The seesaw battle between the New Jersey Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning resembled an epic playoff classic between an established perennial Stanley Cup contender and a young team ready to take the torch. Lightning’s Steven Stamkos and Devils’ Timo Meier both scored two goals each while trading back goals throughout the second half of the game.
After an eventful overtime, the game eventually went into a shootout which saw both Ross Colton and Alex Killorn beat Devils goaltender Akira Schmid on the low blocker side to seal the victory for the Lightning. Forward Yegor Sharangovich scored the lone shootout goal for the Devils.
Thoughts and Musings
1. What a breakout performance for Timo Meier. In his 7th game as a New Jersey Devil, Meier scored two crucial goals and helped New Jersey gain a point in the standings. The Devils have a legitimate All-Star sniper capable of changing the momentum of the game. Meier found his usual sweet spot and rifled it twice past Andrei Vasilevskiy, one of the NHL’s best netminders.
2. Akira Schmid has been playing and acting like a number one goaltender after being called up several times from Utica. With Mackenzie Blackwood coming back from injury and Vitek Vanecek struggling as of late, how can the Devils send the 21 year old Swiss goaltender back down to Utica? In my mind, he is the number one goaltender and the most consistent for the Devils. Schmid has been that good and has a 1.98 GAA with a .924 save percentage.
3. With injuries to Miles Wood and Nathan Bastian, it gave an opportunity for Yegor Sharangovich and Curtis Lazar to play on the 4th line. Sharangovich had been the odd man out since Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald acquired Meier and Lazar before the NHL trade deadline. The Devils depth was on display and Lindy Ruff showed some confidence in Sharangovich by selecting him in the shootout.
The HockeyBuzzTron’s Projected Final Standings has the Carolina Hurricanes finishing with 116 points, New York Rangers with 111 points, and Pittsburgh Penguins with 106 points.
New Jersey Devils? At 105 points and finishing in the 7th seed wild card spot? I cannot foresee the Devils going 4-8-2 in the next 14 games along with the Rangers and Penguins leapfrogging past New Jersey.
Sounds like HockeyBuzzTron needs to flush out the Keith Yandle algorithm.
PODCAST - Lightning Strike In Shootout, Beat Devils 4-3 As Meier Scores Two Goals
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Sam Woo is co-host and executive producer of the Let's Go Devils Podcast which can be heard live every Sunday at 9pm ET and Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.
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