Nico Daws Leads New Jersey Devils To Win Over Sabres

The New Jersey Devils faced off against a Buffalo Sabres team who, despite their early success, will likely be looking at a shot at projected number-one overall pick Shane Wright. They have however got off to a hot start winning three in a row to start the season before a Friday night loss. That is impressive all things considered.

The Devils went with a rookie goalie which felt like a risky choice while the Sabres were on the second half of a back-to-back and had Dustin Tokarski. It seemed like this would be a high-scoring affair and the first to 5 goals would be the winner. Big props have to go to the Yegor Sharangovich line for coming out hard but things looked bleak quickly. This was far from what happened and it goes to show hockey is an unpredictable and exciting sport.

The Good

Nico Hischier and Pavel Zacha scored the Devils goals. Hopefully, this injects something into the first line. They started off the game pretty bad again but picked it up little by little. Hischier took a hard crosscheck mid-game and looked to be in some pain for the rest of the night but fighting through it the captain was a big part of the win. This is what we expect from a captain.

Nico Daws was put in a bit of a tough spot being a 20 year old playing in his first NHL game, but he really made the most of it. After letting in an early goal that looked savable, he was an absolute brick wall for 60 minutes including overtime. In the first, he made a big save on Hinostroza, just getting enough with his glove that it hit the bar and went wide keeping the Devils from being further deflated.

In the second, he made another huge save this time on Drake Caggiula on a breakaway keeping the Devils even and really showing that he was going to keep this team in the game. In the end, he was 24/25 and saved every 5v5 shot which is incredible and should be a massive confidence boost for the kid who looks like a legit prospect.

Marian Studenic had a solid game and was all over the rink. While he may have played the second lowest time of all the forwards, he was very effective in that time and did have some scoring chances. As far as fourth-liners go, he and Vesey have been good and are filling the spot Wood and Bastian were last year.

The Bad

Siegenthaler took a bad penalty early and it led straight to a pretty deflating goal that could have spelled disaster for the team. Siegenthaler and Subban have been pretty frustrating early on and at the very least they need to stay out of the box and just not try to do too much.

Lindy Ruff made a terrible challenge decision that wiped a power play off the board. Even from a Devils fan perspective, it was pretty clear that Hischier pushed the pads into the net and it was, unfortunately, the right call by the ref. The Devils also would have had a powerplay and while they would obviously rather play 4v4 than challenge and be down a man if you think it is too close to call and the call on the ice was no goal then let your powerplay try to score.

Continuing on the powerplay, the Devils received two to start the second period. They weren’t able to score on either of them. This is to take nothing away from him as it was a great goal but the powerplay as a whole before that was nothing short of terrible. They got a lot of boos from the fans and struggled to even get into the zone let alone get set up for a real scoring chance. Some of the personnel decisions were interesting, to say the least. Having two right-shot defenders on the back end makes it a little harder and it would be better to open up as many one-timer options as you can. Severson has scored and can be justified to be on the ice, but Subban has earned 0 ice time here especially with Ty Smith back.

The Devils’ next game is against the Calgary Flames and it is another winnable game on their big homestand to begin the season. Hopefully, more of their players come back and for the first time they can have Blackwood and Bernier available but if not it will be interesting to see is Daws gets the start for a second game because as it stands now he 100% deserves it.