It’s almost as if you shouldn’t take the first two games of the season and see them as the end all be all. The New Jersey Devils lost each of their first two games by a final score of 5-2 but they were the better team in both of them.
Certainly, advanced stats aren’t everything and you need to produce goals at the end of the day but it was obvious that if the Devils kept playing like that, they’d see results. That is what has happened over the last few days.
After a really nice win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night, New Jersey hit the road for a game against the New York Islanders. It was a big-time game for the New Jersey Devils as they came out with a 4-1 victory.
During the first period, New Jersey outshot the Islanders as bad as you’ll ever see. It was a 13-3 advantage for the devils which was nice but the score remained 0-0. It looked like a game that Ilya Sorokin was going to steal for the Islanders.
New Jersey needed to break through before it was too late. 1:35 into the second period, Damon Severson sprung Jack Hughes for a breakaway and he didn’t miss. It was his first goal of the season and it gave the Devils a 1-0 lead.
Ondrej Palat would then score two goals throughout the rest of the game to give the Devils a 3-0 lead. Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier each assisted on both of them. All three of them are starting to form one of the best lines in the National Hockey League.
The New Jersey Devils had a great team win on Thursday night in New York.
Anders Lee broke Mackenzie Blackwood’s shutout bid at 16:44 of the third period. Outside of that, it was an outstanding night for him as he is looking to have a bounce-back season after an injury-riddled year last year. Former Devil Kyle Palmieri had an assist on the goal and so did Mat Barzal.
Nico Hischier put an unassisted goal into the empty net to give him a three-point night. He has been one of the best players on this team as he now has five points in three games played (he missed the opener). The Devils are so lucky to have this kid and people don’t realize it yet.
After that tough 0-2-0 start, they are now up to 2-2-0 for four standings points. They are officially on a role because you can be happy with the way that they played in most of the two losses as well. Getting good goaltending changes everything because this team can control play.
Seeing Hischier dominate with Bratt and Hughes is really encouraging. With Ondrej Palat going the way that he is, the defense playing better, and the aforementioned goaltending playing well, this can be a good team led by their stars.
New Jersey is back at home on Saturday afternoon against the San Jose Sharks. San Jose just earned thier first win of the season against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night so the Devils don’t have to worry about being that team.
It is an opportunity to have another good performance against a much weaker team. The Devils are off to an even better start than their record suggests.