It took four tries for Cory Schneider to finally defeat his former team the Vancouver Canucks. After being traded from Vancouver on draft day in 2013, Schneider had been 0-1-2 against the Canucks as a member of the New Jersey Devils. In those three games, the Devils scored him just four goals of support. Tonight, they scored that same amount in a solid 4-2 win at Prudential Center. Cory Schneider was very good, stopping 21 of 23 shots, but for once he wasn’t the star of the game. The Devils had three players that really stood out tonight and carried the team to victory. Those three players were Jordin Tootoo, Adam Larsson and Mike Cammalleri.
Tootoo Much Too Handle
Feb 20, 2015; Newark, NJ, USA; New Jersey Devils right wing Jordin Tootoo (20) celebrates with teammate after scoring a goal against the Vancouver Canucks during second period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
Jordin Tootoo had one of his best games as a Devil. He was everywhere on the ice and made a serious impact. After Patrik Elias gave the Devils an early lead in an impressive first period where they outshot Vancouver 7-2, Tootoo added to it just :50 seconds into the frame. He took an outlet pass from Adam Larsson and made a nice move into the zone before beating Eddie Lack five hole. In addition to the goal, Tootoo had five shots and two hits. I recently wrote how Tootoo’s role is too big, and while I still firmly believe that, there’s no denying how good he was tonight. Imagine if we could get that production from the fourth line with Tootoo on it and have an even better top 9.
Assisting on that goal was Cory Schneider who had more points tonight than Bo Horvat did – so we won the trade; this proves it (just joking around). One of our followers on Twitter made a great point about Schneider’s assist.
That’s pretty sad where your goalie has as many points in over a month than a guy who’s seen top 9 minutes for the majority of the stretch.
Adam Larsson
The young Swedish defender had been in a bit of a rut lately, but he broke out of that in a big way tonight. Larsson was strong defensively as he’s been the last few months and tonight he was outstanding offensively. He had a career-high three assists and some of them were extremely impressive. All three were primary assists which is awesome in its own right. The first was a nice feed to Elias who ripped a one-timer past Lack. Then he had that outlet pass to Tootoo as previously mentioned. Finally he made a strong defensive play leading to Mike Cammalleri’s empty net shorthanded goal.
Adam Larsson has been a huge bright spot this season and continues to grow game-by-game. He played 20:01 tonight and went up primarily against Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin which is no easy task. While that line scored both of Vancouver’s goals, neither was Larsson’s fault. By the way, these tweets never get old.
Adam Larsson with a three assist night. pic.twitter.com/HEMRpNWwSw
— Pucks and Pitchforks (@pitchforkedpuck) February 21, 2015
Mike Cammalleri
More from Pucks and Pitchforks
- Should New Jersey Devils Try Load Management With Vitek Vanecek?
- New Jersey Devils Will Prove That Last Year Wasn’t A Fluke
- New Jersey Devils: Luke Hughes’ Playmaking Will Outshine His Mistakes
- New Jersey Devils: Chase Stillman’s Performance Causes Concern
- Can Devils Fans Separate Zach Parise Heartbreak From Achievements?
The Devils finally have a 20 goal scorer. With his two goals tonight, Mike Cammalleri hit the 20 goal plateau and leads the Devils by far. His power play goal, the Devils’ third tally of the game, was also his eighth game-winning goal of the season which is tied for the league lead with Alex Ovechkin and Matt Beleskey – both of whom have played in more games. The fact Cammy got both a PPG and a SHG shows the kind of versatile player he is. He’s been worth every penny of that 5 year, $25 million contract he signed in the offseason.
The Devils are just ten points out of the playoffs with 24 games left. It’s still unlikely and improbable, but you never know right? Tomorrow night the Devils take on the Carolina Hurricanes in a game they should win.