New Jersey Devils: Team Needs Travis Zajac Resurgence
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils looked great in their first game of the season, beating the Edmonton Oilers 5-2. The player of the game was Travis Zajac. What would it mean if he could turn around his offensive game?
The New Jersey Devils played one game, then have the next five days off. That’s what happens when you play your first regular season game in Europe. This will cause analyst and bloggers alike to overreact to every aspect of that game. Whether it’s the ridiculous performance from Ben Lovejoy and Will Butcher, to Kyle Palmieri netting two goals. It was a strong game all around.
One name in particular stood out above the rest. Travis Zajac scored two goals for the Devils thanks to great chemistry with Miles Wood. It was a great start for a pairing we didn’t see a lot of last season.
Zajac is actually really good at following up one goal with another in the same game. Last year, he scored just 12 goals on the season. Yet, he still had multiple goals in three different games. He was just not consistent, but when he was on he was great.
The big difference between this year and last year was Zajac clearly came back from an injury too early, which really hurt his season overall. He scored two goals in his first 19 games of the season. He already scored two goals in one game this season.
It’s been a long time since we seen a Zajac that was one of the best offensive weapons on the team. After he signed an eight-year deal in 2013, he was considered a lock for the first line. Even when he didn’t make sense on the line, he was penciled into the first line. Maybe that’s bad coaching, or maybe it was lack of a true number one guy. One could argue the Devils could do fine with Adam Henrique in that position, but either way it always seemed to be Zajac’s job to lose.
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Then, he lost it. It was due to injury, but last year’s torn pectoral muscle meant the Devils needed a new first-line center. Forcing the Devils out of their comfort zone, it was the best thing for both the Devils and Zajac.
If Zajac can find more of a scoring stroke, that could be a game changer for the Devils. Sure, it’s unlikely. He hasn’t scored more than 18 goals in eight years. Let’s say he can somehow get to 20 goals thanks to the great chemistry he has with Wood and John Quenneville, then it will be some of the secondary scoring the Devils need.
The Devils only got 20 goals from the three players on the first line. Outside of that, nobody broke the 20 goal moniker. If Zajac can unexpectedly be the guy to break it, it will help the Devils as a whole.