Feels good to finally be back home at the Rock!
NICO’s 600th GAME
Congratulations to the captain on reaching the 600th game mark tonight! While this season has not gone the way Nico or anyone in that room has wanted from a team perspective, Nico turned a relatively slower individual start into a potential 30-goal season, while on pace to finish top 10 in his rate of deflections, slot shots, inner slot shots, faceoff wins, puck battle wins… I could keep going on and on, but the pregame is starting soon, LOL!
Look, all joking and stats aside, it's no secret what the captain has meant to this organization right from Game #1 all the way up to Game #600, which I've had the fortune of aligning with in my coverage as MSG analyst. The Devils should come out with a little bit of extra motivation to get the captain a W tonight for his 600th game.
THE IRONDAWG TIES TRAV
I also want to congratulate Dawson Mercer on his outstanding accomplishment of tying Travis Zajac’s Ironman record tonight! It’s quite the feat to play 401 games consecutively, but to do so right from the start of your career like Dawson has is especially impressive. That’s something only 10 other players in NHL history have been able to achieve, including both Mo Seider and Nick Suzuki, who are also active on that list. (Below is the list of longest active streaks, regardless of when they started.)
We call him the DAWG for a reason; he’s as tenacious and durable as it gets! 💪🐶
DANGEROUS GAME
Looking at the other side of things, this is what I refer to as one of those “dangerous games.” Chicago is coming off back-to-back beatdowns they’ve taken from the Flyers and Rangers, so you know they’re going to want to end this road trip on a high note before flying back out to Chicago later tonight.
You can throw all these differentials below out the window if the Devils let any "schedule fatigue" of 4 games in 6 nights creep into their game, or they fail to respect this Blackhawks team by not bringing their A-game. Look no further than just a couple of weeks ago when the Flames, another team at the bottom of the league, came into the Rock having lost 7-3 @ WSH & 4-0 @ NYR to start their road trip, and beat the Devils 5-4.
I hope the narrative we are talking about during tonight’s postgame show is that the Devils took care of business for the Captain and Mercer’s big milestone night! (…And maybe that Nemo had some more magic left from his heroic hatty/OT winner in Chicago earlier this season?!)
Be sure to tune in at 6:30 p.m. tonight as Rupper joins Rachel and me at the desk! LGD.
-Sal
