On Saturday night, the New Jersey Devils lost the second half of a back-to-back against their rivals, the Carolina Hurricanes. We won't talk too much about the referee disaster that caused the game to turn, but we will go into it here if you want our thoughts on the Timo Meier major. The game was a mess, and the Devils lost 5-2. However, something happened in the game that will hopefully have a longer impact than just one loss.
Over the first six weeks of the season, many Devils players were getting their bearings on the Sheldon Keefe system, and it was causing some inconsistent play. One player who really lifted the team was Paul Cotter. He had six goals in October, putting near the top of the scoring list on the team behind Nico Hischier.
To start November, he was still pretty good, scoring a goal and adding three assists in the first six games of the month. Since then, Cotter has been a ghost. He has zero goals and one assist in the 19 games since that November 12th goal.
Paul Cotter scoring a goal was more important than a loss to the Hurricanes on Saturday night.
On Saturday night, the streak ended. After a stupendous first six weeks of the season, the last six week have been anything but for Cotter. Not only was this a great goal off a great play, but it came after Cotter was robbed earlier in the night.
Cots goal so nice, he left @BillSpaulding and @KenDaneykoMSG speechless. pic.twitter.com/bpBtvkdJW6
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 29, 2024
Cotter would not be denied on the play. He skated around multiple players, noticed the Hurricanes' players mistakes, and he capitalized.
Paul Cotter is an important piece to the New Jersey Devils puzzle. If he can keep this offensive movement going, then the Devils will be a more complete team. This is a team looking to compete for the Stanley Cup. To do that, they can't rely on the top six and the power play to do all the scoring. Cotter and the rest of the third line needs to contribute from time to time.
The Devils can easily shake off this loss in their next game against the Anaheim Ducks. If the Devils start another winning streak, this loss will disappear as quickly as other terrible losses have. However, if Cotter starts scoring again, it will have an immense impact to the Devils' second half.