Just fresh off the decision to add Tom Fitzgerald‘s old school defensive hockey tactics behind the New Jersey Devils bench, we saw that become an occurring theme in Thursday night’s 5-2 victory over the New York Rangers. Having Miles Wood creating traffic in Alexander Georgiev’s crease helped a double tipped puck trickle in for Jack Hughes‘ first NHL point and assist. The team created a lot of resilience after letting up the first goal in the opening minutes.
One of the main concerns was that the Devils didn’t block enough shots. Shot blocking became a main course of defensive strategies applied by head coach John Hynes and Fitzgerald tonight. Even guys like Taylor Hall and Pavel Zacha were taking part in clogging up the passing and shooting lanes. Kaapo Kakko came into Thursday night’s game as a key player to keep off the scoring sheet. Pavel Zacha and the Kevin Rooney combo did just that.
The Devils kept guys like Kakko contained all game along with another player in Artemi Panarin held off the scoresheet. Panarin in his recent stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Chicago Blackhawks always had career highlights when he would play the Devils. On this occasion, the New Jersey Devils played tight as a boa constrictor. Having kept Marc Staal, Jacob Trouba, and Mika Zibanejad off the score sheet was a major turning point. The next theme the Devils did right was the character trait of being better disciplined.
On the productivity side, besides Miles Wood scoring his first goal and Jack Hughes notching an assist was Travis Zajac also getting an assist. Zajac drove the Devils, helping them cash in. Blake Coleman tied it up in the first period after a neutral zone turnover and scoring off the mask of Georgiev. Kyle Palmieri scored the Devils first power play goal of the season and Nikita Gusev buried a beautiful goal like a true Russian sniper from the KHL like he always does. One of the defenseman not named PK Subban tonight that really shined scoring wise was Matt Tennyson with 2 assists. It’s gonna be extremely hard for Hynes to pull him out after a big game he amassed.
In closing minutes, the Rangers pulled Georgiev for the extra skater after one of multiple times. P.K. Subban took a beautiful slap shot of a long distance empty net goal that was the nail in the game. As bad as many could blame the stupid mistakes on John Hayden, and Miles Wood it appears the big physical bodies on our beloved Devils came in when they were needed most. If the strategy of Tommy Fitzgerald stays implemented that can cancel out other teams lines, and open up the ice for your top 3 lines you can win more games.
As the final seconds died down Hip Hop Hooray became the win song after Devils fans were “howling” to Howl on every Devils goal. Plus, there should be more woo’s going forward and getting this team to back to winning on a consistent basis.