News Devils Team Notes

[New Jersey Devils]

The Devils Need to Get Aggressive Without Jack Hughes or Cody Glass in the Lineup

Watching yesterday’s matchup between the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers, it struck me how the team still seems like they are looking for Jack Hughes out there on the ice. Nobody can replace a transcendent offensive center like him, sure, but should the Devils look this poor without him? Last season, after the Devils lost Jack on March 2 against Vegas, the Devils went 9-10-1. In those 20 games, the Devils had:

• 56 total goals (2.8/game)
• 15 power play goals out of 46 opportunities (32.6%)
• A 52.6 5v5 CF%
• A 503-523 shots disadvantage (roughly a 25-26 shot differential per game)

In the three games the Devils have played without Jack Hughes this year, they are 1-2-0. In these three games, they have had:

• Four total goals (1.33/game)
• One power play goal out of nine opportunities (11.11%)
• A 43.9 5v5 CF%
• A 94-84 shots advantage

Let us say that the “best case scenario” plays out, with Jack Hughes returning to the ice before Christmas. This would mean Jack misses 15 more games if he returned on December 21 when the Devils play the Buffalo Sabres in Newark. They also play the Islanders at UBS Arena on December 23. How many games are the New Jersey Devils going to win if they are this inconsistent with the puck? They have no shortage of power play chances, but have not been able to convert effectively. However, they have close to no offensive push when not on the power play, which happens to be most of the game.

There are some important caveats to this comparison. Last season, after Jack got hurt, General Manager Tom Fitzgerald acquired Cody Glass from the Pittsburgh Penguins: this turned out to be a great move until Glass got hurt against Vancouver. Glass had two goals and four assists in eight games with the team, boosting them to a 4-3-1 record after he joined the lineup. After returning from a short injury, Glass had just one assist in six games while the team finished the season 2-4-0 before going pointless in five playoff games (though he took a nasty slash from Jacob Markstrom to his midsection in Game One).

Had Cody Glass not already gotten hurt for a second time this season, I might not have to write about the need to fix the center situation. Juho Lammikko, who had not even been in the NHL since the 2021-22 season, has been centering a bottom six line over the last few games. Lammikko might still have some value in a defensive role, but the team already has Luke Glendening holding the penalty kill down while centering the fourth line. This duplication of skills is now presenting an issue to the Devils, who desperately need an offensive push. A line featuring Ondrej Palat and Evgenii Dadonov on the wings, of course, does not seem like a group built to be a checking line. There are three options to fix this:

Option One: A Winger Moves to Center​

Paul Cotter has had a difficult start to his season, but just a few short minutes of usage at center gave me a glimpse of hope for him. Centering Ondrej Palat and Stefan Noesen for just the end of a game, Cotter saw his line put up two quick scoring chances for an 83.19 expected goals percentage. Meanwhile, Cotter won two of his three draws while lining up at center, as his season percentage sits at 60% (nine of 15 won). If Cotter moved to center and played with Noesen on his wing, the Devils would have two options for faceoffs, as Noesen has won 48.5% of his 99 draws since signing with the Devils in the 2024 offseason.

Can the Devils use Cotter in a checking role? Probably not, no. But the team desperately needs five-on-five scoring, and both Cotter and Noesen need to show that they scored 16 and 22 goals last season, respectively. If these two and Palat or Dadonov could just chip in a goal every game or two as a third line, it would go a long way towards giving the Devils a balanced attack while they wait for Cody Glass to return.

As the third line could be constructed to provide more offense, the fourth line could then be transformed into a pure checking group. Juho Lammikko has experience as a defensive winger, and this is the game that Glendening is best at. Whether Ondrej Palat or Evgenii Dadonov play with the fourth liners, the Devils need to lean into that style of hockey where a tough bottom six checking line takes a lot of matchup heat off of the top line. Since Nico Hischier is now responsible for leading the top goal-scoring group, rather than taking the toughest matchups so Jack’s line could amp up their scoring, it is on Sheldon Keefe to put Hischier in as favorable positions as he put Jack Hughes. A pure checking fourth line would help.

Option Two: The Devils Play the Call-Up Game​

Currently, it does not seem that Shane LaChance is very likely to get into another game. Honestly, I am not quite sure why he is still on the NHL roster, though I guess nobody is learning anything of value from the monstrosity that is going on in Utica right now. As a large, netfront winger, LaChance also does not really provide any of the skills that the Devils need right now. If they were still missing Stefan Noesen, I might see a place for him, but as long as LaChance cannot magically become a center, his presence is not really helping matters at the moment.

Xavier Parent ALWAYS picks up the loose change. pic.twitter.com/3HHxUwqcaW

— Utica Comets (@UticaComets) November 16, 2025

In Utica, though, there are a few forwards who might be able to provide a short-term spark. The Devils have Xavier Parent and Angus Crookshank under contract, and they currently lead the Comets in scoring with seven and six points, respectively. Parent, a small but occasionally feisty scoring winger, was undrafted but is now among Utica’s only productive players. Sometimes small players get overlooked a little too long, and the Devils can really use the grit and grind from an undrafted player who possibly did not get enough of a look in juniors from teams because of injuries and COVID. Crookshank is a few inches taller but not much heavier, and he has five goals in 12 games for Utica. Apparently, he has struggled a bit at center for Utica this season, but has scored more on the wing. Both Crookshank and Parent share the ability to swap between center and the wing, but I have not noticed Utica lining Parent up there very often in his time there.

BTB from Halo, buried by Crooker.

This is simply filthy… pic.twitter.com/sYqUFko3GF

— Utica Comets (@UticaComets) November 16, 2025

The third option, who I think is not really ready for the NHL, is Matyas Melovsky. Melovsky would need an NHL deal to be called up, but he is the most productive pure center on the Comets with five points in 13 games. Melovsky is not small, standing at 6’1” with a solid frame. He has a right-handed shot and enough speed to keep up with NHL skaters. But skating speed is one thing, while reading and reacting to the NHL pace of play is another. For a guy with only 13 games of professional North American experience, this hypothetical jump to the NHL might be a bit too much, too fast for him. Still, knowing how limited Juho Lammikko is as a third-line center, I would not be opposed in the slightest to signing Melovsky for the purpose of seeing what he can do in a sheltered role with veteran wings on his left and right.

