New Jersey Devils: Was One Meeting Really That Beneficial?
By Nick Villano
The New Jersey Devils responded to a pathetic performance against the New York Rangers by dominating the Washington Capitals. Was a pregame meeting really the only thing that turns the Devils from a roll over to a world beater.
On Thursday night, the New Jersey Devils had one of the more pathetic defensive performances of the year. Just about everyone on the blue line seemed to leave their best games in the locker room, which is unfortunate since they were playing their cross-river rivals the New York Rangers. After that performance, it seemed like they would get demolished by the Washington Capitals.
Well, quite the opposite happened on Saturday night. The Devils scored early, and didn’t let up. Nico Hischier was absolutely amazing. Blake Coleman was a force once again. Louis Domingue was a rock in net. We can continue to use adjectives about all the players who did well. What we need to look at is, what changed?
The Devils did apparently have a meeting Saturday morning about playing structurally well. Is that really all it took to turn this team around like that?
It’s hard to argue it didn’t do anything. The Capitals were controlling play in the third period when the game seemed out of hand. Still, think about this stat. The Capitals had 23 total chances at 5v5 in the third period. Only two were on the high-danger variety. Basically, they were throwing everything at the net, but Domingue wasn’t forced to make any fantastic saves. This was just a night to help his save percentage.
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The Devils players we’re used to seeing this seeing showed up again on this night. Hischier, Coleman and Nikita Gusev were your goal scorers. In fact, Coleman ended up getting four high-danger chances in this game, and put his puck in the net while shorthanded.
Something is just clicking with this Devils team when they are on. The return of Jesper Bratt really helped the lines as a whole, and it ended with everyone playing well. Putting him on that first line with Hischier and Kyle Palmieri moves a good player down to the second and third lines.
If this is how the Devils respond to a meeting, they need to have more of them. They take on the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are riding a 10-game winning streak. If they are the team that ends up beating the Lightning, there might be more we need to discuss about our expectations for this season.