NEWARK, N.J. -- Mike Sullivan often points out that you often can't zero in on one player and blame him for a goal.
"When goals are scored, we look at a lot of the details on the hows and the whys," Sullivan said after a game a few weeks ago in New York. "The reality is, it's more than one person, for the most part, when goals end up in the back of your net."
There's perhaps no better example of that than the Devils' fourth goal by Dawson Mercer in the Penguins' 5-1 loss to the Devils Tuesday night at Prudential Center.
First, let's just take another look at the goal in full, if you can stomach it:
Where to begin?
1. First, the play starts off with Ryan Graves handling the puck at the blue line, facing absolutely zero pressure from Mikael Granlund.
2. John Marino takes a shot from the point that Tristan Jarry saves. Jason Zucker manages to box Tomas Tarar out from gathering the rebound, and Jarry has enough time and space to cover that puck, but he simply misses it.
3. Mercer absolutely works Kris Letang in front of the Penguins' net to bury the rebound.
Yikes from start to finish.
I asked Jarry what happened with that goal, was it a matter of seeing the puck but it just getting by his glove?
"Yeah."
I asked Letang for his view of what happened on his end.
"I tied him up and I lost him," Letang said with a shrug. "It went in the net."
From the drop of the puck, it seemed that not a single Penguin brought their "A" game with them to Newark. That couldn't have been more clear than on that fourth goal.