Option Three: Externals​

Let’s be honest. The Devils simply do not have the internal depth to bet on being able to shore up two injuries at center. While the usual plan to shift Dawson Mercer to center might be sufficient in the case of an injury to one of Hischier, Hughes, or Glass, having two of those guys out of the lineup is a little too much. So, a better band-aid solution may need to involve an external acquisition. The waiver wire, however, is not much to bet on at this time of year. Currently, the players listed as on waivers by PuckPedia are Mason Geertsen and Alexandre Texier. The Devils should have interest in Texier, but I doubt they claim him.

When Texier was with Columbus, he played part of the 2020-21 season at center, though he struggled to score with 15 points in 49 games. Still, that type of production might make for a better stopgap than Lammikko. After Texier moved primarily to wing, he had 23 goals and 27 assists across 114 games from 2022 to 2024. He has not been able to replicate any of his point production with St. Louis, and he is now on waivers. The issue is Texier’s contract. He currently makes $2.1 million, and he is in the last year of his contract. So, no team is very likely to claim him, and Elliotte Friedman reports that he may go into contract termination, as David Kampf did with Toronto.

The Devils missed the boat on Kampf. But if Texier ends up terminated, I would be…upset if Tom Fitzgerald did not make a hard push to acquire the 26-year old forward. Texier is not even as good of a fit for the team as Kampf obviously was, but the Devils need to take help where they can get it now. But where else can they look?

Free agency? The only players left unsigned are Andreas Athanasiou and Robby Fabbri. I am not even sure if either still plan on continuing to play hockey, as they are unsigned in both the AHL and abroad, and only Athanasiou is a real full-time center. Perhaps someone abroad is looking for a shot back in the NHL, but they probably would not be getting any kind of world-burner from that market.

The only thing after that is for Tom Fitzgerald to shop around for a trade. The Edmonton Oilers have had a rough start to the season, and I wonder if they could make for a early season shakeup partner. The rock-bottom Nashville Predators have Ryan O’Reilly, Erik Haula, and Steven Stamkos, though acquiring any of the three would take varying levels of cap gymnastics to make it work. And the Calgary Flames look worse than ever, but there is no guarantee they will move any of their top players, while the Devils may have a hard time fitting any of Kadri, Coleman, or Frost under the cap. And Mikael Backlund, who would be a perfect fit for the Devils, is someone I expect to play his entire career with his team in the Flames.

Final Words and Your Thoughts​

While the front office should start cooking up a move so Sheldon Keefe isn’t rolling out two defensive fourth line PK specialists on different lines at center, players in the top six need to do their part as well by scoring goals. Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier are all underperforming on offense, and the team can mask many issues just by their getting on the scoresheet with more regularity. Through 20 games, these three have combined for only 14 goals. At that pace, they are on track to score about 26 fewer goals than they did last season. The team cannot win like that. Until the top six is scoring and the third line is an actual threat to score, Jacob Markstrom’s struggles will be a back-burner issue.

But what do you think of the state of the team without Hughes and Glass? Should Paul Cotter move to center? Should Fitzgerald swap some players from Utica to New Jersey? Should he try to acquire Texier? Should he make a trade? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...thout-jack-hughes-or-cody-glass-in-the-lineup

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Game Preview #21: New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (13-6-1) at the Philadelphia Flyers (10-6-3). Flyers blog: Broad Street Hockey.

The Time: 7:00 PM ET

The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN, Radio — Devils Hockey Radio

Low-Event Hockey​

Head Coach Rick Tocchet is famous for his teams’ propensity for a dump-and-chase game, relying on the offensive contributions of just a few players to get his team some wins. Unfortunately for him, this means having the ninth-ranked total defense (by goals allowed per 60 minutes) is offset by having the 29th-ranked total offense. Out of the entire National Hockey League, only one team has a lower total goals per game: the New York Rangers. This is how low-event Flyers hockey has become under Tocchet:

• 5.58 total expected goals per game (29th)
• 5.25 total goals per game (31st)
• 48.74 total shots per game (32nd)
• 103.64 total Corsi events per game (32nd)

The Flyers have gotten some decent goaltending this season out of Dan Vladar, who has thrived in their low-event environment with a .911 save percentage and 2.37 goals against average in 12 starts. His backup, Samuel Ersson, has had a much tougher time with an .844 save percentage and 3.30 goals against average, though he has not played since November 14, when he gave up five goals on 17 shots in a shootout win.

Up front, Matvei Michkov, one of the most talented young players in the league, has struggled to produce under Tocchet. Some may point to his May car accident as a reason for his struggles, but that does not align with reports from the team, who said at the time that he was uninjured. Michkov, who played close to 17 minutes a night under the notoriously tough coach John Tortorella, has seen his minutes decrease to just under 15 minutes a night under Tocchet.

Not everyone has struggled in a new system, though. Trevor Zegras and Christian Dvorak, who played last year for the Anaheim Ducks and Montreal Canadiens, respectively, are first and third in scoring on the Flyers. Zegras has six goals and 14 assists while Dvorak has six goals and seven assists. Both players are on track to blow past their career highs. Longtime Flyers Travis Konecny, Sean Couturier, and Owen Tippett are all having relatively normal seasons by their standards.

Where the Flyers can be beat is their bottom six. With Michkov struggling to score, most of the their bottom six forwards are lost. Garnet Hathaway has zero points in all 19 team games. Nic Deslauriers has zero points in nine games. Rodrigo Abols has one point in 14 games. Nikita Grebenkin has three points in 12. Defensively, the weak point is Nick Seeler, who plays nearly 20 minutes a night. During those minutes, the Flyers have been outscored 20 to eight at five-on-five. The only other player on the team with a similarly bad differential is Hathaway, who has not been on the ice for a Flyers goal yet this season, while the team has given up seven goals against in his minutes.

