50 seasons of New Jersey Devils hockey. The 30th anniversary of their first Stanley Cup championship in 1994-95. A new Head Coach and potentially a new era. That’s the stage that was set for Thursday night October 10, 2024. Yes, the Devils played and beat the Buffalo Sabres twice in Prague last week to formally begin the 2024-25 season, but their home opener at Prudential Center felt much more official. 

While hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Devils wanted to put their faith in their new goaltender, Jacob Markstrom, and new defenseman Brenden Dillon; as well as some new and old faces sprinkled throughout the lineup. Unfortunately, the result was a 4-2 loss to the Leafs, doubling as new Head Coach Sheldon Keefe’s first game against his former team. That meant Keefe failed to avoid the same fate that befell his predecessor Lindy Ruff as he lost his first game against his former team.

“We wanted it for him,” Dougie Hamilton explained after the game. “It hurts even more to not be able to do it (deliver a win against Keefe’s former team).”

Okay, that’s a lot to take stock of all at once, so let’s go piece by piece. 

Markstrom, making his first start as a Devil at Prudential Center, got off to a rough start, allowing three goals in the first period. On the first goal, Markstrom made a stellar save during a goal-mouth scramble but couldn’t freeze the puck, thus allowing Max Pacioretty to bang it home for the 1-0 Maple Leafs lead. The second goal is one Markstrom will want back as he was screened by his own defenseman, Seamus Casey and allowed Bobby McMann’s shot from distance to scoot through his wickets for a 2-0 Toronto lead. On the third goal, Steven Lorentz picked Dawson Mercer’s pocket in between the hash marks and wired the puck past Markstrom to make it 3-0 14:46 into the game. 

“Not a great first period for him,” Keefe told the media. “But he did settle in. There was that one sequence where he made that great safe for us and kinda kept us in the game. But there was nobody here on their game to me.” 

Toronto’s fourth goal – at 14:52 of the second period – was a snipe from John Tavares right in front of Markstrom as he turned Dawson Mercer inside out before depositing the puck in the net. 

Dillon, who is known for bringing physicality to the ice, started the game paired with Dougie Hamilton as the Devils’ top defense pairing and was a minus-two in the first period, failing to use his size to slow down Toronto’s fast-paced, skilled attack. He did have a secondary assist on Timo Meier’s second-period goal, but other than that, Dillion didn’t do much in his 18:52 of ice time.

“I love playing with him,” Hamilton said. “We had a couple of goals against so we’re gonna try to fix that; it’ll be better next game.”

On the other side of the ice, opposing Markstrom in net, was Dennis Hildeby, who was making his NHL Debut for Toronto. Hildeby was not tested much in the first period, although he was victimized by Jesper Bratt with 42-seconds to go before the first intermission. Bratt went bar down from in between the hash marks to give the Devils a power-play goal and draw them within 3-1 after 20-minutes of shoddy play. The second goal Hildeby gave up was a laser from Timo Meier 19:54 into the second period that drew the Devils within 4-2. All told, the rookie made 22 saves and registered a .917SV%. 

“It was a lot of emotions for me to handle honestly,” Hildeby explained. “I just wanted to make it like any other game. But, of course, I tried to enjoy it as much as possible too. It was a little bit of a back and forth and not getting too emotional.”

Another individual of interest for the Devils is defenseman Jonathan “He Prefers To Be Called Johnny” Kovacevic. The 27-year-old Hamilton, Ontario native was acquired by New Jersey in a trade with Montreal back on June 30th and he opened a lot of eyes with his strong pre-season, as well as with his two-point (1G, 1A) performance in the Devils’ season opener in Prague against the Sabres. Measuring in at 6-foot-5 and weighing 223 lbs. Kovacevic brings some much-needed size to New Jersey’s blue line. 

Against Toronto, he was mainly paired up with Jonas Siegenthaler and during the first period, he used his team-high 8:07 of ice time to show off his willingness to join the rush, pinch in while in the offensive zone and go to the dirty areas to fight for the puck. He ended the game with an ice time of 19:47 and the primary assist on Meier’s second-period goal. 

In regards to New Jersey’s special teams, they started out hot on the power-play with a goal on their first attempt, before finishing the evening 1-for-5 on the man-advantage. On the penalty-kill, New Jersey was strong, going 2-for-2 in the game, which allowed them to stay close to Toronto, rather than turning this into a potential blowout. 

“Penalty-kill (did a) great job,” said Timo Meier. “I think, on the power-play, we had opportunities, especially during the time of the game where you’re trailing by two goals and you get on the man-advantage. You gotta make them pay and we didn’t do that. So, definitely something that we will continue to work on.”

On to the next one, and a date with the Capitals in D.C. is on Saturday.