The New Jersey Devils lost to the New York Rangers in the shootout in their first matchup of the year. It stunk that the Devils lost it what amounts to a game of skill, not unlike those cheap games on the Seaside Heights boardwalk or Coney Island. It was a fun shootout, but the Devils lost, and we hate that. The good news is the Devils got a point thanks to the trusty hands of Pavel Zacha.
It could have been an incredibly disastrous night for the Devils. The biggest issue is the health of goalie Mackenzie Blackwood. He just got back from his injured heel that needed surgery this offseason, and now he’s in concussion protocol after Kaapo Kakko ran into Blackwood on the go ahead goal. He left the game and never returned, forcing Jonathan Bernier to play in a back-to-back scenario.
The Devils have a lot of games upcoming, and losing Blackwood for an extended period of time hurts even worse since they don’t have Scott Wedgewood as a security blanket anymore. They put him on waivers to try and send him to the AHL, but he got claimed by Arizona and now they are stuck with two rookies in Utica. If Blackwood is hurt, then the Devils need to call Nico Daws back up. That’s not a great situation, but more on that in a future post.
The Devils also watched both Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere score goals. They are both entrenched in a season-long slump, and the Devils do not want to play slump buster for the Rangers two highest draft picks. The Rangers are already flying out of the gate to start the season, so if they get massive contributions from Kakko and Lafreniere, then it could be lights out for one of the Devils possible playoff spots.
Despite all that negative, Pavel Zacha came in the clutch and provided the Devils a much-needed point after a rough weekend. He scored with 2:45 left in the game to tie it at three. The Devils were being outplayed for most of the game, but the scoreboard said they were going shot for shot with their cross-river rivals.
This isn’t the first time Zacha has done it this season. His first goal of the season came on an empty net to bury the Seattle Kraken on the night Jack Hughes got hurt. His second goal came in overtime to give the Devils the win over the Buffalo Sabres. Zacha had two goals against the Calgary Flames in a comeback effort that came up short.
His real clutchness started against the Los Angeles Kings. He scored with just 25 seconds left in the game to tie it. This was the first time Zacha single-handedly secured a point for the Devils.
Against the Panthers, Zacha scored on a power play unit that was desperate for a goal. That was also in the third period and really put the Devils in control and it gave them a two-goal lead in the final period.
Then, on Sunday night, Zacha scores the game-tying goal against the team’s biggest rival. Zacha is still scoring on what seems to be an incredibly efficient number. He has a 20% shooting percentage after tonight. That’s obviously unsustainable, but Zacha showed last year wasn’t a fluke. He can be a scorer, and a clutch one at that.