The Flyers have to be beat at five-on-five to reliably get wins against them. Their penalty kill has stopped 86.21% of man advantages against this season, so it’s not like the inevitable boarding, elbow, or dirty slash from the Flyers is certain to lead to a power play goal for the Devils. For that matter…

Things the Devils Need to Fix Tonight​

In the month of November, the Devils are 2 for 22 on the power play. This particular dry spell does not stem from the Jack Hughes injury, but it’s certainly not going to help matters. Even with Dougie Hamilton now back in the lineup, Sheldon Keefe has not yet really shaken Luke Hughes from the first unit of the power play despite Luke only having three power play points this season. Just the a couple nights ago against Florida, Simon Nemec showed what a good right-handed shot could do from the left faceoff circle, firing a one-timer off the far post on what was almost another unbelievable game-tying goal. If that is how Hamilton needs to be incorporated into the power play, so be it.

And speaking of Dougie Hamilton, he is yet another defensive partner who cannot bring Dennis Cholowski to an NHL level of play. Cholowski still gives up the puck left and right for scoring chances against, and Cholowski still turns the puck over constantly in the offensive zone to kill momentum. The result of that is a 40.54 CF%, 35.05 xGF%, and a 6-13 scoring chance differential to go with the Devils getting outscored in their minutes together. So, do the Devils put Ethan Edwards in the lineup? No, they sent him back down.

#NEWS: We've assigned D Ethan Edwards to Utica (AHL).https://t.co/rc8qW2c3pe

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) November 21, 2025

My only blind hope here is that maybe it means the return of Brett Pesce is imminent. Whether it’s Ethan Edwards, Colton White, or Brett Pesce, though, Dennis Cholowski needs to play like he has been in the NHL for 165 games, or he needs to be benched. Ideally, though, Fitzgerald would see that not much seems to be working with Cholowski on the ice and that it is time to admit defeat on that trade. He does not provide what the Devils need, and his puck management skills are too poor to mask on a team without Jack Hughes. The only time Cholowski was even watchable this season has been when Colton White was on his right, making most of the defensive plays against the rush for him while hammering pucks out of the zone. If you ask Cholowski to make plays with the puck, it seems he will only burn the Devils.

This is problematic because if the Devils are starved for offense, they will need to look to Dougie Hamilton for help. And if Dougie Hamilton is saddled with Dennis Cholowski while rushing back a little too early from an injury, their play on the ice is not very likely to be pretty. So, even if Pesce is not back in the lineup tonight (he has now been out for over a month), it might be time to try Hughes-Hamilton or Dillon-Hamilton to try and spark something for the team. The definition of insanity is trying the same things over and over again and expecting a different result, so it’s time for Sheldon Keefe to try something new.

Your Thoughts​

What do you think of tonight’s game against the Flyers? Do you think the Devils will bounce back? Or do you think more tough times are ahead? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...w-21-new-jersey-devils-at-philadelphia-flyers

 

[New Jersey Devils]

First Period Meltdown Dooms New Jersey Devils In 6-3 Loss To Philadelphia Flyers

Imagine, if you will, that you are a New Jersey Devils fan that sat down to watch tonight’s game against the rival Philadelphia Flyers. Through the first 20 minutes or so of real time, you witnessed things going pretty well. After a sluggish start for both sides, you saw the Devils cash in on an early power play, with Timo Meier getting off the schneid with a hard-working rebound goal to put New Jersey up 1-0. Unfortunately, you would then see the Devils give up the tying goal shortly thereafter when Jake Allen attempted to swipe a puck away from the crease, but it went right to Noah Cates who buried a shot into the open net. It’s 1-1, and while you’re annoyed, you’re still encouraged because overall it’s been a decent enough start to the game. Things might just be turning around for your favorite team.

Then, at approximately 7:35pm, you hear an odd sound outside your garage, so you go investigate. You’re not happy that it’s pulling you away from the game, but it should only take a couple minutes to see what’s going on, and how much could you possibly miss in a couple minutes? You flick on the porch light and see some raccoons digging through your trashcan. You hustle over to shoo them away, and watch them scurry into the bushes. After putting your trash in a safer place, you walk back into your living room and turn your attention back to the game.

The time is 7:37pm, and the Devils are now losing 4-1. Your heart sinks as you realize you missed the entire game in those two minutes.

Somehow, someway, the New Jersey Devils gave up three goals in 26 seconds in tonight’s first period on their way to a 6-3 loss. It was tied for the fifth-fastest three-goal meltdown in the history of the NHL. The first of those goals was a breakaway by Matvei Michkov, the second was a one-timer off a rush chance immediately off the ensuing faceoff by Tyson Foerster, and the third was a weak shot by Foerster (again) that inexplicably beat Allen. It was a comprehensive, team-wide failure from Allen giving up soft goals to the team allowing premium chances en masse.

And once that onslaught ended, you just knew the game was over. Don’t let Nico Hischier’s goals in the second and third (the latter coming with the net pulled with about 6:30 left in the third, which shows you how desperate this team is for offense) fool you. Don’t let the Devils looking pretty good on the surface in some stat columns fool you either. This game was over after those fateful 26 seconds. If you didn’t think so at the time, then you surely thought it was over when Allen yielded yet another soft goal to Bobby Brink midway through the second period to make it 5-1. Once it got to that 5-1 score, Philadelphia was more than happy to play prevent defense the rest of the way. Score effects over the final 30 minutes or so is what allowed New Jersey to make things look decent in some statistical categories, not any sort of strong play when they actually had a chance to win.

