Despite the Devils’ comeback win over the Red Wings, Sheldon Keefe is not satisfied

Despite struggling in his last start, New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe returned to goaltender Jacob Markstrom on the first night of back-to-back games on Friday in the Motor City against the Detroit Red Wings.

Things continued to be tough for the Swedish goaltender on Wednesday night, but the Devils’ power play gave New Jersey a 5-4 win.

While they defeated the Red Wings, the Devils lost forward Tomas Tatar for the remainder of the game due to an injury in the first period.

RELATED: Devils forward injured against Red Wings, status unclear

Let’s get into how it happened.

Devils summary

The Devils fell behind early when the Red Wings scored two even-strength goals less than 10 minutes into the first through the sticks of Vladimir Tarasenko and Lucas Raymond. However, the Devils struck back twice on the power play. First, Dougie Hamilton fired a shot over Cam Talbot’s right shoulder. Then, after a failed challenge by the coach for the goalie’s interference with Hamilton’s goal, the Devils reverted back to the man advantage. Luke Hughes set up Timo Meier for a unique rocket opportunity.

The Red Wings broke the tie in the second period after Tyler Motte redirected a point shot from Ben Chiarot. But Nico Hischier and Stefan Noesen equalized and then took the lead at the second break.

On a four-minute power play early in the third period, Jack Hughes scored the Devils’ fifth goal of the second half of the double minor. Justin Holl struck back a few moments later and brought the game back to one point. But time ran out and the Devils held on and managed to get back into the win column.

Jacob Markstrom made 26 saves on 30 shots, stopped 2/3 shots on Detroit’s power play and had three other shorthanded shots.

Takeaways

Markstrom struggles early

The Devils were emotionally battered after the events in their last meeting with the Red Wings and needed to get off to a good start. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened and Markstrom was unable to inspire New Jersey.

The Devils downed a man early after Brenden Dillon cross-checked Michael Rasmussen. The Devils did a good job on the penalty kill, keeping a tight formation in the slot to limit dangerous shots. However, Tarasenko found some ice in the left circle and hit Markstrom on the glove side.

The problem is that it was a very salvageable target. Tarasenko didn’t lift the puck high enough and hit Markstrom – who was unshielded – over the pad and under his glove.

According to Moneypuck, this shot only had a 6% chance of scoring and it ended up in the net.

As if the first goal wasn’t bad enough, the second was even worse. Raymond’s wrap-around chance hit multiple bodies at the top of the goal crease and was deflected off the Devils’ goaltender. However, Markstrom’s post-to-post shot was quite slow on a very saveable goal that only had a 1% chance of crossing the goal line.

Markstrom recovered a bit and made some important saves. Still, he finished the contest with -0.52 saves above expectations.

Check the goalkeeper

Without Stefan Noesen and the power play, the Devils would go home empty-handed.

Noesen may have scored the Devils’ fourth goal, but it was his work as a net forward that took the eyes of Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot away from him and was arguably his greatest contribution.

On the Devils’ first power play goal, Noesen recognized that Hamilton was getting ice for a shot attempt. The Devils forward jumped in front of Talbot, who was not in the blue paint, and completely shielded the Detroit goalkeeper, preventing him from seeing Hamilton’s shot that ultimately led to a corner.

Later in the third period, Noesen positioned himself right back in Talbot’s goal crease and regained Talbot’s view, leading to Hughes’ game-winning power play goal.

Resilience is not the recipe

There is no doubt that the Devils’ comeback win was resilient.

New Jersey fell behind twice before finally taking the lead late in the second period.

Ultimately, the Devils were able to hold off the Red Wings, and while Keefe is happy with their attempt to come back, he expects a more complete game from his team.

“Obviously we don’t like the way we started the game tonight. This is something we clearly need to address,” Keefe began. “I thought it was great that our power play came out and restarted the game for us. From then on we get off early, fight back and get a lead. Then build that lead… It’s definitely a resilient effort. Not the way you want it to be. But a lot of good comes out of it.”

Fast switching processes

• Timo Meier led the Devils with five shots. Paul Cotter, Nico Hischier and Luke Hughes each registered four shots.
• Erik Haula won 60% (6/10) of faceoffs on Friday afternoon.
• Jack Hughes led all Devils skaters with a time on the ice of 21:50.

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