, and here he gets us on the board first. I really gotta say, the PP looked effortless and not panicked, the puck retrievals were clean and movement was crisp. You get a touch! and you get a touch! and you get a touch! Loved it.
Getting on the board first is obviously important, but for this team this year it just seems to alter their entire mindset and gets them rolling downhill. I was really impressed with the puck support in the D-zone and backchecking support on transitions, everywhere a CBJ went a Devil was in their back pocket - just a nice simplified game. The PK right afterwards (on a semi-bullshit call) was literally one of the easiest they've had, CBJ could barely crack the zone and led to Paul Cotter with an absolute beauty of goal. He was PISSSSEEDDDD coming out of the box, hit those piston crossovers and was basically the fastest kid alive. Blew past Provorov like he was standing still and showed those DJ Pauly C hands with a silky finish. Our boy hit 23.4 MPH - his fastest speed burst of the season. Maybe we shouldn't question Keefe's lineup choices, because that was what you call "fresh legs."
But wait there's more! Our new favorite toy, Cody Glass continued his new guy bump with sexy pull-up zone entry, pulled it off to the side, floated it to the middle where Provorov thought the puck was gay and misplayed it, right to Bratt who swept it on goal, surprising Merzlinkins. One thing I've noticed about Glass is he is very smooth on zone entries, has great vision and finds open space to extend plays and let things develop. He changes pace really well and can slow things down (almost Kucherov-ish), and that gave Bratt the time to drive the middle to the net for the finish. So far so good on Glass, we may have something here - but let's get some more games in. For now though, See above about questioning Keefe's lineup choices, he and Bratt looked great together.
So now what? A dominant first, what is this? The fancies showed a pretty strong showing too: 62.5% CF, 67.85% xGF, 11-5 Scoring Chance advantage, and 6-2 HD Scoring Chance advantage (Natural Stat Trick). Well, of course since we can't have nice things, we took our foot off the gas and CBJ is a quick strike team. For about 12 minutes there it got uncomfortably close with CBJ potting 2 quickly to cut the lead. The first on an unfortunate bounce off a Haula block and nice high tip by Olivier. Man it'd be super nice if our goon knew how to actually play hockey like their goon. They followed that up quickly with other new guy Dumoulin getting walked around by Marchenko and a sick feed from Fantilli and it's hold on to your butts time. You just can't let a guy like Marchenko get in behind you and a guy like Fantilli time to pull up high in the zone - but CBJ has some high end talent and it was on display there.
Our PK stepped up again after an atrocious call on Nico, who politely told the ref that may have been a questionable call. Just kidding, he told him that was a "bullshit fucking call, and you can't call shit." Not sure where Nico learned English, but since we have a similar vocabulary I'm gonna guess New Jersey. With papa Pesce in attendance, Brett showed his veteran value as he drew a shorthanded penalty that really just encapsulates the effort the boys showed tonight. He kept his feet moving through a board battle and got dragged down. For you hockey parents out there - have the kiddos keep their feet moving and good things happen. I say the same thing to the boys on the bench in beer league, but no one listens, including me because we're generally half cocked, fat and out of shape.
For whatever reason our podcast has been slightly hijacked with wrestling talk - and to do my best to relate: THAT'S TIMO MEIER'S MUSIC!!! Meier March continues, and as I have been writing and talking about for 3 months after some intrepid investigative reporting, he seems to score the bulk of his goals in March. With Jack down - we really need him to earn his keep. He scored the biggest goal of the year so far with a beautiful 3 on 2 downhill snipe off the post. Maybe as the season goes on he stops hitting posts? Confused arms up emoji. I do want to shout out Noesen on this play, he makes an elite hockey sense move, curling back instead of tossing the puck up the boards. Prior to corralling the Dumoulin pass, you can see him glance at allllllll the wide open ice Timo will have, so he peels off and sends it cross-ice for our handsome bull. Another note to hockey parents, take a peek and be ready with a plan before the puck gets to you. Credit to Mercer too for taking a hard center line drive to the net. Of all the guys that needed to cash in, Timo has been the guy we have been begging for and don't look now that's 3 goals in his last 6 games. I'm gonna pay off my mortgage gambling on this.
We entered the 3rd with a 2 goal lead, and there's one thing we are still good at - it's finishing off games when we have the lead. Another guy we need to elevate is Luke, and he has answered the bell. Almost immediately into the 3rd, our boy rips it through Olivier's legs and top shelf. Degree of difficulty: 8 out of 10. He now has 10 pts in his past 10 games, is QBing a nice looking PP1. Kid is elite and we need that to be consistent from here on out. What reallllly makes this play though, is another really good zone entry from Glass. As I mentioned above, he slows the game down, buys some time knifing into the zone and peeling off in the corner. Again, really impressed with how smart he is.
We gave one more back on a flukey play - Cholowski kinda got dog-walked by Olivier and a weird deflection off Bratt's stick and over Marky. But this game was over, and we locked it down one more time. Massive win.
I have some hope guys, without Jack and after the shock of losing him, that is two strong tight games with very little to be mad about. Teams are going to counter punch and we showed we can win a tight checking game against Philly and a track meet against CBJ. You can't replace Jack/Dougie one for one, but with the ole Moneyball logic, we can replace him in the aggregate. Bratt stepped up, Timo stepped up, Nico stepped up, Luke stepped up, Glass has been fantastic. Dumoulin has been admirable in Siegs's stead.
More of this please boys, next up, Edmonton, who has been floundering. 3 in a row sounds nice.
How's the playoff push going Valiquette? Not great I see, you fucking loser.
LGD