I suppose if I was feeling generous, I could argue the skaters played a little better than the final score would indicate, and that Allen just never gave his team a chance to win. In fact, I would say that Hischier’s goal in the third and then the next few shifts that followed gave me a spark of hope that maybe, just maybe, New Jersey could put together a late charge to at least steal a point. But that hope was snuffed out after New Jersey just missed putting a fourth puck past Dan Vladar, and Trevor Zegras beat Allen on a breakaway of his own to put the game out of reach for good at 6-3. That breakaway I don’t blame on the skaters, as they were selling out for offense. It would have been nice to get a save from Allen there, but I guess he’s only good for one breakaway save per game maximum, which he gave us on a Travis Konecny breakaway earlier in the game.

But other than the late charge starting with Hischier’s second goal, New Jersey never even remotely threatened. It’s concerning because the Flyers aren’t a particularly good team, and the Devils, as injured as they are, still have more than enough talent to handle Philadelphia. Even if they got league-average goaltending tonight, the Devils still weren’t winning, and that’s what’s concerning.

It’s not even that the Devils lost tonight either, although obviously another loss is not ideal. It’s the way they lost. After a promising start, an offense that was already under fire for not doing anywhere close to enough lately went to sleep once again. As we’ve gone over, New Jersey never even came close to climbing back into this game while it was still up for grabs, as they never strung more than a couple good shifts in the offensive zone together. And in the rare instances that they did get a shot attempt off in the first 30 minutes, it was usually blocked easily by a Flyer defender. Again, only score effects allowed New Jersey to get the late push that they got.

And on the other end, the Devils suffered way too many defensive breakdowns for a team as offensively challenged as this. Multiple breakaways allowed, defensive-zone turnovers, lapses in coverage, countless failed zone clearances, you name it. The one saving grace is that despite the defensive issues, New Jersey did a reasonable job of keeping the Flyers’ chances to the perimeter. Not a perfect job, as Philadelphia still did cobble together some high-danger looks, but reasonable.

Then of course, there was Allen. The ostensible 1B has found himself pressed into 1A duties this season thanks to Jacob Markstrom’s early-season injury and subsequent struggles. Allen made a couple strong saves tonight, but was overall terrible. The fourth and fifth goals in particular were inexcusable, and you could argue the first goal was too as Allen whacked the puck directly to Cates for the easy score. Allen was pretty great in his previous outing against the Florida Panthers, so I’m not saying he’s broken now too. And frankly Allen could have played extremely well tonight and still lost, that’s how bad the team in front of him played before the Flyers took their foot off the gas pedal. Nevertheless, Allen was awful this evening. He was as big a part of the problem as anybody in this game.

The bottom line is, this team is way too easy to play against right now. The Devils are wholly incapable of generating offense without Jack Hughes, which is deeply troubling. Yes Hughes is a gigantic loss, but it should not cause the offense to malfunction as badly as this. There is still a ton of talent left on the active roster, so these offensive woes are puzzling to me. Meanwhile, as getting quality looks at the opponents’ net is like pulling teeth, the other team doesn’t have a whole lot of trouble getting their fair share of looks themselves. Again, I would not go so far as to call the defense outright bad, as while New Jersey is getting pinned in their own end way too much, they are at the very least doing a halfway decent job of keeping things to the outside. But the defense has not been lockdown either, which they have needed to be considering how much of a chore it has been to score goals.

Based on my own personal eye test (not worth all that much, admittedly), I really don’t think this is an effort issue. I don’t see players not hustling out there. Rather I see a team that is out of sync and not playing smart hockey. Players out of position both offensively and defensively can be devastating, all it takes is a couple inches one way or another to make a huge difference. I also see a team that is collectively squeezing the stick. The Devils have had so much trouble doing things as simple as connecting on passes and hitting the net on shots lately, it really does look to me like a team that is playing tight. And I would also say that the Devils’ puck luck has been pretty bad lately. For all the good bounces they got during their eight-game winning streak, that luck has swung to the other side since then.

Not playing smart hockey, playing tight, and bad puck luck. And tonight, shoddy goaltending. That’s a pretty insurmountable combination.

If I had to take the optimistic viewpoint, I would say that the Devils are still 13-7-1, a very strong record. That eight-game heater allowed them a cushion to go through a slump like this. And now that this five-game road trip is over, New Jersey can return to, well, New Jersey, where they have been a much better team this season. Perhaps playing at The Rock again helps this team regroup. And I’d also say the puck luck should regress back to the mean again soon, though it’s obviously impossible to predict that.

All is not lost of course, and there are positives to look at. But tonight, a catastrophic 26 seconds was all it took for New Jersey to lose yet another game.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

Is Markstrom Actually Healthy?​

After Allen gave up his fourth goal of the night, a particularly alarming one to allow, it seemed like a logical time to pull him. Four goals on seven shots is certainly bad enough to warrant an early hook. But head coach Sheldon Keefe kept Jacob Markstrom planted on the bench. It made some wonder, myself included, if Markstrom is actually fully healthy. After all that’s a spot where we would probably expect the goalie to be pulled about 90% of the time. Yet Allen carried on in the crease.

We all know how badly Markstrom has struggled this season. What we don’t know is how much to attribute that to less than 100% health. As of right now, we have not heard anything from Markstrom or the team about him being compromised. But if he is not fully healthy, the Devils really need to put him back on IR and give Nico Daws some run with Allen. New Jersey needs to get Markstrom right.

Big Guns Heating Up?​

Nico Hischier scored twice tonight. Timo Meier opened the scoring on the power play. It came in a losing effort, but it would be really nice if those tallies get Hischier and Meier going.

One of the big stories of last season was the offensive ineptitude of the bottom six. While the bottom six has not been producing lately for the Devils either, the top players have gone cold too, which is a bigger problem. Hischier, Meier, Bratt…in Jack Hughes’ absence, these are the players that really need to start scoring again. Well, Hischier and Meier accomplished that tonight, and Bratt contributed with three assists.

It’s cold comfort in a game like this, but while it obviously didn’t help the Devils this evening, the hope is that it sparks the big guns and they can start producing in bunches again soon.

