The New Jersey Devils are preparing for their next matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight after suffering their first home loss of the season on Monday.
The team entered the game against the New York Islanders with a perfect 7-0-0 home record. Trailing by one late in regulation, defenseman Simon Nemec tied the game with 4.7 seconds remaining, scoring his first goal of the season.
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After the game, head coach Sheldon Keefe praised the young blueliner when speaking to the media, including The Hockey News’ Kristy Flannery.
“Nemec has shown that when guys are hurt and an opportunity arises, he can step up and rise to the occasion,” Keefe said. “For him to shoot one in and get that big point, that’ll be big for him.”
Nemec shared what was going through his mind during those final seconds:
“I closed my eyes and tried to shoot. There’s not much you can do in the last five seconds.”
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Despite the late equalizer, the Devils ultimately fell to the Islanders in overtime, ending their near-historic streak of consecutive home wins to start a season. The current franchise record remains 8-0-0, set during the 1987-88 season.
Following the loss, goaltender Jake Allen spoke with the media, including The Hockey News’ Flannery, about the importance of establishing home-ice dominance.
“Every team in the league would say the same thing — you want your home ice to be a place you’re comfortable in and other teams aren’t,” Allen said. “Word travels around the league quick through players. I remember playing in St. Louis and other teams hated coming to our building. That was just talked about throughout the league. You sort of want to get that in the mindset of the opposing team. It’s not easy, it takes time, but we want to take pride in our home ice.”
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Timo Meier scored the Devils’ other goal on Monday. After the game, he reflected on the team’s struggles to generate offense to NHL.com.
“They did a good job of not giving up much off the rush, and we played into that trap,” Meier said. “We turned too many pucks over trying to force things off the rush instead of putting pucks behind them.”
With their home streak behind them, the Devils now turn their focus to tonight’s matchup against the Chicago Blackhawks.
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