Penguins fall out of playoff position after loss to Devils
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These aren’t the New Jersey Devils of yore.
(Even if they wore their throwback white, red and green jerseys of yore on Tuesday.)
They don’t clutch and grab or pull games down into the neighboring swamps around Newark, N.J.
They skate and score in hopes of dazzling you into submission.
And they did just that Tuesday as they bludgeoned the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1, at Prudential Center. Forward Dawson Mercer’s first career hat trick propelled the hosts to victory.
With regard to a seemingly daily dance for their playoff fortunes, the result damaged the Penguins (38-30-10, 86 points).
On Tuesday, the Florida Panthers (40-31-7, 87 points) earned a 2-1 home win against the Buffalo Sabres near the swamps of the Everglades and moved into the top wild card seed of the Eastern Conference. The idle New York Islanders (39-30-9, 87 points) slid to the second seed while the Penguins were bumped out of a postseason position.
“It’s human nature to watch the scoreboard,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said on Sunday. “We’re all well aware of who’s winning and who’s losing and where we stand. That’s human nature. The most important thing is when we come to the rink to play, that we don’t get distracted by that stuff. That we just focus on the task at hand. When we talk about staying in the moment, that’s a lot of what we’re talking about.
“Let’s control the controllables. Let’s control our own attitudes, our own performance so that we set ourselves up for performance.”
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The Devils largely controlled the Penguins on Tuesday and secured a sweep of the regular season series (0-3-1). The only other time the Devils franchise (including its previous incarnations as the Kansas City Scouts or Colorado Rockies) swept a regular season series against the Penguins came in 2009-10 (0-6-0).
Defenseman Dougie Hamilton’s 21st goal of the season 8:58 into regulation put the Devils in front.
From the left wing of the offensive zone, Devils forward Ondrej Palat circled behind the net and emerged to the right of the cage before dishing a pass to the top of the right circle where Hamilton was positioned. With his stick half-cocked, Hamilton chopped a one-timer that scorched goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove on the near side. Palat and forward Jesper Bratt had assists.
The Devils took a two-goal lead at 14:23 of the first period via Mercer’s 25th score of the season.
From his own right corner, Devils defenseman Ryan Graves rimmed the puck up the near boards for Devils forward Tomas Tatar. Penguins defenseman Jeff Petry made an ill-conceived pinch on the sequence, allowing Tatar to one-touch an outlet pass for linemate Nico Hischier, who initiated a two-on-one rush with Mercer against Penguins rookie defenseman P.O Joseph. After gaining the Penguins’ blue line on the left wing, Hischier slipped a pass past a kneeling Joseph to the far side of the crease, where Mercer tapped in a forehand shot behind Jarry’s left skate. Assists went to Hischier and Tatar.
The hole got deeper 2:54 into the second period thanks to forward Timo Meier getting his 38th goal during a five-on-three power-play sequence.
After infractions by forward Jason Zucker (hooking at the 1:03 mark) and Petry (delay of game at 2:36) the Penguins found themselves down by two men. With ample space in the offensive zone to operate, Devils forward Jack Hughes settled a puck high in the right circle, surveyed his options and snapped a pass to the far side of the crease where Meier was easily able to tap in a forehand shot past Jarry’s right skate. Hughes had the lone assist.
Mercer scored again in the late stages of the middle frame at the 19:26 mark.
Taking a pass at the right point of the offensive zone, former Penguins defenseman John Marino lobbed a puck on net. Jarry made the initial save with his right leg but was unable to smother the ensuing rebound. To the right of the crease, Mercer outbattled Penguins defenseman Kris Letang and chopped the puck into the cage with a backhander. Marino and Graves recorded assists.
The rout was on 2:50 into the third period when Mercer completed his hat trick on a four-on-one offensive rush.
After Letang pinched in on the left wing of the offensive zone in a futile attempt to generate offense, Hischier poked it past him to generate the odd-man attack. Gaining the offensive zone on the left wing, Marino slipped a pass to the far side of the crease for Devils forward Michael McLeod, whose redirection attempt was denied by Jarry. On the ensuing scramble, Jarry slid well out of position to the right of the blue paint, Hischier managed to corral the rebound and fed it to the top of the crease, where Mercer punched in an easy forehand shot into a vacant cage. Hischier and McLeod netted assists.
Penguins forward Bryan Rust broke up the shutout bid by goaltender Vitek Vanecek at 6:14 of the final frame.
Following a faceoff win by Crosby against Hischier in the Devils’ left circle, Petry controlled the puck at the left point and then fed a pass to the center point, where Joseph swiped a one-timer. Stationed just inside the lower left hashmark, Rust tipped the puck with the forehand of his stick blade past Vanecek’s glove on the far side to reach the 20-goal mark for the fourth consecutive season. Joseph and Petry registered assists.
Under duress for most of the contest, Jarry saw his record fall to 22-12-6 after stopping 32 of 37 shots.
Notes:
• Play was halted at 11:16 of the first period after Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin was shaken up as a result of being hit from behind into the Penguins’ end boards by McLeod.
Dumoulin left the contest for a handful of minutes but eventually returned. There was no penalty on the sequence.
• If there had been a resulting power-play opportunity for the Penguins from that sequence, it’s doubtful they would have done much with it. They were 0 for 4 with regard to power-play chances during the contest and rarely appeared to be a threat to score.
• Mercer’s hat trick was the third the Penguins have yielded in eight days:
March 28 – at Red Wings 7, Penguins 4 – David Perron
April 1 – Bruins 4, at Penguins 3 – David Pastrnak
April 4 – at Devils 5, Penguins 1 – Dawson Mercer
• The last Devils player to score a hat trick against the Penguins was forward Brian Boyle, who tallied three goals against goaltender Matt Murray in a 5-1 win at PPG Paints Arena on Nov. 5, 2018.
Boyle, a cancer survivor who eventually played for the Penguins, recorded his first and only career hat trick on the Penguins’ Hockey Fights Cancer night:
• The Penguins have been swept by five Eastern Conference teams this season:
Boston Bruins – 0-2-1
Carolina Hurricanes – 0-2-2
Montreal Canadiens – 0-1-2
New Jersey Devils – 0-3-1
New York Islanders – 0-3-1
• The Red Wings (0-1-1) can sweep the Penguins with a home contest at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.
• The Edmonton Oilers (0-2-0) and Seattle Kraken (0-2-0) have swept the Penguins in two-game series.
• The Penguins’ lone scratch was defenseman Jan Rutta (suspected left knee injury).