We Might Have Something Here​

I hesitate to say they played a good game, because I don’t really think anyone on the Devils played an outright good game, but I will say I saw a lot of promise out of the pairing of Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec this evening. We have seen the youngsters paired together in the past and it hasn’t gone well, but tonight was at least a little different.

According to Natural Stat Trick, at 5-on-5 the duo played 12:21 together. In that time, New Jersey out-attempted Philadelphia a whopping 26-7, outshot them 12-4, actually managed to break even in goals 1-1 (on a night where New Jersey was outscored 6-1 at 5-on-5), and they posted a combined 69.95 Expected Goals For%.

As I went over up top, score effects played a HUGE role in making everyone’s numbers look better than they actually played, so take those gaudy statistics with a grain of salt. In fact I would say Hughes in particular was pretty bad defensively tonight, though I also thought he did generate a good amount of offense. Still, score effects don’t entirely explain a 26-7 edge in shot attempts and a 70% xGF%. We’re going to need to see more that just one lopsided game, but if New Jersey’s young building block defensemen can produce more nights like tonight, that would go a long way toward stabilizing this team.

Next Time Out​

The Devils finally return home from their road trip on Monday when they host the Detroit Red Wings at The Rock. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take​

What did you think of tonight’s game? Have you ever seen anything like that 26-second stretch in the first period? What is your overall level of concern with this team? What about the goaltending specifically? Are you optimistic they can turn it around soon? As always, thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...sey-devils-in-6-3-loss-to-philadelphia-flyers

 

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Metropolitan Division Snapshot #2: Approaching Thanksgiving

Happy Sunday. The New Jersey Devils do not play today, as they have returned home to prepare for a stretch of largely home games in the coming weeks. It will be good for the Devils to get off the road, considering their poor injury luck and far better home performances. Aside from the Devils, though, how has the Metropolitan Division performed since the last Snapshot? As many of us have heard the mantra over the years, the teams in a playoff spot at Thanksgiving tend to still be in a playoff spot at the end of the season, so this is really the time to start paying attention to how things are shaking out.

So, aside from the Hurricanes and Islanders, the Metropolitan has largely stagnated over the last two weeks or so. And here are their schedules over the next two weeks:

Now, let’s get into all of the teams.

---

Carolina Hurricanes​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Carolina Hurricanes have found their game. Out of the games they have played since the last Division Snapshot, the Hurricanes have been held to fewer than three goals just once. That was their only regulation loss, to Washington. With the Devils circling the drain a bit without Jack Hughes, and with Pittsburgh tumbling down with the Global Series and some losses, Carolina has jumped back to the top spot. And with their number of regulation and overtime wins, they deserve it.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Hurricanes have an easier schedule over the next two weeks. They only have to travel to Buffalo for today’s game. Then they have five games at home, with only Winnipeg presenting a playoff-level challenge to them. Everyone else — the Rangers, Flames, Leafs, and Predators — is having a rough season. If the Hurricanes stay on their game as they have been in recent times, it would be hard to foresee anything other than two more weeks won for them.

New Jersey Devils​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: Ha ha. Ha. Ha. Oh my goodness. It was looking good. The Devils beat Pittsburgh in a shootout to keep their Division lead before taking three points out of four against the Islanders and Blackhawks. Then Cody Glass smashed his shoulder into the boards against Chicago, which did not even turn out to be the most devastating injury the Devils suffered in the Windy City. Jack Hughes sliced up his pinky with glass, and is now out until late December or early January. The Devils, of course, are 1-3-0 without Jack Hughes now, and frustration is bubbling over from both the players and the head coach.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Devils have a reprieve. They have been a much better home than road team this season, and they get six out of the next eight at home, with the two road games being short travels to Buffalo and Boston. However, they have to be sure that the back-to-backs with those road games don’t lead to any pointless stretches, or they might find themselves out of a playoff spot by the next Snapshot. Yes, the line between a Division spot and an outsider position is two points right now. On the bright side, the Devils have played the highest percentage of games on the road (13 out of 21) of any team in the Metropolitan (the Flyers, at 7 of 20, have the lowest percentage), so better times may be ahead.

New York Islanders​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: Big credit to the New York Islanders for these last two weeks or so. With seven of eight games coming on the road, the Islanders won six of seven on the road and lost at home. They did have three overtime wins, so they were happy to get back into the regulation win column this week, but their core of Horvat, Barzal, Palmieri, and Schaefer have been remarkable for them. Meanwhile, Ilya Sorookin has a .923 save percentage since the Islanders fired their goaltending coach seven games into the season. If Sorokin continues to look like the Sorokin of old, the Islanders may have a legitimate playoff team on their hands.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Rewarding their hard work on the road, the Islanders are in the midst of a seven-game homestand. After that, they go down to Tampa to play the Lightning. The Islanders look to turn around their home fortunes, as they are currently 4-4-1 on home ice. Still, any team that goes 6-1-0 on a seven-game road trip should be good enough to win some games at home. In this stand, they have two Division games with the Flyers and Capitals, so it will be interesting to see if they can bury the Capitals a bit while taking some air out of the Flyers’ sails.

Philadelphia Flyers​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: Last Snapshot, I said that the Flyers are the team I least believe in. I still stand by that, with their five regulation wins in 20 games. They are a lucky team, yes, and they have had an easy travel and rest schedule through 20 games. With two overtime losses, a regulation loss, a shootout win, and an overtime win before running into Jake Allen last night, they are serial abusers of the Bettman point system so far this season. Their regulation record is 5-6. If they continued the entire season at this pace, they would finish the season with 37 overtime games. But with this pattern of play, they have actually maintained their fourth spot in the Division. They are, however, further from first place (five, versus three points) than they were last time out.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Philadelphia finally gets their road test in the coming week. They have a four-game road trip against the Lightning, Panthers, Islanders, and Devils before going home to face the Penguins and Sabres in the latter week of the fortnight. Currently, they are only 3-3-1 on the road compared to 8-3-2 at home. We’ll see how these games shake out, but the Flyers will also be building up a games at hand advantage with their continually light early-season schedule.

