Tuesday night in Montreal was the Justin Kea and Garrett Rank show, as the New Jersey Devils fell to the Canadiens, 3-0. It was a game packed to the brim with penalties, with New Jersey taking a whopping eight of them, and the Canadiens countering with six of their own. Michael Pezzetta scored twice for the Canadiens, including an empty-netter to seal it, and Nick Suzuki found the back of the net as well.

If there was a silver lining to the parade to the sin bin, it was the penalty kill putting up one of the more impressive performances you will see. The Devils’ penalty kill unit went a remarkable 8-for-8, including killing off a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes! It was a full team effort too, as 16 of the 18 skaters in the lineup this evening all saw time on the kill. The only exceptions were Kurtis MacDermid and Mike Hardman (although Xavier Parent only got four seconds of PK time).

Of course, a penalty kill can’t pitch a shutout without some quality goaltending behind it, and that’s exactly what the Devils got this evening. Jake Allen started the game and played until roughly halfway through the second period. Allen made 12 saves on 13 shots, including a couple grade-A chances in the first period particularly. After that it was Nico Daws taking over the crease, and he gave New Jersey a terrific effort with 14 saves on 15 shots. He too needed to make some five-alarm stops tonight, so it was an overall stellar game for the Devils goaltenders.

But alas, the offense could not match the performance of their netminders. It was a lineup heavy on players we will (hopefully) not be seeing much of in the NHL this season, so an anemic performance wasn’t all that surprising. Nathan Bastian, Nolan Foote, and Simon Nemec tied for the team lead with three shots apiece tonight.

This was an overall sloppy, frustrating game to watch between the lack of offense and New Jersey taking about nine hours worth of penalties. The Devils are now 0-2 in the preseason, apparently bent on righting the wrong of going undefeated in the exhibition slate a year ago. Onto the next.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

We Finally Found Nemo

The most notable thing about this contest to me was the preseason debut of Simon Nemec. It was great to see the young blueliner after his scary looking injury a few weeks ago. The Devils were cagey with Nemec’s status for a while, which concerned many around these parts. But it appears Nemec is just fine after all.

Overall I thought Nemec looked fine. There was some rust, but that’s to be expected in his first taste of preseason action. Paired together with Santeri Hatakka (which might just be a preview of some October games to come), Nemec put up a 5-on-5 Expected Goals For% of 39.87%, which sounds bad until you hear that was seventh best mark on the team tonight. And as previously mentioned he did put up a team-leading three shots on net, so it’s hard to blame the lack of offense tonight on him.

With Luke Hughes out for at least the first few weeks of the season and Brett Pesce’s status up in the air, it will be imperative for Nemec to provide some stability and production in a depth role.

Another Notable Debut

Apart from Nemec, another young blueliner making his preseason debut tonight was Seamus Casey. Aside from the recently drafted Anton Silayev, Casey is probably the defenseman in the Devils’ system (as in, with no NHL experience thus far) with the highest ceiling. He comes to New Jersey with a reputation for being an offensive dynamo and a surprisingly good defender for his size, though obviously that will not be a big part of his game.

Casey lined up with another prospect, Topias Vilen, and overall the advanced metrics were not kind to him. Per NST, Casey finished with a team-worst 19.38% xGF% at 5-on-5 tonight. He did see 4:33 of power play time, which makes sense given the makeup of the roster tonight as well as Casey’s skillset being tailormade for the man advantage.

I honestly did not think he looked as bad as the fancy stats would indicate, but I did think he looked a little overmatched out there. But for a kid getting his very first taste of NHL action, preseason or otherwise, I thought he had his moments as well. Here’s hoping he builds off of tonight and comes out stronger next time he suits up.

Lineup Consistency

In the Devils’ preseason opener Sunday night against the Islanders, new head coach Sheldon Keefe deployed a line of Paul Cotter-Curtis Lazar-Nathan Bastian, as well as a defensive pairing of Jonas Siegenthaler-Johnathan Kovacevic. Well we saw those same combinations tonight up in Montreal. Clearly Keefe wants to give these combos a long look with I assume the intention of seeing if these are viable options to start the season with.

It makes sense for that forward trio at least, as I think a lot of us had Cotter-Lazar-Bastian penciled in as a potential fourth line. I’m not exactly sure about Siegenthaler-Kovacevic though. Assuming Pesce will be good to go for the beginning of the campaign, if Kovacevic draws in over someone like Hatakka until Hughes returns, would they really go with, for example, a second pairing of Nemec-Pesce? It feels more likely that Siegenthaler gets lined up with Pesce as a shutdown pair, with Nemec skating with Kovacevic or Hatakka on the third pairing. It also tells me that, after not playing them together in the preseason opener, Keefe really might think the longstanding Siegenthaler-Hamilton pairing has run its course.

Or, in the worst-case scenario, Keefe and the Devils are convinced Pesce won’t be ready for the start of the season, so their go-to shutdown pair out of the gate will be Siegenthaler-Kovacevic. I sure hope that’s not the case, but that thought did cross my mind as I watched this game.

I’d be curious to hear what you think the season-opening pairings should be, as Siegenthaler’s deployment is an under-the-radar big storyline to me this preseason.

Next Time Out

No rest for the weary, as the Devils play tomorrow in Newark against the Washington Capitals. Puck drop is slated for 7pm.

Your Take

What did you make of tonight’s game? Who stood out to you? What were your thoughts on Nemec’s preseason debut? What about Casey? Were you encouraged by the goaltending performances from Allen and Daws tonight? As always, thanks for reading!