The New Jersey Devils found themselves in a hard-hitting matchup with the Vancouver Canucks. Despite some missed calls and hard hits, the Devils came out with the win.
The New Jersey Devils of years past have been known for many things. Having one of the best, if not the best, goalie of all time on the team for 20 years, that becomes part of the team’s identity. Martin Brodeur carried this team through good times and bad. However, that still didn’t become this team’s true identity.
Big hits and great defense were what the Devils were all about. Players like Scott Stevens, Ken Daneyko and Colin White made the Devils a rough start for every team.
This team is completely different. The reason why the Devils are scary is the pure speed on the offense. Taylor Hall has been amazing since day one of this season. Nico Hischier has quickly found his game on the NHL level. Jesper Bratt continues to amaze. This team has immense offensive talent from end to end.
One thing that’s very underrated about this team is their toughness. Sure, there have been times where they’ve given up leads late, but more times than not they come back to win in overtime. Also, no lead has ever been safe for the other team. Think about this; the Devils are currently 8-0-4 in one-goal games. It takes some serious mental toughness to never lose a one-goal game in regulation. They showed on Wednesday against the Boston Bruins that this team wasn’t ready to just fall down when they were losing late. Brian Gibbons knocked a goal past Anton Khudobin when he was a brick wall the entire game.
The toughness of this team was on full display on Friday night. Take the play behind the net on Miles Wood. The play that made him look like this:
Miles Wood has looked better pic.twitter.com/XHWekB0N8f
— Mike Morreale (@mikemorrealeNHL) November 25, 2017
Wood took a stick to the face and was bleeding pretty bad. Despite that, the referees did not call a single penalty. It was one of the worst missed calls of the season. A player is actually bleeding on the ice thanks to a high stick from Michael Del Zotto, and no call is made.
Despite the hit to the face, Wood never left the bench. That shows a ridiculous amount of toughness.
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However, what showed the Devils true toughness came after. Minutes later the Devils were the ones called for the penalty. John Moore went off for slashing and the Canucks scored very quickly into the penalty. This chain of events would make a lesser team focus on the injustice, and allow the other team to take over the game. In fact, last year’s team would loses that game.
It seems since head coach John Hynes put the Devils through a military style training during camp, this team’s toughness is through the roof.
There’s also the fact that one of their teammates is literally fighting cancer while playing this season. Brian Boyle is beyond an inspiration, but we will get to that later.
The Devils need that toughness once the schedule starts to turn towards the Metropolitan Division. This toughness makes this team as fun as any in the league.