Pittsburgh Penguins​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Penguins have disappointed me. After being tied by points atop the Division last Snapshot, Pittsburgh only won one game over the last two weeks. They have played a lot of close games, though, with three overtime and shootout losses and a one-goal loss in regulation to the Kings. These last two games also came after the team traveled to Stockholm to play the Predators, so I am interested to see if things even out again for Pittsburgh now that they are in the United States once more.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Pittsburgh has the dreaded flip-flopping home-road schedule over the next two weeks, so they may have a tougher time getting into a rhythm. On the bright side, the only real playoff team they have lined up over the next two weeks are the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their games against the Jackets and Flyers are big, though, as they will help determine the middle-of-the-Division picture for two weeks from now.

Columbus Blue Jackets​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Jackets are staying afloat in the Metro thanks to the loser point. At 4-2-3 since the last Snapshot and 4-3-3 in their last 10 total games, Columbus has managed a packed and heavy schedule, staying respectable on the board. I do not believe they will stay above the Capitals forever, though. Like the Flyers, Columbus has trouble winning in regulation, with only six regulation wins through 22 games. There’s just no way I can see a team rising above the bubble when they are on track for 22 or 23 regulation wins across 82 games.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Blue Jackets have a huge couple of weeks coming up: they have three Division games. Going against Washington and Pittsburgh in the first week, Columbus can prove me wrong and climb up to fifth or even fourth in the Division. Then, they play the Devils next week. To their credit, Columbus has a top line that can hang with other squads, and they have not gotten the Sean Monahan of last season yet. If they get Monahan going, the decent goaltending they have gotten from Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins can turn Columbus into a more interesting team two weeks from now.

Washington Capitals​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The Capitals are unpredictable. Since the last Snapshot, they have gone 4-3-1. Those games include 7-4 and 8-4 wins over the Oilers and Canadiens (on back-to-back nights), a 6-3 loss to the Panthers, and a surprising 4-1 road win over the Hurricanes. They are at least starting to show that they have the high-end offense to be a playoff team again, but it is not all there. Supremely aided on offense by their top pair of Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson, who have combined for 10 goals and 38 points through 22 team games, the Capitals are riding their best players. Defensively, they are able to fall on stalwarts like Matt Roy to get them across the finish line most of the time. If they figure their bottom six out, they can easily rise up the Division board.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: Washington only has one Division game over the next two weeks. With three at home this week, and the California road trip in the second week, the Capitals need to stand their ground at home before taking at least two or three points from California if they want to stay in position to make a run at a Wild Card spot. Aside from the Hurricanes and Penguins, the Capitals are the third team in the Division to 10 regulation wins, while they only have two loser points from shootout losses. We’ll see if that turns into better fortune down the stretch.

New York Rangers​

What Happened Since the Last Snapshot: The New York Rangers were in last place in the first Snapshot, and they are still in last place. This is remarkable, considering their 9-4-1 road record: I cannot imagine the thoughts going through the heads of a fanbase that has seen their team lose eight of nine at home through the first quarter of the season or so. Unfortunately for the Rangers, these last two weeks included a four-game losing streak that featured three road losses, so their luck may be beginning to run out there. Aside from Panarin, Fox, and Gavrikov, the highest-paid skaters on the team are still largely having bad seasons. If they just had better defensive involvement from their top sixers, they would probably be in the middle of the pack or better.

What’s Coming Up This Fortnight: The Rangers have a tough schedule over the next two weeks. With four home games and three on the road, their aging squad may have a tough time managing rest. Worse for the Rangers, six of these seven games are against current playoff teams (though Boston has the most games played in the league), including games against the Hurricanes, Stars, and Avalanche. If the Rangers can go .500 during this stretch, their season may remain at least somewhat interesting. But considering that Thanksgiving is in the coming week, a bad two week stretch could be an early nail in their season’s coffin.

---

Your Thoughts​

We now have two Division Snapshots in the books for the 2025-26 season. There has been quite a bit of shuffling, but the New Jersey Devils are still in a top spot. In fact, New Jersey is still tied with Vegas for the fifth-best position in the league by points and games played. So, the sky is not falling…yet. This is a critical juncture, though, and Sheldon Keefe and his squad need to amp their games up to make sure that they are still above the Wild Card cluster two weeks from now.

But what do you think of the state of the Metropolitan? Are there teams surprising you? Any teams you think are due to rise or fall? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...-division-snapshot-2-approaching-thanksgiving

 

[New Jersey Devils]

A Trade Needs to Happen

Hello friends, It’s been a bit since I’ve been able to sit down and write a non-recap blog, life and stuff.

We just passed the quarter mark of the season, and it’s been a pretty wild ride so far. I’ve been writing this periodically over the past week, and this paragraph has changed 4 times – and now I have entered the pit of despair after an embarrassing performance in Philly. That’s 3 straight losses, each with their own unique blend of ineptitude. While I’m not going to write some nonsense about how we’re cursed because of some mummies, maybe a quick sage of The Rock could help or an we could crowdfund an Etsy witch. Certainly won’t hurt, right?

Stop Getting Hurt​

I realize the injuries have been CRAZY for us, however this is a league wide phenomenon. We are on the wrong side of it though and guys are dropping every night – Gritsyuk was seen limping around the locker room last night. Right now we are 4th in the league for injuries by cap hit:

Go Get a New Center, Tom​

The loss of Jack for 6-8 weeks and Glass for a mystery amount of time has accelerated what needed to happen in the first place, and that is acquire another productive center. We need someone who can elevate to 2C with both out, and can settle in at 3C when Jack and Glass return. And the Devils need to pull the trigger on this before every other team does, most notably Carolina who have a ton of cap space and a real need there as well. Frankly, so do half the competitive teams in the league. Lammikko is showing he is not an NHL caliber center. Glendening is replacement level as a 4th line center and is a black hole offensively which has had ripple effects on Cotter’s production. Mercer has been a somewhat adequate fill-in, but is a better suited as passenger-style wing.

