The New Jersey Devils put an eight spot on the once vaulted Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night. They did this despite being without Taylor Hall and others.
What if I told you the New Jersey Devils gave up five goals to the Chicago Blackhawks while Kevin Rooney, Drew Stafford and Mirco Mueller made the lineup? One would probably believe the Devils ended up on the losing end once again, but that was not the case on this night.
This Devils team just put up eight goals into the net against the Blackhawks, who showed why they are now the worst team in the league. It was a barrage of goals, especially in the second period. Honestly, a lot of those five goals against came with the Devils taking their foot off the gas. Sure, the Devils can’t let a team with the fire power of Chicago back in the game, but they never let them drop the deficit to less than two goals, and they ended up winning by three.
So, the question is, how did this lineup do that? How did the Devils score eight goals with Rooney and Stafford in the lineup at the same time? This isn’t to say anything bad about those two players, because they played well on this night, but having them both in the lineup says something about their injury situation.
Well, it was the most complete effort we’ve seen from this team in a very long time. Every forward outside of Brian Boyle and Marcus Johansson recorded at least a point. Rooney scored the first goal of his career thanks to being in the right place at the right time. The same goes for goals by Brett Seney and Travis Zajac.
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The usual suspects played very well. Kyle Palmieri scored two goals, giving him 22 on the season. Blake Coleman, who’s been on fire this month, scored two goals himself. The team put up 41 shots on an overwhelmed Cam Ward and a rookie Collin Delia. This was just a mugging.
To answer the question, the Devils did this by playing the way we thought they would coming into the season. For the first 38 minutes of the contest, they did not take shifts off. They outworked the Blackhawks, and stopped everyone not named Patrick Kane from making an impact.
The Devils getting back into this playoff race is still a long shot, but if it’s even possible it will be because of how they played Monday night. They need to take the bad teams, and put them away early. There can’t be any more losses to the Ducks or Panthers. They need to win the games that the schedule allows.
Obviously, this was the worst Mackenzie Blackwood game we’ve seen in his young career, but most of his goals against came in garbage time. He allowed one goal in those first 38 minutes, where the Devils scored six. Obviously, there was some sitting back, and that turned into a few easy goals for Chicago. These things happen in battles like this.
The good fortune can only last for a night, because the Devils immediately go to Columbus to play a much better team in the Blue Jackets. If they can build off the momentum and take another two points on Tuesday, then this could become an entirely different conversation. For now, accept the fact this team can score when Hall can’t go, and that’s a very good thing.