The New Jersey Devils headed to Columbus on Monday in hopes of silencing the cannon and heading back home with a second consecutive victory. With a gutsy performance, they did so, edging the Columbus Blue Jackets by a score of 3-2.
Related: Blue Jackets Failed By Special Teams in 3-2 Loss to Devils
“Following Up” Trend
Last season, the Devils struggled to string together a win streak of more than three games. In fact, they haven’t won four in a row since a five-game streak from Jan. 7-16, 2023…over 1,000 days ago.
In games following a victory last season, they went 18-21-3 (.464 points %). When following a loss, they were significantly better: 23-12-4 (.641 points %). While their ability to bounce back from rough outings helped propel them to the playoffs, most elite teams can string together a few lengthy streaks to establish themselves as forces amongst their division. The Devils have obviously not shown that ability yet but stringing two in a row early is a good start.
They’ll need to continue the positive momentum, and even if it doesn’t happen immediately, it would be huge for them to grab a 4+ game win streak at some point before the holiday season.
Timo Time…Ahead of Schedule!
The advanced numbers have always said that Timo Meier is just as good of a player with the Devils as he was with San Jose. But somewhat reasonably so, fans have wanted the counting stats to prove it.
There have been two caveats towards why Meier has yet to climb back to the 40-goal plateau. The first has been out of his control: he’s gotten considerably less power play time, almost exclusively on PP2 when Jack Hughes is healthy. After last season, when I asked head coach Sheldon Keefe about Meier’s deployment, he said, “A big part of it is with Jack and Bratt, they play those flanks and do a tremendous job of it. They’re elite at it. [Similarly] Timo does a lot of his best work there, with his finishing ability in that flank. We tried him in different spots and it didn’t go as well, so that’s something for us to look at [in the offseason].”
It seems they certainly did look at it, as they had Meier rotating the flanks and bumper along with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. It paid off on the very first opportunity as Meier scored.
The second caveat is that power play usage aside, Meier has started off all three full seasons as a Devil at a snail’s pace. It’s no secret that March and on is when he plays his best hockey, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because that’s when games are typically most important. However, he’s now scored in his last two games and is a point-per-game player (3P in 3 GP). If that’s what the Devils are getting for a full 82, that could completely change the dynamic of the offense. Based on pure skill alone, Meier is capable of singlehandedly dragging them to victory on any given night.
More Injury Scares…
As has been the theme for the past few seasons, injuries have continued to plague the Devils.
Tonight, Jake Allen was phenomenal through two periods, stopping 23 of 24 (.958%) including a myriad of high danger opportunities. But surprisingly, the Devils took the ice for the third and Allen did not return to his crease; instead, Jacob Markstrom had to come in cold.
Thankfully, the team reported that it was just cramping. But that wasn’t the only injury scare: when the Blue Jackets scored with 20 seconds left in the third, Jacob Markstrom was very slow to get up. While he gutted out the final ticks, he stormed off the ice immediately after the final horn. It didn’t do much to convince that he was truly fine.
If there is any update, it likely won’t come until Wednesday, as the Devils will be off tomorrow (Tuesday). Hopefully it’s nothing to be concerned about.
Honorable Mention: Penalty Kill Success
The Devils certainly need to stay out of the box more than they have. However, though, their penalty kill (PK) ranked second in the league last season at 82.7%. In the offseason, they added Connor Brown and Luke Glendening, two of the better PKers in the league, to that mix.
They went an incredible 5-for-5 on the PK and successfully staved off the Blue Jackets’ desperate 6-on-5 attempts in a late one-goal game. In 4:30 of PK time with Jonas Siegenthaler on the ice, the Blue Jackets had just four shot attempts. Pretty phenomenal. (via Natural Stat Trick)
Return to Action
The Devils will aim to continue the positive momentum on Thursday, Oct. 16 for their home opener against the defending cup champion Florida Panthers.