I know Chris wrote about some options on Friday, but with last night’s embarrassing loss, a change is needed. We are in a dogfight in the Metro with only 8 points separating the first place Hurricanes and the last place Rangers, and 5 points separating the Devils (2nd) from the Rangers (who are in last, at the bottom, the worst team.. as a reminder).

In my opinion, a move for a center has shifted to the top of the priority list and quite honestly I don’t think we need a top 6 wing like a Kyrou or a Robertson. I’m wary of Tuch now as well primarily because of his projected 11MM+ contract ask for next year. With the emergence of Gritsyuk and the improved production of Mercer at wing, in my opinion our top 6 is set in some combination of Jack-Mercer-Gritsyuk-Timo-Nico-Bratt.

I realize the prevailing thought is plug elite player X into line with Jack and Bratt, sit back and profit. Well, it’s not a video game, and as evidenced by the lack of results with the Jack-Bratt-Timo line, is no guarantee of success. Keefe has spoken in detail about the type of player that works:

“(We) want to make sure there is not duplication in their jobs and what they are doing,” he said. “Sometimes there is duplication between Hughes and Bratt and we can’t triple it up. We have to have someone with proper spacing that is going to be around the net, and can earn the puck back.”

This is by no means an endorsement of Palat in that role, but if we are going to keep Jack and Bratt together the third player needs a more straightforward play style. Truth be told, The Jack-Mercer-Grtisyuk line might be a better line with Nico-Timo-Bratt as line 1a. But that is a story for January once we are “healthy.”

Another consideration about prioritizing a 2/3C over a top 6 wing is power play time. I have been on my soapbox about this for years, that you need to ensure elite player X is going to produce at an elite level for his elite salary – and a lot of that will come with power play time. Over the past 3 years, both Kyrou and Robertson have added around 30% of their points on the PP. This isn’t unique to them and Jack and Bratt are both around 40%. We have our top 3 forwards mostly locked into PP1 (Nico, Jack, Bratt) and the next-in-line rotation is Timo, Gritsyuk and Mercer. This doesn’t even count Noesen whose production has cratered since his return from injury with no consequential PP time.

Would this mythical elite player X slide into a spot occupied by Nico, Jack, or Bratt when we are fully healthy? Probably not, and sure PP2 would get a boost, but the TOI splits between units is still hovering around 80/20. Are we going to pay a guy 8MM+ to get :20 seconds of throw away PP time? We already have Timo in purgatory because of this exact reason and a vocal chunk of the fanbase wants him to walk the plank.

If you look around at some of the highest scoring/best teams and how their lineups are constructed, Mercer and Gritsyuk are extremely well suited to take these roles on. Look no further than Colorado, the highest scoring team int he league and far and away the class of the entire NHL, whose 5th and 6th highest scoring forwards have similar PP/G production to Mercer and Gritsyuk.

Plot Twist: you won’t be surprised at who we need​

So that brings me back to our ultimate need, a new shiny center that can slide up the lineup when needed. This would have likely been the ultimate deadline need as well, but with injuries and recent performance, this timeline NEEDS to accelerate to NOW.

There are a few different options out there that, in my opinion, are currently acquirable based on how their team is doing and the prevailing thought amongst those that know things. While not necessarily a unique opinion my number one option last year, this past summer, and currently is Ryan O’Reilly. The amount of boxes he checks is obscene: production, play style, leadership, playoff pedigree, contract. It all fits. Option 2 is Nazeem Kadri, while his contract and term scare me a bit, he is a dog that needs rescuing. Option 3 is JG Pageau, although with the Islanders suddenly good-ish, he may be off the market.

Every one of these guys can slide in at 2C/3C now, and when fully healthy function as our full time 3C. Having Jack, Nico, O’Reilly/Kardi/Pageau, and Glass is a cup winning group of centers. The problem is our GM, who took a victory lap while we were on an 8 game heater has gone into witness protection of late. If you read Jared’s excellent walk down memory lane, you will notice Fitz has made only 5 early season deals, and ONE in his entire tenure that was intended to bolster the Devils (Jon Gilles LOL). Maybe two if you consider MacEwen for MacDermid.

Oh? What about the cap, Tim?​

Now before you come in and say “what about the cap, we have no room, we’re over” etc, I know. With Kovacevic they were always going to be over the cap when he returns, so there is absolutely a plan in place to make the money work. With 13 forwards, 7 defense and 2 goalies currently under contract we are about $1.2MM over the cap fully healthy according to puckpedia (no Lachance, Lammikko, White, or Cholowski if you want to play along). Haha, I just said the words “fully healthy.”

I wrote a Dougie love letter this summer that was largely predicated on the failures of Nemec and Casey defensively in 24-25 and a wariness to move on just yet. With the recent emergence of Nemec and imminent return of Pesce, I would feel comfortable moving on from Doug in a 1 for 1 swap for O’Reilly. We are currently trying to force 3D into our PP rotation, and while Dougie is doing an admirable job defensively, Pesce is sorely missed on the PK. Nashville needs help on the right side of their D, and this would solve nearly every problem we have: the logjam of right D we have, cap issues, a Nemec extension etc. Nashville has great museums and Dougie would love a quiet place with no state tax.

What do you think?​

It’s getting late early and this lineup, as currently being run out, is sinking and our grasp on 2nd int he Metro is tentative at best.

What do you think? What’s the move here? Am I panicking? Was it just a bad road trip? Do we need to be patient, and get home and look in the mirror? Let me know your thoughts.

LGD

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/devils-issues-views-and-ge/63404/a-trade-needs-to-happen

 

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Gamethread #21: New Jersey Devils at Philadelphia Flyers

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (13-6-1) at Philadelphia Flyers (10-6-3). Flyers blog: Broad Street Hockey.

The Time: 7:00pm EST

The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN, Radio — Devils Hockey Radio

The Game Preview: I had the preview today.

