New Jersey Devils: Nico Hischier Makes History In One Week
By Nick Villano
New Jersey Devils rookie Nico Hischier was named the first star of the week in the NHL. It was a history making moment after his insane production that past seven days.
Nico Hischier is the NHL’s first star for the week of February 12th to February 18th. He was insane for the New Jersey Devils this week. Hischier scored in all four games, all Devils wins. The goals came in all situations. He scored a power play goal to end the Devils 0-for-16 drought. He put the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy to tie an important game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Nico put the game out of reach with a goal against the Carolina Hurricanes. He started it off with a goal against the Flyers that helped erase a 4-1 deficit.
Hischier was so amazing with his shot this week, people forget he was also able to record three assists. That’s a seven point week for the first-overall pick.
While those stats are insane, it’s even more insane that he’s the first Devils player to get the NHL first star since 2010. Then captain Jamie Langenbrunner won the first star in January. Credit Andrew Gross of The Record for pointing this out.
In that week, Langenbrunner scored five goals, including a hat trick against the Minnesota Wild, and added an assist.
That seems pretty crazy that Ilya Kovalchuk was never a first star in his time with the Devils. There were other great players, like the 2013-14 season from Jaromir Jagr, that never got a nod.
It was a miraculous fall from grace, as the Devils were the first star four times in 2008-09. To only get one more in the next eight seasons is hard. Somehow, that actually happened.
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Now, let’s look at the positives. Hischier showed a completely different game this week, and it was wonderful. He was finally shooting the puck when it was clearly the situation to. His shot has progressed so nicely, that I want him to shoot all the time.
Let’s look at the history coming from Hischier this week. Hockey Reference goes back to 2006-07 for NHL three stars. Since its inception, the Devils never had a rookie top the list. That changed this week.
It’s great for the confidence of Nico to gain this type of recognition this early in his career. He can use this to propel him for the last two months of the season. Him winning the first star could be a motivator to get it again and again. I will make this prediction, this won’t be the last time we see Nico at the top of this list.