Guentzel, Lightning Blitz Devils 5-1

Photo by: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The Devils received some good news on the injury front heading into the game as Evgeni Dadonov, Connor Brown, Dougie Hamilton, and Brendan Dillon, who were all deemed game-time decisions, were in the lineup. On the other side of things, Victor Hedman and Eric Cernak were both ruled out for Tampa Bay, leaving their defense core shorthanded.

The Devils had an opportunity to pounce on an inexperienced Tampa defense and even received the game's first power play, which was noteworthy for all the wrong reasons. Without Jack Hughes, it's very clear the power play will look a whole lot different. Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer, Timo Meier, and Luke Hughes will presumably be the first unit from here on out, and it was truly an unorganized mess; the Devils could not even transition through the blue line (a key to Jack Hughes' game). To the Devils' credit, though they put Tampa on their heels for a good portion of the period despite the uninspiring power play, but Dawson Mercer made the game's first critical mistake. After gaining the zone, Mercer went to pass the puck quickly over to Timo Meier, but instead it bounced off the boards, and Jake Guentzel pounced on it and went in alone with Markstrom, who did not even go down to attempt the save. 1-0 Lightning.

The Devils would respond well after conceding the game's first tally and outshot the Lightning 8-2 the remainder of the first frame. However, in a race for an icing, Brandon Hagel wisely held Brendan Dillon long enough without a call to negate the icing. Kucherov lurked in front of the net before receiving a no-look pass with a little over 20 seconds remaining. 2-0 Tampa Bay.

If the Devils wanted any chance at this game, they needed the game's third goal, but Andrei Vasilevskiy was at his absolute best. The Lightning's first power play of the game came halfway through the period as Guentzel tipped a Darren Raddysh pass past Markstrom to make the score 3-0. This marked the seventh time in Markstrom's eight starts that he allowed three goals. The Devils would show signs of life with Nico Hischier's fourth goal of the season from Gritsyuk and Bratt to cut the deficit to two heading into the third period.

Markstrom's struggles continued when Darren Raddysh's slap shot beat him clean without a screen to make it 4-1 and essentially put the game out of reach. Guentzel would later complete the hat trick with the man advantage to make it 5-1 Tampa Bay. The Devils would receive two power plays in the final ten minutes of the game, and instead of sending out their true units, they sent out Paul Cotter, Connor Brown, Luke Glendening, Evgeni Dadonov, and Dougie Hamilton. This could be the waving of a white flag and just wanting to give some guys rest, but I wonder if Keefe was sending a message to the big guys that it needs to be better.

It's easy to feel negatively about the team after a game like that, but with the way the season has gone and all the consecutive overtime games as of late, is almost feels like they were due for one of these games. The Devils fall to 13-5-1 and will stay in Florida to take on the defending Stanley Cup champion on Thursday. I expect to see Jake Allen in the net for that one.