After a terrible game against a bad Nashville Predators team, the New Jersey Devils came out and played like they had a chip on their shoulder against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. Getting on the board first was a nice change for this team and while the score was tied for a good portion of the game it never felt like the team was in danger of losing short of some bad luck. The effort level was finally where it should be and overall everyone should be feeling good about themselves after this performance.
The Good
The Dawson Mercer, Jesper Bratt, Andreas Johnsson line was incredible and the best on the ice like always. Tonight however they took it to a new level and Johnsson had a career tying high four-point night while Bratt put up three. They were all over the ice and each one of them showed no quit all night.
Bastian and Mcleod only played ten and thirteen minutes but they made the most of it on their second game being reunited. Both players had a pair of hits and played their roles well with Mcleod rocking 67% in the faceoff circle keeping up his insanely high numbers in this area. Nathan put up a late goal that solidified the game for the team and gave them breathing room and this wasn’t even his best play of the period. When down a man late he was massive on the penalty kill blocking shots and if anything could have sunk this team it is the pk.
Dougie Hamilton going into the third period had 9 shots of the Devils 21 which is insane for any player let alone a defender. His two-point night could have been a four-pointer of his own with a few good bounces and he did not cheat on the back end blocking three shots and having his usual strong positional game.
The Bad
Yegor Sharangovich and Janne Kuokkanen were both extremely quiet and still have really yet to find any consistency this season. Things looked like they were trending well when they scored some goals but both need to step up the production and can’t afford to slide back into the style they had earlier in the season.
Pavel Zacha made two terrible plays on the same shift and could have lost the game for the team despite how well they played. Getting your stick in the lane to block a pass is a good play but he has to be aware of where he is pointing it because it nearly fooled Blackwood and went in. Right after this he again needs to be aware of his surroundings because the ref really had nowhere else he could be and if he took the fraction of a second to not fire it off his leg the puck would have been out of the zone or at least to the blueline and not in the slot then the back of the net.