There was not much to take away from the Devils' 5-3 loss to the New York Rangers in Sunday’s preseason opener. Nico Daws had a rough performance, but most of the rest of the lineup is on the fringes of the roster. The Devils put out one NHL-caliber forward line: Arseny Gritsyuk-Cody Glass-Paul Cotter.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe leaned on this line all game. Cotter played 22 minutes, which is insane for a preseason opener. Both Gritsyuk and Glass played 18 minutes. Keefe played this like a typical top line in a Rangers’ matchup. Those are the type of numbers we see from Jack Hughes in the biggest games of the season.
This line wasn’t just on the ice for a while; they played really well. There were some shaky moments in the defensive zone, but they were incredible in the opponent’s end.
Gritsyuk showed offensive instincts that come from NHL veterans. He had a pretty pass up close to get a primary assist on Cotter’s second-period goal. He also scored a power-play goal off a one-timer. Both plays showed Devils fans what they wanted to see from the Russian rookie.
He had five individual chances created at even strength and threw three hits according to Natural Stat Trick. We want a player who can do a little bit of everything.
This was just the first game of the preseason, and Gritsyuk did have a low point in the first period when he was in no-man’s land on the first goal of the game, but his overall game was largely positive. There’s not much to complain about in the aggregate.
After the first period, Gritsyuk really settled in. It got fans excited for something in what quickly became a game that was out of hand. He scored his goal near the end of the game on a 5-on-3 power play, showing he could earn himself a position on the PP going into the season. All of this is what we should be taking away from Sunday’s game. We love a positive takeaway.