The Devils played against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday at the Prudential Center, taking a 4-2 loss. This was the Devils’ first game back since playing against the Buffalo Sabres in Prague. Both Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier scored the two goals for New Jersey, and Dennis Hildeby won his NHL debut finishing with a total of 23 saves for the Maple Leafs. Toronto scored three of their four goals on 11 shots in the first period after a 1-0 loss against the Montreal Canadiens, where they took 48 shots. The Devils will be heading to Washington to play against the Capitals on Saturday, and the Maple Leafs will host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
New Jersey Devils Lineup:
Meier – Hughes – Bratt
Tatar – Hischier – Mercer
Palat – Haula – Noesen
Cotter – Lazar – Bastian
Dillon – Hamilton
Siegenthaler – Kovacevic
Casey – Nemec
Markstrom
Allen
Toronto Maple Leafs Lineup:
Knies – Matthews – Marner
Domi – Tavares – Nylander
Pacioretty – Holmberg – Robertson
Lorentz – Kampf – McMann
Rielly – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – McCabe
Benoit – Timmins
Hildeby
Stolarz
At 11:42 of the opening frame, Max Pacioretty gave the Maple Leafs the 1-0 lead when he scored on a snapshot. This goal marks Pacioretty’s first as a Leaf. Bobby McMann sent the puck past Jacob Markstrom from the right face-off circle to push it to 2-0 with 8:31 on the clock. Scoring on a backhand from the slot, Steven Lorentz gave Toronto a 3-0 lead with 5:15 remaining in the first period. With just seconds left on the clock, Jesper Bratt cut Toronto’s lead to 3-1, scoring the first goal for New Jersey on the power play with a shot from the high slot.
John Tavares scored late in the middle frame at 5:08 to give the Leafs a 4-1 lead. He skated between Dawson Mercer and Simon Nemec in the slot, then scored on a wrist shot. Only remaining on the clock, Timo Meier cut it to 4-2 from the left circle on a wrist shot… the third period was scoreless, the final being a 4-2 win for the Maple Leafs.
Jesper Bratt on how the Devils played and the 4-2 loss against the Maple Leafs: “We lost the majority of the battles and the puck battles, and that means you don’t play as much with the puck. That’s kind of the main reason today. They won the battles, they won the puck back, they gained momentum, and then they got some goals. Obviously, we came back with some big goals that kind of held us in the game, a little bit at least. But, in the end, I think their puck battles and their puck play was better than ours.”
Timo Meier on the loss and how they played: “A lot of times we just didn’t get our feet moving. We threw pucks away, almost like panicking. So, we got to do a much better job with that, especially against a team like Toronto that has a lot of skill. They’ll make you pay for it,” – “We love playing at home, it should give us energy… but, overall, I thought we didn’t compete enough and execute enough to get those two points. Now we got to analyze, move on, and get better.”
Dennis Hildeby on his teammates cheering for him after the win, and the emotions leading up to this game: “I was scared – there was a lot of noise. I was just trying to get to my seat, honestly. But, it’s a good feeling. Better than quiet,” – “It was a lot of emotions for me to handle, honestly. I just wanted to make it like any other game, for my performance sake. Of course, I try to enjoy as much as possible too, but it was a little bit of a back and forth there where I want to handle it, not getting too emotional.”
Notes:
– Jacob Markstrom made a total of 18 saves for New Jersey.
– Dennis Hildeby is the fifth Toronto goaltender in the past 20 years to win his first career start.
– The 4-2 loss spoiled the home coaching debut of Sheldon Keefe against his former team, the Maple Leafs. He had been hired by the Devils 14 days after Toronto fired him.
– Craig Berube won his first game as the coach of the Maple Leafs (1-1-0)
– Steven Lorentz recorded both a goal and an assist… he had signed a one-year contract with the Leafs on October 7th after winning the Stanley Cup with the Florida Panthers last season.
– The Maple Leafs had 27 blocked shots, being led by defenseman Jake McCabe (six blocks)
– Toronto has won eight straight road games against New Jersey dating to December 18th, 2018.
