After an overall dreadful last two seasons, the New Jersey Devils are finally showing flashes of the 2022-23 form that guided them to the franchise's best-ever regular season performance.
Now winners of six in a row, the Devils have beaten plenty of good teams, and even their opponents are beginning to take notice of how this group is playing.
Just ask star Minnesota Wild forward Matt Boldy, who scored his club's lone goal against the Devils on Wednesday night.
Boldy, 24, has been teammates with Jack and Luke Hughes on the U.S. National programs and Team USA, respectively, so he understands what he's up against about as well as anyone.
"It's like a playoff game versus the Devils. You have to advance pucks, you have to make the right play, win battles," Boldy was quoted as saying of the Devils by Mike Morreale of NHL.com. "You got to make the right play always; they make you pay when you don't."
Telling quote from #mnwild's Matt Boldy: "It's like a playoff game versus the #NJDevils. You have to advance pucks, you have to make the right play, win battles. You got to make the right play always; they make you pay when you don't."
— Mike Morreale (@mikemorrealeNHL) October 23, 2025
Jack Hughes, of course, scored a hat trick against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night, but the key against Boldy and Co. on Wednesday night was the Devils as a team.
Paul Cotter, Brenden Dillon, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Jesper Bratt (empty net) each found the back of the net, while neither Hughes nor Nico Hischier picked up a point. That's depth scoring right there.
Even with Cody Glass unexpectedly unavailable due to an upper-body injury, head coach Sheldon Keefe threw Dawson Mercer back at the third line center position and got two assists out of that.
Free agent addition Connor Brown has settled in nicely with three goals and four points in seven games so far this season, and the Devils are still without Evgenii Dadonov and Zack MacEwen.
And the goaltending? No Jacob Markstrom, no problem. No. 3 goalie Nico Daws made his first start of the season and knocked down 30 of 31 shots (.968), helping guide the Devils to another dominant victory.
While the injuries aren't ideal, it's clear the Devils are truly hard to play against; Boldy said it himself. And, can we really expect less with two John Tortorella disciples - Keefe and Brad Shaw - leading the way behind the bench?