Here are my quick hits following the Devils’ 4-3 OTW in MTL, heading into tonight’s game in PHI:
Finding Ways
Despite guys getting banged up, playing without the Captain in the third period, and blowing a two-goal lead, the Devils found a way to put together a real gutsy overtime win on Saturday night’s game in MTL. To follow up your 5-goal offensive explosion in BOS with another four even-strength goals was yet another step in the right direction towards changing the vibes inside that locker room and leaving that tough 12-game stretch in the past. Finally, we’re starting to see the Devils building some momentum here and some much-needed goal support from up and down the lineup that we’re all accustomed to seeing from this team. Hopefully, this continues to roll on into Philly tonight because you know the Flyers are going to be feeling good about the way they defended against you in the first meeting back on the 18th. In that game, the Devils were only able to score one goal on 13 total shots, even while generating 3-and-a-half minutes more OZ possession time.
Captain Nico Out
With the Captain officially out of the lineup tonight, it’s no secret that the Devils are going to need to embrace that “Next-man-up mentality” that we saw glimpses of at the end of the MTL game on Saturday. No, nobody is going to begin to replicate what Nico brings to this team (very few - if any - in the entire league could, quite frankly!), but there has to be that extra commitment tonight in every area of the game to get the job done in his absence. That will especially be true in the faceoff circle, as the Captain has taken a league-high 42.7% of the Devils’ total faceoffs up to this point. And yes, it only hurts even more when you look at the fact he had 5 goals in his last 6 GP before getting injured. It’s going to take every single guy in that locker room to get the 2 PTS for Nico tonight and extend this win streak to three games!
Jake Allen
We’ve talked a lot on the air recently about the Devils needing to give Jake Allen goal support, as he is 7-2-1 when the team scores 3+ goals in front of him and 0-6-0 when the team does not. It’s been encouraging to see the Devils provide Jake with 9 goals over his last 2 wins, in which he has played tremendously since entering in relief of Marky vs. BOS.
Make no mistake about it, though, this is going to be a tough task for the Devils to replicate tonight without the Captain, going up against a PHI team that has won three straight games at home while averaging 4.00 Goals/GP and just 1.33 Goals AG/GP in that span. And, to go back to my point in the first section, the Devils really struggled to generate anything offensively in that game against the Flyers just 9 days ago. Like I said, it’s going to take contributions from every guy up and down the lineup in order to allow Allen to do his part again tonight!
Tune into our pregame show tonight as Rachel and I continue to break down the overtime win in MTL, Nico’s injury, and the goal-scoring regression we’ve started to see over the last two games. We’ll also discuss the NJD line changes, including Mercer’s movement back to center on Nico’s line. It all starts at 6:30 p.m. on MSGSN!
Let’s Go Devils!
-Sal
Here are some graphics from Saturday night’s broadcast!
