{"id":382331,"date":"2025-12-31T03:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/382331\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T03:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T03:51:11","slug":"lacking-balls-palat-went-wrong-vs-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/382331\/","title":{"rendered":"Lacking ‘Balls,’ Palat Went Wrong vs. Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mean, talk about an embarrassing, embarrassing loss. The New Jersey Devils<\/a> were shut out by the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> 4-0 on the road Tuesday night, in a game where the opposition was without their best players.<\/p>\n

When the Devils were missing their best, the opposition took advantage. That\u2019s what good teams do. Yet, the opposite happened in Toronto, and New Jersey suffered their fourth loss in a row, and their sixth in their last 10 games.<\/p>\n

Now, the Devils\u2019 conundrum gets tougher. Do you trust the general manager who put them in this position to make a trade and try to instill any sort of improvement to the roster when there\u2019s still a clear path to the playoffs? Or do you fire him mid-season, something that doesn\u2019t happen very often in season, with the negligence displayed thus far.<\/p>\n

You can no longer chalk this up to injuries. That narrative ran dry last season. Yes, they dealt with it again this year, but you knew coming into 2025-26 that you\u2019d need the proper depth to sustain what feels inevitable year after year. Besides, the Devils\u2019 best players are all back in the lineup.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no more excuses for this. It\u2019s not the coaching. Sheldon Keefe is working with what he has. It\u2019s one of two things. The roster construction, or the players themselves, just don\u2019t have it in them.<\/p>\n

After all, Keefe has outwardly explained this team lacks mental toughness.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to some observations.<\/p>\n

10 Observations<\/p>\n

Keefe CLEARLY wanted the Devils to get on the board first and early. He skated Jack Hughes<\/a> in his first shift for 1:55. I\u2019m pretty sure I saw him out there with all four lines in some capacity. Yes, he\u2019s your best player, but he\u2019s still nursing a hand injury that has him wearing a cast every day. The lack of scoring depth became that much more obvious at this moment. It\u2019s literally Jack or bust in terms of the Devils\u2019 success.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, I\u2019ve been riding Dougie Hamilton<\/a> a lot lately. And look, it\u2019s for good reason. He\u2019s a $9 million player, and he hasn\u2019t been good. I did like an early shift from him in the first period, though. It was the best play I\u2019ve seen him make in weeks. Toronto was transitioning the puck from the neutral to the offensive zone on an odd-man rush. However, his back check forced a turnover when he swiped the puck away from the puck carrier from behind, which forced the play offsides. It negated the scoring chance and pushed the faceoff outside the offensive zone. If I\u2019m going to be hard on him, I should highlight his positives, too.<\/p>\n

By the way, Hamilton left the game with 50 seconds remaining in the third after what appeared to be a spear to his mid-section. We\u2019ll see if anything comes of that. <\/p>\n

Dawson Mercer<\/a> is now goalless in 13 straight games. He had the Devils\u2019 best scoring chance in the first period, a one-time chance from the right circle. However, it rang iron and he looked to the rafters in disbelief. Disgust, even. You can see he\u2019s conscious of his lack of production. It\u2019s starting to become apparent on everyone\u2019s face amid offensive struggles.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve said this before, I\u2019ll say it again. You cannot blame a goaltender when the team in front of him doesn\u2019t score. Jacob Markstrom<\/a> gave the Devils a chance to win tonight. He accrued 2.98 expected goals against and gave up three goals. The third goal was fluky, almost like a pinball. The puck was supposed to go wide and took an unexpected turn. Otherwise, he basically gave up two Maple Leafs power play goals, with the second coming a literal second after the advantage expired. Markstrom made a number of key saves on Tuesday, including what looked like a cartwheel kick when he was on his behind in the crease in the first period. Markstrom is showing signs of life. It\u2019s too bad the team in front of him is on life support.<\/p>\n

