The New Jersey Devils looked dominant against the New York Islanders on Saturday night in their final game of the preseason. At the end of the second intermission, they held a 4-0 lead. After a pretty paltry third period, the Devils won 4-1. Both teams played most of their starters, so this was a surprising result. The Devils did this against one of the best goalies in the world, Ilya Sorokin.
A few things stood out at this point in the game, but nothing more than Luke Evangelista scoring two goals. Last season with the Nashville Predators, Evangelista did have one two-goal game, an April 13th tilt with the San Jose Sharks. However, it was the only two goals he scored that month. With just 12 goals on the season, he had more two-goal months than anything.
With the opportunities he’s going to have with the Devils, that could change.
First, let’s look at the facts. Evangelista had a career-low 6.8 shooting percentage last season. Even if he shot 8%, he’d have two more goals last season. If he shot 10%, there would have been three more goals. That would have been about 18 goals if he just shot 10%, which isn’t very good.
Evangelista is not known as someone who can score goals. He gets a few because he does take a lot of shots, but he’s a much better distributor. He doesn’t have a particularly hard shot. He takes almost all of his shots from the right side of the ice.
However, he’s a volume shooter. He spent 45% of his time in the offensive zone last season. With Nico Hischier and Timo Meier on his line, the Devils might have something in Evangelista.
Adding a scoring touch to Luke Evangelista could be a game changer for the Devils
The Devils are going into the season with Evangelista on the first power-play unit, which came with some criticism. It looked great on Saturday, and Evangelista scored after a long cycle. That’s exactly what Sheldon Keefe and Ted Donato want from that unit.
Evangelista scored another goal later in the game, this time at even strength. Evangelista has already shown an ability to put the puck in the back of the net this preseason. It’s very short, but it’s a promising sign.
Evangelista doesn’t need to replace the Meier production we expected, but if the Devils can even get a 20-goal scorer here, he would be well worth the trade and the extension price.
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