That was more or less curtains on the 2024-2025 Devils barring some sort of miracle. I'm cold and there are wolves out (extra credit if you know this reference).
We needed a lot more from the team last night and they didn't have enough push, and just seemed out of gas from the hop. ANOTHER blue line injury didn't help. I just didn't see anyone with an extra bounce in their step last night. I've seen people making this a referendum on the bottom 6, Marky, the power play, Dougie, injuries, even idiots somehow putting this on Nico's leadership.. and yeah all of that was problematic (except for the last one) but no one issue is more at fault than the rest. Collectively getting through all of this is an ask this team hasn't been able to overcome.
That first period was a killer, and giving up one early seemed to just put the wheels in motion. Marky has to get that one or the D has to get a block if you're getting in front of him. Just a floater from distance can't go in, especially in the first minute of the game. Even after this one, we were getting caved in, details in our own zone were awful and we had repeated failed clears. That's just no way to do things against the Canes who seemed to smell blood in the water and thrive on Ozone turnovers and failed clears. They came in waves and we had no answer.
Which led to goal #2. This one just cannot happen, and Noesen knew it, slamming the puck into the boards after it went in. Slavin made up for his own brutal game 3, pickpocketing Noesen at the point and walking in alone, roofing it over Marky's RVH stance. I would've loved to see Marky get that one, but that is also a perfect shot. Amongst the goaltending community there is a raging debate over this stance (Rervese Vertical Horizontal: when you have your pad against the post vertically and the other pad along the ice horizontally and leave a tiny space above the short side shoulder). I'm torn because I get the reason they do this to cover low and most of the net, but shooters have clearly adapted, we've seen Jack exploit this move over and over again to the point of a patent application.
Once again our special teams let us down, and #3 came on their first Power Play. This was after we had our own "opportunity" to get one back, but generated nothing. Not really much they can do on this one, it was a nice back door play - probably a result of the cumulative beating our D Corps was taking and PK ironman shit Dumo and Pesce were doing. They basically played half the PK minutes (and as a former PKer which I can assure you it is exhausting) especially after playing 30+ minutes two nights before. No Kovacevic and a not 100% Jonas isn't helping here.
We needed a big second period, and got one. I was really impressed with the push back - like a starter who gets tagged in the first inning the battled through the middle innings. We controlled the 5v5 shot attempts (25-24), Scoring Chances (6-4) and High Danger Scoring Chances (5-4). For as rough of a first Marky had, he battled back and gave us a chance to come back in this one. While it wound up giving us false hope, this was a gutty 2nd period.
Nico's goal was a perfect example of what they needed to do - drive low and get it to the mixer, Timo throwing it in front, a good bounce off Palat and a D in front, right to Nico who finished. Great look from Timo and finish from Nico, but I really credit Palat here for driving hard to the net and taking a D-man with him. Once again, he is back to doing the "little things" that we needed out of him.
Next it was Timo's turn to drive the net and he got deep into the blue point, making contact with Andersen. Timo might need some security protection from unhinged Canes fans who are calling for his head and seemingly do not understand how hockey works. Was it unfortunate? Yeah, that sucks for Andersen, but Timo is trying to make a net drive play there. No intent, and c'mon man that was not some trucking, he bumped him. I will say that should probably get 2 minutes, but it didn't, maybe don't lead with your head Freddie, quit fucking crying you babies.
With Kochetkov coming in, Timo took advantage with one of his favorite volume shooter moves - a spinning low shot from a bad angle on the RW boards. This was a real opportunity to make a push and get some rubber on a cold, mediocre goalie, but we just didn't get much of anything dangerous after this. Carolina, to their credit, locked down in front of him and we had no push - like I said above no one really had any jump in their legs to make that push. This included an absolute dud of a PP (more on that below).
So we entered the 3rd, only down one and were pushing (albeit not all that hard). Needed to empty the tank in the 3rd to get this one tied, but it turns out there was barely any gas in there to empty. We still controlled a little over half of the territory battle at 5v5 this period, leading shots and chances (7-6, 6-4 respectively), but really didn't create anything dangerous.... again.
The back breaker was the 4th - and this one is 100% on Markstrom, who misplays the puck and then let's it squeak through him. Brutal goal at a horrible time. Just nothing after this one, and Dougie gives it away for an ENG. The dream was dead.
Once again, the number one culprit in the series has been special teams and specifically this absolute shitshow of a power play. Dougie is clearly playing on one leg and has no dynamic ability up top to make plays or shoot, Bratt and Timo remain flipped for some reason, and Noesen needs to be off it immediately. To give you some numerical context, aside from being 0/12 we have generated 6.9 xGF/60 which would have put us at the 30th most productive PP in the regular season. This is compared to 10.8 xGF/60 that we generated ourselves during the season, 1st by a decent amount. We are the only team in the playoffs without a Power Play goal. if you include SHGs against, we are actually -8%.. FUCKING NEGATIVE. The PK hasn't been it's sturdy self either, clocking in at 69% (nice) which has us 7th worst in the playoffs. We were the number 1 team on combined special teams percentage, well over 100, and are the combined worst now in the playoffs.
The bottom 6 continues to be a drag, and as I said going in they needed to at minimum hold their ice and break even. But they are collectively getting worked and this game was no different. Between the 6 of them they had zero shots on goal and the territorial battle was fucking atrocious:
Glass/Cotter/Noesen - CF: 14.3% / SCF: 0% / xGF: 1.8%
Tatar/Bastian/Dowling - CF: 28% / SCF: 40% / xGF% 7.6%
And just so you know, those percentages are out of 10o and 1.8% and 7.6% mean the other side controlled 98.2% and 92.4% of the ice while out there. Just absolute bum behavior, the 4th line needs to be all new next year and that third line needs to be the 4th line.
Markstrom has been very good all post season and this was a rough time to put up a stinker. He was fighting the puck all night, and sometimes with him you can just tell if he's going to be off, and you could tell early. But it is a team game, and when your support in front of you is bad, it's not going to help the goaltender out.
This shit ain't over though. Need to regroup, go into Carolina and steal game 5 there. My confidence is low, but we aren't dead. Need to see some personnel changes just for fresh legs. Give Halonen a shot for gods sake, give Sprong a shot, give Casey a shot. And fix the fucking power play. One game for the rest of the season.
Oh, and it is absolute loser cuckold behavior to chime in yesterday about Markstrom and the Devils while you're on the golf course, Valiquette. FUCK YOU, you smug, crybaby bitch.