The New Jersey Devils returned to action on Wednesday night (Jan. 3) for a crucial in-division road matchup against the Washington Capitals. Without an injured Timo Meier and Ondrej Palat, they persevered to grab a crucial 6-3 victory. They have now overtaken Washington for the second wild card position.
Fast Start
For essentially the entire season, the Devils have struggled when it comes to striking first. Coming into the contest, they had only scored the first goal in 10 of 35 games (28.5%).
Sometimes the captain of the team needs to say enough is enough and take matters into his own hands.
Thankfully, Nico Hischier did exactly that, scoring two first-period goals to help the Devils jump out to a rapid 2-0 lead. The Devils tilted the ice in the first, keeping the Caps’ chances to the outside and generating an expected goals-for percentage (xGF) of 69.29% (via Natural Stat Trick). They also didn’t allow a single high danger chance all period.
It’s a pretty simple recipe for success – they’re now 8-2-1 when they score the first goal. But it hasn’t happened enough. Hopefully this one is a sign of some upcoming positive regression. Although things got a little dicey as Washington tied it at three late in the second, it could have been an entirely different story without their hot start.
McLeod Line Thrives
In the absences of Meier and Palat, head coach Lindy Ruff opted to construct a line of Curtis Lazar, Michael McLeod and Alexander Holtz. There are no words to describe their play aside from dominant. According to MoneyPuck, the line had an 85.41 xGF%. When the trio was on the ice, they created nine more shot attempts than the Capitals and high-danger chances were 3-0.
McLeod, as per usual, went 10-for-14 in the faceoff dot (71.4%)…but this time he took it a step further. He found the back of the net twice and tied his career-high goal total of nine, in 17 fewer games.
His first of the two was a monumental goal that came approximately 46 seconds after the Capitals tied it up, which completely tilted the momentum in the Devils’ favor. In total, the line combined for five points. It shouldn’t be a shock now that multiple players have seen their play improve, rather than decline when playing alongside McLeod.
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He has truly emerged as one of the best bottom six players in the entire league, and he’s a big reason that the Devils have been able to remain afloat amongst other issues. It would also be super beneficial to the Devils to keep Holtz stapled to McLeod, as it significantly lengthens the Devils lineup.
Lindy Ruff said Holtz had “…one of his better games. That line was good. A couple plays he made were good…all three zones, he played a really strong game for us.”
Considering Ruff has often been pretty tough on the young Holtz, that speaks for itself.
Didn’t Let It Spiral
Similar to the slow starts, another common theme has been where things spiral out of control once the Devils lose momentum. It seems like many times, they’ve given up a ton of goals in a very short span. A few games back versus Edmonton, we saw Vitek Vanecek give up goals on three straight shots after the Devils gave up the lead. Similarly, in their last game against Boston, they gave up three goals in less than 4:30, effectively squashing their chances at coming back.
Even though Nico Daws was just okay in this one, he came up with the big save when needed, and it made a huge difference. At the start of the second, he stoned Connor McMichael on a breakaway. Then after a John Carlson goal knotted it up at three, the Capitals came on another break, this time Nic Dowd, and Daws denied them once more.
He came up with four or five crucial saves that the Devils, for the most part, haven’t been able to get. In the Jan. 3 edition of Devils Stock Market, I analyzed that league-average goaltending would have put the Devils near the top of the league currently, compared to a fringe playoff spot. Currently, the bar is on the floor with goaltending, but Daws’ .906 save percentage (SV%) after two games has to leave the Devils with some cautious optimism.
Looking Ahead
The Devils, who now occupy the second wild card spot, sit at 20-14-2 (42 points). However, in terms of the Metro, they have at least a game in hand on the second-place Carolina Hurricanes (46 points), third-place New York Islanders (44 points) and fourth-place Philadelphia Flyers (43 points).
Obviously, to get a win and leapfrog over the Capitals in the standings was vital. But they’ll need to keep it up and can’t take any nights off if they want to continue to climb up the ladder. They’ve now won four of five and could possibly continue their luck with a matchup against Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night (Jan. 5).