The New Jersey Devils put up a solid run at the end of the 2017-18 regular season to make their way into the Stanley Cup playoffs, but they saw the challenge they will face in Game One of their opening series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, when they took a 5-2 beating down in Florida. The Devils got off to a slow start — whether it was postseason nerves or just a lack of experience at this stage of the game is hard to say — and Tampa Bay jumped on them right away, keeping the action in the neutral zone or New Jersey’s defensive zone for the vast majority of the first ten minutes of the game. Can the Devils put up more of a fight in Game Two? Check out our NHL lines preview for this Eastern Conference game.
New Jersey at Tampa Bay NHL Lines & Analysis for Game 2
When: Saturday, April 14, 2018, 3:00pm ETWhere: Amalie Arena, TampaTV: NBCRadio: WFAN 660 AM New York / WFLA 970 AM TampaLive Stream: NHL.tvNHL Odds: Lightning -1.5
Why should you bet on the Devils?
Once New Jersey woke up in the second period, they were able to make the game interesting. They went on the power play about eight minutes into the frame, and they generated a lot of chances. By the time they turned a Tampa Bay turnover into a goal, though, that only made it 3-1, which was deep hole to climb out of. New Jersey did outshoot the Lightning in the second period by a 15-7 margin and took control of the second half of that frame, keeping the Lightning on their heels.
Unfortunately, the Devils just don’t have the speed or skill to keep the Lightning down for extended periods of time. Tampa Bay roared out at the start of the third period and kept the Devils hemmed up in their own end of the ice, without a shot for the first nine minutes of that frame. While New Jersey did not surrender a goal during that time period — and while they did add a power-play goal at the with 10:25 remaining in regulation to make the margin 3-2, the Devils weren’t able to push that tiebreaker in, instead surrendering an odd-man rush that led to a goal by Alex Killorn that made the score 4-2.
Why should you put your money on the Lightning?
Tampa Bay put the clamps on the New Jersey offense from the first drop of the puck, as it took the Devils four minutes to muster a shot on Andrei Vasilevskiy’s goal, and they didn’t have an entire shift in the Lightning’s defensive zone until the first ten minutes of the game had come and gone. Tampa Bay won all of the hustle battles in the early going, and defensemen in blue kept sinking to the ice to block shots so that they couldn’t make it to the net.
The problem that New Jersey faces in this series is that Tampa Bay is just faster than they are. So even when effort is equal, Tampa Bay will keep winning battles for the puck, and eventually they made a slower New Jersey defense pay. The first Lightning goal came when Ondrej Palat shoveled a loose puck out toward the trapezoid and went to the middle. Tyler Johnson found the puck and sent it out toward Palat, who put a backhander past netminder Keith Kinkaid. If you watch the replay of that first goal, the Devils’ defensemen looked like they were standing still. And that was far from the only hustle play that New Jersey lost on the night.
Expert Pick and Final Score Prediction
I like the energy that New Jersey brings to their game loved their regular season push to make the playoffs. However, it’s fairly evident that they can’t keep up with Tampa Bay. I see the Lightning using their speed and skill to salt away a 4-1 win in Game Two and head up to New Jersey with a 2-0 lead in the series.
