Jacob Markstrom's save of the year candidate highlights New Jersey Devils first win

The New Jersey Devils started the season on fire, putting up a dominant 4-1 win over their former head coach Lindy Ruff and the Buffalo Sabres on Friday afternoon. The Devils started the season in Prague, Czechia as a back-to-back Global Series, and they showed no jetlag on the ice.

The action started quickly, as former Devil turned new Stefan Noesen scored the first goal in the National Hockey League's 2024-25 season. It was a great effort, showing the new philosophy of this team to win on the boards and forecheck relentlessly. Noesen, paired on a line with Erik Haula and Ondrej Palat, showed why he earned a big contract this offseason.

The Devils continued their relentless pursuit in the first period, and eventually they gained another goal off the stick of Johnathan Kovacevic. It looks like it was tipped in a scrum of players, but it must have come off a Sabres player as Kovacevic is still credited with the goal. This gave the Devils great vibes going into the break. 

However, the vibes could not be higher thanks to the Devils finally having a starting goalie who can make stops when the team absolutely needs it. Jacob Markstrom was a top target for Tom Fitzgerald, and he finally got his man (although later than any of us wanted). We now see why. 

Markstrom absolutely had a great debut for the Devils, stopping 30 of 31 shots. He was aggressive in his crease, forced players to take shots they didn’t want to, and he stopped just about everything one could expect. He even stopped one nobody expected him to, putting up a very early Save of the Year candidate (and it will be hard to beat).

Overall, it was just about a perfect gameplan for the Devils. Even in the third period where they gave up their only goal against and the Sabres put serious pressure on them, they still seemed like they were somewhat in control. They were still causing turnovers and came close on a few chances.

Paul Cotter ended the Sabres night with an empty netter (and Nico Hischier had an insurance goal in the second period). The Devils fans are feeling this new team, and they hope to put up another win in Prague on Saturday.