New Jersey Devils: Brian Boyle On Pace For Career Year

NEWARK, NJ - DECEMBER 21: Brian Boyle
NEWARK, NJ - DECEMBER 21: Brian Boyle

The New Jersey Devils beat their Hudson River rivals thanks to Brian Boyle. His magical year continues, as he’s on pace for his best season yet.

What more can one say about Brian Boyle? He’s quickly becoming the best story in all of the NHL. That story continued as he was the biggest reason why the New Jersey Devils were able to beat the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

He scored the game-tying goal with eight minutes left in the third period. The Devils were buzzing on the power play, and Boyle took his usual spot in front of the net. He took a pass from behind the net from Taylor Hall, and threw a pretty backhand shot over the glove of Henrik Lundqvist.

If you thought that was the end of Boyle’s heroics, you’d be wrong.

With Nico Hischier and Marcus Johansson still on the bench, head coach John Hynes chose Boyle as his fourth shootout participant. At the time it was a head scratcher, but he delivered.

This wasn’t a one-night performance for Boyle. He’s been churning these on a weekly basis.

Everyone knows the story by now. Boyle missed the first 10 games of the season while fighting Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. He was diagnosed with cancer right before training camp. That fight brought a different fire to this Devils team. He never let that be an excuse. In fact, he’s turned it into motivation.

Now, he’s on pace for the best season of his career. His best season came in 2011-12 with the Rangers. He scored 21 goals in just his third full season in the league.

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Since then, he never came close to that production. Except this season he’s been better than ever. He’s on pace for 45 points, even with the games he missed. That would be 10 more than he’s recorded in his entire career.

As far as a goal scorer, he’s about to crush his previous high. He’s on pace for 27 goals this season.

No matter what happened with Boyle, the fact that he even played was magical. Fighting cancer while playing hockey at the highest level makes him an inspiration. But playing at the level he’s played this year? This is out of this world.

So many things have gone right for New Jersey, but Boyle is at the top of that list. He continues his magic every night, helping the Devils claim the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.