The New Jersey Devils are on quite the streak now with seven straight wins. In the last ten, they boast an incredible 9-1 record. They have been dominant at times, but Tuesday night, the Calgary Flames could argue they were the better team for a good portion of the game. Two points is two points. The Devils came up big when they needed to, and with two disallowed goals, they could have given up and coasted. The effort stayed high, and this team knew they could win, unlike past years.
The Good
Vitek Vanecek is a beast, and it was great to hear fans chanting his name because it has been a long time since a goalie was competent on this roster. He made some massive saves again and made sure when the Flames had long stretches of momentum in the first and third periods, the game didn’t fall apart. The team should also be thankful that they don’t have a back-to-back till the 26th of November because this gives them the opportunity to ride the hot goalie for a while.
Ryan Graves had a solid night and sniped in a big goal after the Devils had a pair off the stick of Yegor Sharangovich disallowed, which was exactly what they needed. On top of that, his defensive play was on par, and he did a great job late in the game of using his big frame to block the net and help out the goaltender.
Nico Hischier‘s great season continued with a big game-winning goal and strong defensive play through most of the night. It is even more impressive that he is doing all of this with his most common linemates being one good player but still a rookie in Fabian Zetterlund and a mediocre Tomas Tatar.
The Bad
Slow starts. This team has now been sluggish to start their last four games. The Devils need to get their legs going faster. They have a ton of offensive talent, but being behind is never good, and they won’t keep winning if they let a team get ahead early every game. While it is obvious being 5-0 when scored on first is not exactly sustainable.
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The power play has not been good lately. It has a lot of skill, but it just feels like it is lacking a real shooter. Some may disagree on this, but it is time to get Yegor Sharangovich back on it and let him hammer pucks at the net. The real question is who is moved off. Quite frankly, Bastian shouldn’t be the guy moved since they need a net-front prescience. Don’t expect them to make a change any time soon, but moving forward, it is something to at least keep an eye on if it keeps coming up dry on most nights.