First Period Woes Sink Devils Homecoming

Devils fans were ready to cheer on their team on Thursday night but were hit with a major blow when the team let in three first period goals on their way to a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The homecoming was extra meaningful for head coach Sheldon Keefe who left Toronto for New Jersey and had his former team hand him a taste of his own medicine.

“You can’t spot any team in the league like that,” said Keefe after the game. “I don’t know that they deserved to be up three the way that they were but the reality is that they were. It’s a hard case to get out of but in some cases we dug our own holes there.”

The Devils came into this game off the back of two solid wins in Prague over the Buffalo Sabres. While the Sabres aren’t a team that is expected to do much this season, it was still a positive sign that the team was able to get the offense going the way that they did. It was undeniable that the Devils came home to the Prudential Center looking to make a statement. Especially against Keefe’s former team but that is not what happened on Thursday night.

Instead what was on display was what many were concerned about in preseason. Good stretches of play with the puck but large swathes of disorganization when on defense. Early on it appeared as though the team had some of the late 90’s aggression in them as they forced turnovers in the offensive zone. That clashed heavily with the gaps on defense that let star players like Auston Matthews have high-percentage looks on net. Combine this with giving up second and third chances on goal and the Devils were left out to try by the end of the the first period.

Puck play was not nearly good enough and defending not even close to enough today,” said Keefe. “We’re just trying to build our game and the opponent had a big say in the game here tonight but that was nowhere near close to what we need. Not even close to how we performed in Prague.”

This leaves the Devils with many questions still to answer. While they did score twice and control the puck for stretches of the game, their inability to gain momentum and cede moments to the Leafs leaves many scratching their heads. This was supposed to be a playoff team and even a dark horse-contender for the Stanley Cup. However, it’s looking like the team across the river in Manhattan is far closer than the one in Newark.