Devils Fall in Philly | GAME STORY

PHILADELPHIA, PA - A four-minute power play, early in the first period sucked the life out of the New Jersey Devils game, head coach Sheldon Keefe said after a 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night.

The Devils were awarded the man advantage after Ondrej Palat was struck with a high stick to the face that drew blood.

"Couldn’t get in on the break out; that was a challenge,” Keefe said. “Execution was off and then didn’t adjust to put it in behind and go work to get it. Nothing to do with Nico (Hischier’s absence), the puck wouldn’t have even touched his stick in any of those breakouts. It’s our regular guys who couldn’t get us through.”

The Flyers responded to their strong penalty kill by scoring two goals in 24 seconds by Bobby Brink and Joel Farabee. Philadelphia would build a 3-0 lead by the 2:49 mark of the second on a Garnet Hathaway goal, forcing the Devils into an unenviable situation needing to chase the game against a team like Philadelphia.

"Coming back against a really good defensive team when you’re down 2-nothing after the first is hard way to climb,” Jesper Bratt said.

A shot late in the second period by Dougie Hamilton finally beat Sam Ersson to cut the Flyers lead to 3-1. Hamilton's shot bounced off the crossbar, then off Travis Sanheim's stick into Ersson's backside, with the ricochet ending up in the back of the Flyers net.

With Jake Allen pulled for the extra attacker with over four minutes to play, the Devils bided their time looking for some added offense. Timo Meier eventually broke through, wiring a wrist shot past Ersson to bring the Devils within one.

Scott Laughton added an empty netter to bring the final score to 4-2.

Devils forward Nathan Bastian was injured just before the halfway mark of the game when he was body-checked high by Flyers forward Nick Seeler. Bastian did not return to the game after the hit.

Keefe did not have an update on Bastian's status after the game.

The two teams meet again in 48 hours when the Devils play host to the Flyers on Wednesday night.

Here are some observations from the game:

• Captain Nico Hischier missed his first game of the season, out with an injury sustained on a cross-check against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. In Hischier's absence, Jesper Bratt had an 'A' stitched onto his jersey. The Devils' top line, Ondrej Palat, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, all wore A's on their jerseys.

• New Jersey looked disjointed and out of sync, struggling to find sustained pressure in the offensive zone and unable to establish much of its cycle game. With Nico Hischier out of the lineup, both units needed tweaking. Ondrej Palat assumed a spot on the first power play unit, while Brian Halonen, playing his second game of the season, played on the second unit.

The power play units were as follows:  

Jack Hughes, Jesper Bratt, Stefan Noesen, Palat and Dougie Hamilton  
Timo Meier, Dawson Mercer, Paul Cotter, Brian Halonen and Luke Hughes  

The power play went 0-for-3.

“We knew that our entries, they’re good on their entries," Jesper Bratt said of the power play performance on Monday night. "They’re big, they’re strong, they’re good skaters and we knew that we were going to have to play in behind. Even if you’re on the power play it doesn’t mean you have to start being cute with the puck, sometimes you’ve just got to chip it in and win the battles and then you’re in the zone and then you can start using your skill. Just didn’t do that good enough.”

• After taking no faceoffs against Montreal, as he continues to deal with stitches to his finger, Jack Hughes did line up at the faceoff dot against the Flyers. In the morning, Sheldon Keefe mentioned that they would see how Jack was feeling in-game before determining how many, if any, faceoffs he would take. He ended up taking 14 faceoffs, going 4-for-14.

• With 12:36 to play in the second period, Flyers forward Nick Seeler body-checked Nathan Bastian, a hit that would send the Devils forward to the ice, where he remained momentarily. Bastian was eventually able to get up on his own and when he did, immediately made his way to the Devils locker room.
  In defense of his teammate, Dougie Hamilton, closest to the play, jumped in on Nick Seeler to express his displeasure. Both Seeler and Hamilton were handed penalties, Hamilton for a cross-check and Seeler for roughing.

"It was an unbelievable job by Doug," Brenden Dillon, Dougie's regular defensive partner said, "Obviously, skill is his thing, but I think for our entire bench, when one of our players gets hit like that, for Doug to go in there is just a big pick up for us and hockey world works in mysterious ways and he scores our first goal to get us on the board. Great for him, really happy for him.”  

• The Devils spent the final four minutes of the game with Jake Allen pulled down two goals for an extra attacker which led to Timo Meier's 16th goal of the season.

• Hamilton's second-period goal was the 150th of his career.