Empty Thoughts: Devils 2, Penguins 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 2-1 loss to the Devils.

NEWARK, N.J. - First things first, there was no update of substance on Nick Bjugstad who crashed awkwardly into the boards late in the second period and retreated to the dressing room.

Mike Sullivan said he was “out” with an undisclosed injury and was being evaluated. There may be an update on Saturday when Sullivan speaks with reporters two hours prior to the game with the Toronto Maple Leafs at PPG Paints Arena.

Regarding the game, this felt like seemingly 80 percent of the contests the Penguins have played against the Devils over the decade.

Stagnant.

The Devils got an early lead and did everything they could to grind this game to a halt. Granted, these are Ray Shero’s Devils, not Lou Lamoriello’s. But this Devils team is struggling and they need to play like this to get back to .500.

And that’s a bit easier against a Penguins team missing players such as Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang.

Still, the Penguins played their game to the best of their hobbled abilities and generated a ton of chances, albeit after a slow start.

What was most striking about this game was how the Penguins reacted afterward. They were convinced they played the game they needed to play.

In contrast, they were seemingly disgusted with their 3-2 overtime road win against the Rangers on Tuesday. And they at least got a point out of that game.

“We were hard on pucks,” forward Jared McCann said. “We created chances. Their goalie played well. He made some big saves for them. We did a lot of great things tonight. We just have to stay with it and we’ll be fine.”

What happened

The Devils struck first at 6:59 of the first period. Hounding Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin into a turnover on the Penguins’ end boards, Devils forward Blake Coleman forced the puck to the left corner where forward Jesper Bratt whipped it at the crease immediately. Devils forward Travis Zajac leaned forward and poked the puck past goaltender Matt Murray. Bratt had the lone assist.

It became a 2-0 game late in the second period at the 19:55 mark. After rookie defenseman John Marino fumbled a puck at the Devils’ right point, Coleman pushed it up the left wing in hopes of getting a late rush into the offensive zone. From the half wall, he put a seemingly innocent wrister on net. Murray made a save with his gloved but overplayed the shot and slid out of position, allowing the rebound to sit loose to the left of the crease. Coleman and Marino each raced after the puck and Marino inadvertently pushed it into his own cage. Coleman was credited with the unassisted score.

The Penguins’ lone score came from a particularly unlikely source in defenseman Jack Johnson. After forward Zach Aston-Reese muscled Devils defenseman P.K. Subban off a puck in the Devils’ right corner, rookie forward Sam Lafferty pushed the puck off the boards to forward Alex Galchenyuk. Surging off the right half wall, towards the high slot, Galchenyuk fed a pass to Johnson in the left circle. From the left dot, Johnson sniped a wrister to the far side over the left shoulder of goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood. Assists went to Galchenyuk and Lafferty.

Statistically speaking

-The Penguins led in shots, 39-21.

-Malkin led the game with seven shots.

-Forwards Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier each led the Devils with four shots.

-Devils defenseman Damon Severson led the game with 24:06 of ice time on 29 shifts.

-Dumoulin led the Penguins with 22:13 of ice time on 30 shifts.

-The Devils led in faceoffs, 32-30 (52 percent).

-McCann was 8 for 12 (67 percent).

-Hischier was 9 for 16 (56 percent).

-Bratt led the game with three blocked shots.

-Forward Teddy Bleger led the Penguins with two blocked shots.

Historically speaking

-Galchenyuk played in his 500th career game and scored his 300th career point.

-Penguins forward Dominik Kahun played in his 100th career game.

Randomly speaking

-Johnson’s goal was his first in 91 games and only his second since joining the Penguins last season. His previous goal came in a 9-1 road win against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 25.

-One game after breaking their 0-for-28 skid on the power play against the Rangers, the Penguins got right back on that train by going 0 for 3 against the Devils.

-The Penguins were 2 for 2 on the penalty kill. They are 24 for their last 25 on the penalty kill (96.0 percent).

-Zajac has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past five games against the Penguins.

Publicly speaking

Malkin wasn’t upset with his team’s play:

“You’re not happy if you (don’t) win (the) game. But you see (the) whole game, we played so much better. One goal, it’s not enough. We understand the (Devils’) goalie played well but we have good chances to score. We just (have to) forget this game and play the same game (Saturday). It’s always hard to play here in New Jersey. They play tight in every zone. We deserved to take maybe one point.”

-Sullivan on his team’s play:

“I thought we played a strong game. We had a solid game start to finish. Both goals (against) were fluky goals. We generated a fair amount of quality scoring chances. We defended hard. Our penalty kill was strong against. Our power play had some pretty good looks. You can’t always control when the puck goes in the net. But I thought our guys played hard, our guys played smart. We just didn’t find the back of the net enough.”

-Murray didn’t offer a flattering assessment of his play:

“Average at best. I’ve got to be better if we’re going to win that game.”

-Sullivan didn’t exactly disagree with Murray, especially when speaking about the second goal:

“It’s a tough one. I think we would like the second goal. It was one of those fluky ones that he didn’t field it clean. It was kind of a nothing play that ended up in the back of the net. He had to make one good save in the third period on that two-on-one with Taylor Hall. He made a great save for us. He’s been pretty consistent for us.”

-McCann on the Penguins failing to claim the first lead of a game for the sixth consecutive contest:

“It just comes down to coming out and (being) hard to play the first 20 minutes. We’ve had a lot of chances. (Stuff) hasn’t really been going our way to be honest with you. It’s frustrating but we’re not going to get down ourselves. We’re going to stay positive and get through it.”

-Murray isn’t worried about goals for:

“I don’t think about that. I’ve got full trust in this team, full belief in this team that we’re going to score. It’s not going in for us right now maybe as much as we want it to. But we’ve got a ton of skill in here and it’s going to start going in for us.”

-McCann explained what it’s like to play from an early deficit:

“It drains you. There’s no other way to put it. It drains you. We’ve got to find a way to get over it.”

-Murray was happy with the approach but not the result:

“I think we were the better team out there and we deserved better.”

-Malkin wants to stay upbeat about the power play:

“We try to stay positive. It’s not fun. We have so many chances. But we’re working. We practiced it (Thursday). We hope some games we’ll score a couple of goals and start to play better. It’s not fun but we need to play better. More shots, more simple. Again, stay positive. Try to score the next game. I hope.”

-Sullivan was okay with how the power play performed:

“Tonight, we were pretty good. We had some pretty good looks. The first one, we could have scored. We had a handful on the very first power play and it didn’t go in the net. Tonight, it was much better.”

Visually speaking

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

-Highlights:

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