Coming into Saturday night feeling pretty good about themselves after sweeping the defending Stanley Cup champions, the New Jersey Devils prepared a little.

That’s right, New Jersey completely moved away from what it did at Sunrise, fueling the Florida Panthers with their own play and coming away with four points.

Credit goes to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who nullified all the strengths of the Devils. But New Jersey showed little to no resistance and succumbed to defeat.

Devils Recap

The Devils held on against the Lightning in the first period, much like they did at Sunrise against the Florida Panthers. However, it was Tampa Bay who scored first as Nick Paul broke the ice.

The second period remained scoreless, but the Lightning scored to start the third period. Darren Raddysh scored his first goal of the season less than a minute into the final period to double the Lightning’s lead. That broke the barrage, as Tampa Bay added two more goals thanks to the sticks of Victor Hedman (power play goal) and Anthony Cirelli (empty net goal).

Although he authorized three, Jacob Markstrom made 22 saves on 25 shots.

Takeaways

Markstrom starts strong

The Devils didn’t necessarily play badly in the first period. However, the Lightning produced the better scoring chances.

As a result, Paul scored the first goal of the game on a shot that Markstrom did not see because he had been screened. However, the Lightning certainly had enough scoring chances to take a bigger lead going into the first intermission. However, the Swedish goaltender made a number of solid saves, including a few on the Devils penalty kill.

This strong start lasted the remaining 40 minutes and gave us this incredible save on another look for Paul.