Don’t panic! It’s just one game. 

The race to 16 wins and Lord Stanley’s fabled chalice is officially underway. However, the New Jersey Devils have already suffered their first setback. At Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Devils started the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a whimper, falling victim at the hands of their hosts, the Carolina Hurricanes, in a 4-1 Game One loss. Logan Stankoven scored two goals during the second period (one on the power-play). Frederik Andersen only faced 24 shots (and made 23 saves). And lastly, Carolina put up 45 shots on goal (44 against Jacob Markstrom, who made 41 saves). 

Before the game, Devils’ Head Coach Sheldon Keefe emphasized how crucial his team’s preparation has been for this moment.

“We have a great deal of respect for the opponent and the challenges that they present,” Keefe explained. “But, we’ve got a good club too and like I said, (we’re) resilient. We’ve played well on the road…We’ve stepped up, we’ve managed and handled adversity well as a team to get us here and we’re not gonna go away. We’re gonna stand our ground.”

While the Devils were already very familiar with the Hurricanes, there are two players on New Jersey’s roster who know Carolina just a bit more. Those players are Brett Pesce and Stefan Noesen. (Yes, we know Erik Haula was briefly a Hurricane, but the less said about that, the better.) 

“Yeah, it’s helpful,” Keefe admitted. “Both he (Brett Pesce) and (Stefan) Noesen in particular, spent time (over there, in Carolina). Of course, every season, every year is a little bit different. Their team over there is a little bit different than what they’ve seen, but system and coaching has remained pretty consistent and you’re able to get a little bit more insight. 

“But, as I’ve said before, this Carolina team, generally speaking, is pretty easy to prepare for. They’re pretty black and white in what they bring and they’re very consistent in who they are. So, easy to prepare for, but hard to play against. And that’s one of the greatest challenges we’re gonna have once the puck drops.”

That “hard to play against” part manifested itself early on as the Hurricanes came out flying. A neutral zone turnover then led to defenseman Jalen Chatfield scoring the first goal of the game, through traffic, at 2:24 of the first period, giving Carolina a 1-0 lead. 

A hair under two minutes after Chatfield’s goal, he was called for cross-checking New Jersey’s Captain, Nico Hischier, to give the Devils the first power-play opportunity of the game. The Devils finished the regular season with the Number Three ranked power-play in The League, compared to Carolina’s Number One ranked penalty-kill. Since one is higher than three, it should come as no surprise that the Hurricanes broke loose for a three-on-two odd-man rush late in New Jersey’s man-advantage. 

Jacob Markstrom made a clutch kick save to keep New Jersey’s deficit at one, but seconds later, the Garden Staters were penalized for having too many men on the ice, thus negating the last 18 seconds of their power-play. New Jersey is no slouch on the penalty-kill and successfully killed off Carolina’s man-advantage. 

The Hurricanes continued to pepper Markstrom with shots throughout the rest of the opening period, but New Jersey’s masked man stood tall. That then carried into the second period when Markstrom made three sprawling saves while flat on his stomach in the opening two minutes of the middle frame. 

Not long after Markstrom’s trio of desperation saves, with Carolina buzzing, Logan Stankoven wired a shot past New Jersey’s netminder (and through a screen) to give the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead at 6:37 of the second period. 

Things got worse for the Devils as the second period approached its midway point. Brenden Dillon went down in front of New Jersey’s net after being hit by William Carrier and was immediately attended to by a Trainer. After several moments, he was able to skate off the ice toward the locker room, first with the assistance of said Trainer and Nathian Bastian, before then going off under his own power. 

Moments later, after another Carolina rush that ended with Dawson Mercer being called for a delay of game penalty, Stankoven doubled down and scored a power-play goal to increase the Hurricanes’ lead to 3-0 at 13:08 of the second period.

In the waning moments of the middle period, Nico Hischier broke free for a partial break off a pass from Jesper Bratt. New Jersey’s Captain unleashed a snapshot that beat Frederik Andersen to draw the Devils within 3-1 and break up Carolina’s shutout bid. 

When the third period began, Brenden Dillon was still nowhere to be seen, so the Devils continued to play with just five defensemen. Then, midway through the period, Luke Hughes crashed down, sliding into his own net and immediately skated off to the locker room, holding his arm/shoulder. On the same play, Markstrom tried to chop at Andrei Svechnikov and accidentally hit Cody Glass, causing the forward to leave the ice and head to the locker room as well. 

“(Brenden) Dillon was eager to come back,” Keefe said after the game. “The doctors held him out really for precautionary reasons. So we’ll have some time for him to get testing and everything. Just make sure that everything is okay there. We had to pull him back off the ice as he really wanted to get back out there…I do not have an update on (Cody) Glass. It’s unfortunate. It’s playoff hockey. It’s physical, it’s fast, it’s competitive. And I thought we had a lot of guys who really looked uncomfortable there and took some time to really find themselves. Some got better and some didn’t. But, obviously, we’re gonna need a whole lot more in Game Two.”

Luke Hughes managed to return with roughly three minutes to play, just in time for Svechnikov to score an empty-net goal to put the Hurricanes up 4-1 with 2:28 left on the clock. That ended up being the final margin of defeat for the Devils. And when the clock struck zero, New Jersey found itself trailing the best-of-seven series, 1-0. 

Before the game, Sheldon Keefe told the media, “I just want them to know that they’re prepared. They put in a lot of work to earn the opportunity to be here. We know what we’re in for, prepared for that as well and we just gotta go out and perform and execute.” 

As it turns out, the only player who looked prepared was Jacob Markstrom, as the Devils were unable to break through Carolina’s defense for any sustained period of time. 

“I mean, we expected a push from them, coming out hot here and we didn’t hold against it the first couple minutes,” Hischier said after the game. “I think we didn’t start too badly, but that one goal hurt us a bit. After that, we had a power-play that I think changed the momentum a bit and (we) didn’t get much going. That definitely has to be better.”

“We just gotta try and have a little more confidence,” Hischier continued. “I think we just gotta execute a little better and trust our instincts and hold on to the pucks a little bit more.”

When asked if there were any lessons or tidbits they could take from this game or if they just needed to move on from it, Hischier replied, “Move on to the next, obviously. We’ll pick up some things, but they play simple hockey. Simple, hard hockey and we just gotta raise our competitiveness. They out-battled us definitely tonight, but they’re not doing anything special except to play simple, hard hockey and we just gotta match that.”

It’s just one game. At the very least, Jacob Markstrom showed he was up to the task, as without him, the final score would have been much, much worse. So, if New Jersey can do as Hischier said and raise its competitiveness, then it may still have a chance. We’ll see on Tuesday night where they stand.