On the Maple Leafs\u2019 first power play goal\u2026 Ondrej Palat, man. What are you doing? The Devils forced a turnover on the wall and had time and ice to clear it from danger. Yet, he quickly tried to clear the puck, didn\u2019t use the boards, and it was stopped at the Devils\u2019 blueline. He then fumbled over his own feet, lost his man\u2014who was the streaking Maple Leaf\u2014and Bobby McMann got the puck in a high-danger area and scored. Palat is a two-time Stanley Cup Champion and wears a letter. If he\u2019s not going to score, he at least has to do everything else right. At this point, I\u2019m not sure what the \u2018A\u2019 on his sweater stands for anymore.<\/p>\n

What makes this burn even more is that Palat previously had the opportunity to get the Devils on the board. Another shift manufactured by Jack\u2019s playmaking ability sent the puck to Palat in the slot for a high-danger scoring chance. But it was yet another shot right to the goaltenders crest on his sweater for an easy save. Too much rode on Palat in the opening 20 minutes, and the Devils came away with nothing.<\/p>\n

What was abundantly obvious was how each team possessed the puck. The Devils were, once again, kept to the perimeter and lacked secondary scoring chances. No snarl, no bite, no fight. The Maple Leafs, however, worked on the inside. The got in the high-danger areas and did the dirty work. That\u2019s a huge red flag.<\/p>\n

The Devils\u2019 lack of a shooter is abundantly obvious on the power play. The first unit persisted of Jack, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt<\/a>, Stefan Noesen, and Luke Hughes. And it was pass, pass, pass, pass. No one is thinking shoot-first on that unit, and it\u2019s a huge problem. Again, Timo Meier<\/a> should be on the first unit, setting up in the right circle, and just ripping shots. Otherwise, go get someone who you think is better suited for that position, but I think Meier gets the job done. Keep Noesen as net-front. That works just fine. But you\u2019re sacrificing one of Nico, Jack, or Bratt on that unit, and it\u2019s not going to be Jack. You need to shoot to score, and they\u2019re not doing that on the power play.<\/p>\n

Speaking of shooters, confident ones score in high-danger areas when there is no pressure. On an odd-man rush led by Palat, the veteran winger intended to find Jack in the slot. However, it hit a Maple Leaf boot and sat in the slot for Bratt. At point-blank range, he sailed the puck over the net. I know he just scored twice in their last game, but confident shooters hit the net, and the Devils are anything but confident right now.<\/p>\n

The Devils absolutely should have scored on their second power play opportunity, by the way. They got their chances for the first time all game. But, as this tends to happen, Joseph Woll played out of his mind. He ended the tilt with 2.33 saves above expected, and kept the Devils at bay in their few moments of sustained pressure.<\/p>\n

Lastly, even the head coach didn\u2019t want to see this. And, I totally agree with his assessment. It was great to see Hischier show some emotion and drop the gloves with<\/a> Matthew Knies. However, should it have been him? Absolutely not. And this isn\u2019t me sitting here pounding the desk for Kurtis MacDermid. But, as Keefe noted, the Devils lack \u201cballs.\u201d He\u2019s said before there\u2019s a true scarcity of mental toughness, and now the metaphors are traveling south. So, good on Nico for trying to get something, anything out of the Devils. However, perhaps someone else should fight the guy that is two inches taller and over 30-lbs heavier than the Devils captain.<\/p>\n

Honorable Mentions<\/p>\n

Cody Glass deserves credit for taking Woll\u2019s stick end to the face, and then remaining on the ice for the next 20-something seconds of his shift. He was worked on by the trainers on the bench and remained in the game, but that had to sting for sure.<\/p>\n

Lastly, it was good to see linesman Shandor Alphonso is okay. He left at the start of the third period after taking a dump-in by Brett Pesce to the head. He came back about a quarter of the way through the final frame and finished officiating the game. It even be the officials that are tougher in this sport.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I mean, talk about an embarrassing, embarrassing loss. The New Jersey Devils were shut out by the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,49351,3723,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,1768,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-382331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-devils-dissected","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-new-jersey","13":"tag-new-jersey-devils","14":"tag-newjersey","15":"tag-newjerseydevils","16":"tag-nhl","17":"tag-ondrej-palat","18":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115812151114211574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=382331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}