The New Jersey Devils have a tougher task to recover from a 2-0 series deficit against the Carolina Hurricanes than the New York Rangers, writes Adam Proteau.
Jordan Martinook scores on Vitek Vanecek in the third period of a 6-1 Hurricanes Game 2 win.In their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series win over the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils put the league on notice – this is a team that’s going to be a headache for the opposition for years to come.
However, in the first two games of their second-round showdown with the Carolina Hurricanes – and in particular, New Jersey’s 6-1 Game 2 loss on Friday night – the Devils are showing they’re not even close to a perfect team. The Canes took advantage of all their weaknesses to take a 2-0 series lead.
As Friday’s game unfolded, New Jersey held the fort in the first period, which ended in a 0-0 tie. But from the second period on, the Hurricanes humbled the Devils, scoring four straight goals to essentially put the game out of reach.
New Jersey got on the scoreboard early in the third frame, but there was never any sense Carolina had lost control of the contest. Not even the presence of upstart rookie goalie Akira Schmid was a difference-maker for the Devils. Schmid got pulled at the end of the second, and his replacement, Vitek Vanecek, allowed two goals in the third. The Devils’ defense was virtually non-existent, and Carolina’s well-balanced offense – which had 12 Hurricanes players generating at least one point – overwhelmed New Jersey in their own zone.
The Devils did come up flat in Round 1 when they went down 2-0 in the series against the Rangers before they roared back and won four of the next five games, so there’s no reason to think New Jersey can’t put up more of a fight against the Canes. That said, Carolina is a much tougher opponent than the Blueshirts, and the Hurricanes aren’t at full strength. They’re not going to get back injured veterans Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty this year, but they’re proving they don’t need them.
To wit: Carolina’s top-nine forward group has generated 45 points in nine playoff games this spring, and their top two defense pairings have produced 14 points in that span.
There is no Connor McDavid-level individual talent on the Hurricanes, but the depth of above-average skilled players is what Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour has to play with, and Brind’Amour is one of the very best bench bosses in the sport. He had his team prepared to play a low-mistake, highly-opportunistic game in Game 2, and this is why it’s impressive that Carolina didn’t panic when they didn’t score in the first period. The Canes use their speed and savvy to make excellent transitions out of their end, and New Jersey simply had no answer for them.
The series now shifts to New Jersey for Games 3 and 4, and the Devils can’t allow the Hurricanes to win again, as there’s no chance they can pull the same trick on the Hurricanes that they pulled on the Rangers. It’s likely that New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff could go back to Schmid, and rightfully so; Schmid wasn’t the reason the Devils lost either Game 1 or 2, and Vanecek hasn’t earned another chance to be the starter at this point.
We said it at the start of the season, and we’ll repeat it again: the Hurricanes were our pick to win the Cup, and they dominated the New York Islanders in Round 1. Now, the Devils have shown even less pushback than the Isles did. Ruff has to figure out a way to mitigate Carolina’s puck-possession dominance, and he has to figure it out quickly. If not, the Hurricanes are going to push them into the off-season in short order.
The Canes are that good, and the Devils can’t put forth anything less than a full buy-in effort if they’re going to avoid being swept.