Peanut Butter and Jelly versus Batman and Robin. Or is it Peanut Butter and Jelly versus Batman and Superman? Either way, this is one battle between dynamic duos that should capture your attention.
Tuesday night at Prudential Center, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs for the third game of a five-game/nine-night homestand. Entering the game, New Jersey was 1-1 in the first two games of the homestand as they defeated Seattle and fell to Colorado. In this contest, the Devils found themselves taking a second consecutive loss, this one by the score of 2-1 in overtime.
The Garden Staters were led into battle by their dynamite duo of Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes, who are collectively known as “Peanut Butter and Jelly.” Opposing them was The Leafs’ dynamo of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews (Marner is a UFA after this season) . But before we get into how each duo performed, let’s first get some background.
Jesper Bratt entered the game with 37 points in 30 games so far this season. That total was good enough to have him tied for the fifth-highest points total in The League. One of the few men to have more points than Bratt was Mitch Marner, who came into the game with 38 points in 27 games. Jack Hughes wasn’t far behind either of them as he entered this tilt with 35 points in 30 games. So that left Auston Matthews to bring up the rear with just 18 points to his name, albeit in just 18 games as he missed roughly a month of the season with an undisclosed injury.
To better underscore how important these two duos are to their respective teams, let’s take a look at each team’s record when both players in their duo score at least a point in the same game.
This season, in 30 games prior to their tilt with the Maple Leafs, the Peanut Butter and Jelly pair has put together 16 games in which both Bratt and Hughes registered at least a point in the same contest. New Jersey’s record in those 16 games is a sterling 12-4-0. (Thank you to Devils’ MSG Networks super stats man, Nick Cahill for the information).
Not to be left out, in fewer games due to Matthews’ previous injury, the Maple Leafs duo has registered at least one point each, in the same game, 10 times. In those 10 games, Toronto is 7-1-2.
Now, for what happened in the game.
The Devils manhandled the Leafs in the first period, controlling play so much that they outshot Toronto 16-1. That included being on the penalty-kill for two minutes and having part of a power-play at the end of the period. New Jersey’s CF% (puck possession percentage) for the first period, in all situations, was an outstanding 81.4%. (All advanced stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, naturalstattrick.com).
Meanwhile, even though neither team scored a goal during the opening period, Bratt led all skaters with a 0.4 ixG (individual expected goals). Also, Bratt and Hughes combined for six iSCF (any scoring chance outside of a shootout). By comparison, Matthews was at a 0.19 ixG in the first period while Marner was at 0.08.
All of New Jersey’s hard work paid off 7:16 into the second period when Bratt fed Ondrej Palat with a nifty pass that Palat then sniped past Anthony Stolarz’s blocker to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. By the way, Palat’s shot was the Devils’ 20th of the game as they were outshooting Toronto 20-1 at that point. By the end of the second period, the Devils were outshooting the Leafs 27-6 and were still protecting their 1-0 lead.
So, through 40 minutes of play, let’s check in with our two duos. Bratt was the only one of the four with a point (an assist on Palat’s goal). As for our advanced metrics, Bratt was still at 0.4 ixG while Hughes was at 0.5. Peanut Butter and Jelly were at a combined iSCF of eight. On the other side, Marner was at 0.12 ixG and Matthews was at 0.34. Combined, Toronto’s duo was at seven iSCF.
Those numbers may seem similar enough, but there was no doubt that through the first 40 minutes of the game, the Bratt-Hughes duo was firmly outplaying the Marner-Matthews pair. That was also the case for the two teams as a whole.
Then, the third period came along and while the game didn’t quite flip the game on its head, Anthony Stolarz stole the show. That’s not to insinuate that Jacob Markstrom wasn’t up to the task, but Stolarz was the sole reason the Devils were only leading the Maple Leafs 1-0. And then, while Toronto was short-handed, just after the midpoint of the third period, Pontus Holmberg managed to slide the puck through Markstrom’s five-hole to tie the game 1-1 with 9:18 left in regulation.
After Pontus’ goal, the tide truly began to turn. New Jersey had a 55.88 all-situations CF% in the third period, but Toronto matched the Devils’ three high-danger chances with three of their own. By the time the third period came to an end, the Devils had outshot the Maple Leafs 38-15, but the score read 1-1. So overtime was needed.
Overtime was short. Auston Matthews, after not doing much all night, showed why he’s one of the true stars in The League and broke in on Markstrom before scoring the game-winning goal with 2:09 left in the extra period.
So, with the Devils’ 2-1 overtime loss in the books, let’s get one final snapshot of how the two duos performed. Hughes ended the night with a game-high 0.72 ixG while Bratt finished at 0.44. Matthews was second in ixG for the game with a 0.64. And Marner rounded things out with a 0.12. There are plenty of metrics you can check out but on this night, while the advanced stats favored the Devils’ duo of Jesper Bratt and Jack Hughes, it was the traditional stats – goals – that favored the Maple Leafs’ duo of Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews.
All told, both duos are supremely talented, but only one can be victorious and Tuesday night just wasn’t that for Peanut Butter and Jelly.
photo by Drew King
