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Devils fall to Penguins in back-and-forth affair |
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A few notes from New Jersey vs Pittsburgh:
1) I thought the Devils played reasonably well despite the loss and was impressed with their effort. The Devils were playing for nothing and the Penguins were playing for home ice in the opening round. Even so, the Devils were able to outshoot the Pens by 10 and out-attempt them by 28. Score effects surely played a part (it's easier to outplay a team when they are sitting on a lead) but the Devils had plenty of opportunities to hang their heads and mail it in but they kept fighting and hung around for much of the night. If not anything else, they provided us with an entertaining game.
2) Michael Kapla essentially handed the Penguins a goal with a risky pass right out in front of the net but I thought he recovered nicely and had a pretty good game. He showcased his puck moving ability with some nice passes and finished tied for top spot on the team with a plus-4 scoring chance differential at 5v5. John Hynes is spoonfeeding him a lot of offensive zone starts and easy minutes, relatively speaking, but so far Kapla looks pretty good.
3) I thought Taylor Hall was fantastic last night. He used his speed to create off the rush and earned himself a couple breakaways by outskating opponents and winning races to loose pucks. He also had four shots and scored his 20th of the season on an absolute snipe.
4) A message for Blake Coleman: shoot when you're wide open a few feet out from the goaltender. I get not wanting to be selfish but there is nothing more deflating than overpassing and squandering a great scoring chance.
5) Beau Bennett is sneaky good at putting it on the tape for teammates from behind the net.
I feel like his low point totals have more to do with players not finishing what he creates rather than him not creating enough.
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