The New Jersey Devils could find out if their scoring touch is returning Tuesday night when they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Devils took some encouragement from a 4-3 home overtime loss Saturday to the Washington Capitals. They had not scored more than two goals in their five previous games (2-3-0), and their 28 goals in their past 14 games ranked 31st entering the week.
“It was good to see some pucks go into the net for those guys up front,” goaltender Jake Allen said. “It’s a good feeling. We created some momentum there in the second and in the third. You’ve got to take a lot of decent things away from (the game).”
With Sunday and Monday off, the Devils had a rare chance to practice on two consecutive days, with shooting skills a prominent focus.
“We haven’t scored a lot of goals; it’s important that we dial it in on that,” forward Timo Meier said. “Every shot has to be with purpose. Every rep. At the same time you have to have fun with it. But know when it’s time to work and when it’s time to dial in and work on it.”
Said coach Sheldon Keefe: “(Sunday) we just wanted to make sure we’re focused on the scoring element and getting a lot of touches to help up our execution level.”
He pointed to Jesper Bratt, who scored twice for New Jersey on Saturday.
“It’s been a tough stretch,” Keefe said. “When you see a guy like Bratt get two goals, you get 5-on-5 goals, a power-play goal as a team, you hope that’s a positive trend that we’re going to start to finish here. But you can’t sit back and expect it’s going to snap back. We know we’ve generated more scoring chances and opportunities to score than we have actual goals. But the actual goals are the ones that matter the most. We have to find a way to get these over the line.”
The Maple Leafs are coming off back-to-back games. They had no trouble scoring on Saturday in a 7-5 home victory over the Ottawa Senators before taking a 3-2 road loss in overtime Sunday against the Detroit Red Wings.
In Detroit, the Maple Leafs were without forward William Nylander, who is considered day-to-day after leaving the Saturday game with a lower-body injury.
The Maple Leafs continued their trend of giving up leads on Sunday. They led 1-0 and 2-1 but let Detroit back in each time.
“I thought they started to push late in the second period and we started turning the puck over,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We couldn’t get out of our zone and they got the goal, but other than that, it was a good game.”
Toronto’s power play seems to have been revived since assistant coach Steve Sullivan was promoted from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League last week to replace Marc Savard.
The power play ended a 0-for-12 drought with two goals on Saturday and is 3-for-5 over the past two games.
“Power play looks a lot more confident,” Berube said. “It’s not static.”
“New perspective is good,” said Matthew Knies, who had power-play goals in back-to-back games. “New voice is good. We have some new looks, and it’s been working out for us.”
–Field Level Media
