Cryptid Cup stays in New Jersey

Cryptid Cup? Sure, we’ll keep that thing – whatever it is.

The game today almost felt a little secondary to the surprise press conference with Fitz, where he answered some pointed questions from local media about a wide variety of questions. The overarching message is they seem to be staying the course right now, no one is losing their job, and all the current players are the current players. It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it works out. The Devils have 35 games left, and to get to a comfortable playoff spot, say 95 points, they need to play at a .642 clip or win basically 23 of those 35 games. Doable? Doesn’t seem like it, but crazier things have happened. With the lineup really fully healthy as intended for the first time all season with Kovacevic back in the mix, I do have that faint glimmer of hope.

The other drama surrounding the Devils is our seemingly new rotation at right D. Dougie showed out in Minnesota after his night off, Nemec got his night off and looked great tonight, and now after a back to back the newly activated Kovacevic got his night off but was his sturdy self in his return. Word from insiders is that Dougie is still on the block, but based on the presser today maybe that is walked back? Who knows – anyway, embarrassing all around.

So about the game tonight!

Generally low event defensive hockey for most of it, with the good guys pulling it out in OT. Nico led the way with 2 goals, while Jack and Luke both registered 2 assists on his goals. We need our stars to show up and put up numbers, and they have the past two games.

1st Period

The first was generally a boring slog fest, as both teams were committed to clogging the neutral zone, and keep the offense to the perimeter. Cody Glass got us on the board, off a clean face-off win back to Dougie. Loved Cody’s effort spinning off the D perfectly for the rebound, and we are up 1-0 early.

Old Pal Adam Larson ties it up (obviously) on a mess of a play, where McCann fanned on it coming in and had all day to drop it to Larson, who beat Markstrom on a clean writer from distance. Would’ve loved a better back check here, and/or Markstrom to stop that since it’s a clean look. If I was a gambling man (wait, I am!), hammering former Devils goals against us is free money.

Literally nothing happened in the 1st after this, with shots ending 5-4, and chances tied at 3.

2nd Period

At 3:33 of the 2nd, Nico got the Powerplay on the board, off a bit of a broken zone entry. Frankly I thought he was hurt at first as he got buried by Tolvanen by the right point, but as Luke hit Jack streaking in, he found Nico who let a bomb go. The replay looks like it caught a bit of Lindgren’s shinpad – we take those – and we are up 2-1.

The Kraken struck back almost immediately at 5:06 on the Powerplay after Glass went off for a high stick. Glendening got smoked on the draw that went back to Vince Dunn, who ripped it through Glendening’s legs from the point. Markstrom kicks out an atrocious rebound (literally couldn’t have placed it better for McCann) who made no mistake. It was somewhat amusing to watch Sal during intermission as he tried to Zapruder a deflection off Glendening.

I did like the end of their 2nd period – they got a little frisky with some good Ozone time. Luke did some good work down low and had a good effort trying trying a deke with Grubauer swimming, Jack hit the post, Dougie missed a baseball chance, but as it goes with the Devils, nothing fell and we got to the room 2-2. One of their better periods as they far out chanced the Kraken 11-7. But chances aren’t goals.

3rd Period

Seattle seemed to drop into a 1-2-2 trap in the 3rd, clogging up the neutral zone and the Devils had a brutal time getting through int he first 5 or so minutes. The tide turned about halfway through and they put together some really good shifts. Mercer and Timo got decent chances up front while Dougie, Dillon and Nemec had some open looks form the back. But, stop me if you’ve heard this one, we couldn’t get the 3rd and off to OT we go.

Overtime

The scariest moment against was on a rough shift from Timo. He fumbled the puck along the boards and he had to desperately squeeze off the post with Markstrom seemingly going for a pretzel.

Just as I was wondering to myself, I wonder why Grits doesn’t seem to get into the regular OT rotation, there he was blowing through the neutral zone, split a couple D and got a good shot off that Grubauer squeezed.

And out Captain BURIES THE WINNER! Big stop from Marky that Luke calmly collected, found Jack who hit a streaking Nico. He seemed to fool Grubauer by pulling the shot down and going backhand short side – slick move Captain.

Some Scatterd Thoughts

Jack looked a little shaky with the puck. Kinda funny because he still had 2 points. I know he wants nothing more than to play in the Olympics, but if we pull out of this malaise I really would prefer for him to be there in name only. Bring JRob instead.

Dougie has been electric since his press box tour, this is the guy we want and need. I have no problem if they have a little 4 RD rotation, even Pesce could probably use a breather.

They’ve made some Powerplay changes, trying the 2-unit thing, and it doesn’t seem to be working very well. If the Dougie benching woke him up (3 assists in 2 games), maybe try putting him back on unit one with the regular first group.

Moneypuck says they only gave up 1.2 xGA at 5v5 (and 2.85 all situations) which are stellar numbers defensively. They only gave up 2.07 at 5v5 to Minnesota also – Keep this up and I just might start believing again, but unless they do this for a good 10-15 game stretch I am still skeptical. Their inconsistency is the only thing consistent about them.

This 4th line is terrible, they just wind up in the D-zone for the entirety of their ice, and it all starts with Glendening. Really need to at minimum find a new solution there. He is breaking charts, in really bad ways (that’s him, off the chart to the left). It drags down anyone who plays with him. He also lost the face-off on the Kraken’s second goal, and Faceoffs are his one redeeming quality.

That’s it gang, big W! Are we back? Are we skeptical?

LGD