The New Jersey Devils came into their home tilt against the Los Angeles Kings on a bit of an offensive slide. That is unusual, considering that New Jersey has one of the best offensive teams in the NHL.
After beating the Seattle Kraken 3-2 last Friday, they went on a two-game skid where they lost to the Colorado Avalanche (4-0) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (2-1, OT). Those are two really good teams that get the best of you sometimes.
New Jersey needed to bounce back in the worst way. It was never going to be easy with the Kings who came to Newark on a six-game winning streak and one of the best defensive teams around.
The New Jersey Devils picked up a big win over the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday
The start was not good as the Devils allowed their opponent to score 1-0. This is becoming an issue for New Jersey again as it was in 2023-24 but they have done a much better job of overcoming it this year.
This Kings goal scored by Jordan Spence was a soft one for Jacob Markstrom that he’d like to have back. Luckily, that would be the last goal he gave up the entire night.
Not long after the goal, Jack Hughes did his thing in the offensive zone. After dancing around with the puck, he took a shot that deflected in off of Ondrej Palat. The game was tied at 18:56 of the second period and they went into intermission that way.
It wasn’t until 12:58 that the tie was broken. Ondrej Palat returned the favor as he set up a beautiful chance for Jack Hughes who didn’t miss. His 12th of the season gave the Devils the lead for good.
Before even getting a chance to pull the goalie, Brett Pesce scored a shorty to seal the deal at 17:17. Hughes collected his third point of the night on the play. As expected, he was the first star of the game.
This was New Jersey’s most impressive win of the season. They snapped LA’s six-game winning streak and beat a very good team that doesn’t allow much offense.
The Devils continued this new trend of limiting opponent shots as they outshot them 26 to 13 over the course of the game. LA had one total shot in the first period and just four in the third when the Kings were supposed to be making a push.
It’s a quality win over a quality opponent that is very capable of making a deep run in the playoffs. With all the great defensive forwards and defensemen that they have, they are hard to break through against and New Jersey did it.
Next up for the Devils is the lowly Chicago Blackhawks who have the worst record and lowest amount of points in the NHL. This is another opportunity for the Devils to play well against a much weaker opponent.