The Song of the Day: I have only been to see one particular band from Philadelphia multiple times: they would be The Roots. From their 1996 jazz rap masterpiece, Do You Want More?!!!??!, “Essaywhuman?!!!??!” is a perfect encapsulation of the wide range of talent in their midst, especially in their live performances.

The Rules: If you have been a reader here, you already know the rules. But for the rest, a reminder: please do not swear in the comment section, and keep comments relevant to the hockey game going on. Beyond that, do not attack any other commenters, and do not ask for or pass along illegal streams on this board.

LGD!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...d-21-new-jersey-devils-at-philadelphia-flyers

 

[New Jersey Devils]

New Jersey Devils Survive Late Push In 4-3 Victory Over Detroit Red Wings

The New Jersey Devils snapped their three-game losing streak thanks to a gutsy 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night. It was a much-needed victory after the team really started to lose the plot since Jack Hughes went down with his injury. Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, Cody Glass, and Connor Brown were the goal scorers, while Jacob Markstrom played his first excellent game in weeks.

There is a lot to unpack from tonight’s contest. Let’s start with the fact that New Jersey finally got a top notch goaltending performance from their presumed 1A. It’s no secret that Markstrom has been struggling mightily to begin the 2025-26 season. He’s spent a little time on the IR, and when he was healthy enough to play, he’s posted some truly abysmal numbers. His masterpiece in Los Angeles on November 1 was really the only notable game on his resume this season, but now he can add tonight’s performance to that list. After a first period in which the Devils dominated, New Jersey got pretty thoroughly outplayed over the last 40 minutes of the game. According to Natural Stat Trick, Markstrom saved almost two whole Goals Above Expected (1.89 to be exact). He ended up saving 32 of 35 shots, good for a .914 Save percentage. Many of those expected goals and shots came toward the very end of the game, with Detroit pressing with their net empty, desperate for the equalizer. Markstrom answered every challenge, diving and lunging and blocking and two-pad stacking (yes, really) to keep the Red Wings from getting that tying goal. New Jersey let Detroit dominate possession through the last two periods, and especially in that final flurry. But while the defense faltered, Markstrom was there to bail them out. Credit where credit is due: Markstrom was the key reason the Devils escaped with two points tonight.

By the way, tonight’s contest was New Jersey’s first regulation win since that November 1 game in Los Angeles. Yes, incredibly, the Devils have gone almost a full month between 60-minute wins. Thankfully there have been plenty of overtime and shootout victories sprinkled in, but it was still nice to see a win that only took regulation again. I was starting to forget what that looked like.

Since I touched on the performance of the Devils skaters a little bit already, let’s go there next. As mentioned, New Jersey really controlled play in the first period. The shot totals might not indicate that (only 8-7 in the Devils’ favor), but New Jersey got many more of the dangerous opportunities. At 5-on-5 in the opening frame, the Devils out-attempted the Wings 23-9, won the Scoring Chances battle 15-6, and won the High Danger Corsi battle 8-2. Add it all up, and the Devils more than doubled the Red Wings’ Expected Goal output, 1.43-0.69. And New Jersey had a 3-1 lead to show for it. All was going quite well.

But for as good as the first period was, it’s almost as if the Devils forgot how to play hockey during the first intermission. Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, as New Jersey still got some quality looks after the opening frame. But it’s undeniable that Detroit was the better team over the last two-thirds this evening. From the second period on, the Wings outshot the Devils 28-11. At 5-on-5, Expected Goals For were 2.28-0.55 in Detroit’s favor. And that doesn’t even include the Expected Goals the Red Wings racked up with their net empty, or on their power plays (one of which they converted on). The Devils have been plagued by poor starts this season, only to find their game later on. Tonight was the opposite; they came out of the gate about as well as possible, but faded in a hurry after that. A win is a win, but the Devils need to figure out how to put together a full 60-minute effort.

Now let’s talk about why I called it a “gutsy” win. I’m sorry, but the Detroit Red Wings are the sneakiest dirty team in the NHL. It feels like every time I watch them play, their captain Dylan Larkin is doing something to try and seriously hurt another player. And while he didn’t do anything particularly egregious tonight, he started more than his fair share of totally avoidable fights because he just needed to try and hurt someone I guess.

Meanwhile, some of his teammates DID do particularly egregious things this evening. It started with J.T. Compher delivering a seriously dangerous hit to Hischier along the boards early in the first. Hischier went head-first into the side wall and left for the trainer’s room for a little bit before thankfully returning to the game. Compher was extremely lucky he didn’t get tagged with a five-minute major. Then later on during a post-whistle scrum, Ben Chariot delivered the most egregious moment of the night:

Nemec hit since I dont see it. Siegs got away with one like a minute later. pic.twitter.com/oqWq1xolkQ

— Tim (@BorinUltimatum) November 25, 2025

I mean, it doesn’t get much more clear-cut than that. An intentional butt-end right to Simon Nemec’s midsection, which caused Nemec to leave for the trainer’s room himself for a bit before returning. I would like to say Chariot should expect to hear from the Department of Player Safety, but I have no faith in them to actually do the right thing.

To be fair, Jonas Siegenthaler got away with a cheap shot of his own on Lucas Raymond. It’s understandable why he decided to do it, as he witnessed the officials let everything under the sun go up to that point. So I suppose he figured since the Red Wings were being allowed to take cheap shots at the Devils at will, he would get in on the fun. I still don’t condone it though, and would much rather see that and every dirty hit the Red Wings delivered tonight get called.

Please understand, I don’t bring all this up to just pointlessly cry about the Red Wings and their various temper tantrums. I bring this all up because, unless you’ve been living under the world’s most impenetrable rock, you know that the Devils have been devasted by injuries this season. They’re getting healthier now, but they are still far from 100%. I don’t know about you, but I would’ve been highly agitated if Hischier or Nemec or anyone else got seriously hurt tonight as a result of the Red Wings’ antics. I want the officials and the DOPS to actually protect the players. That includes the opposition too, as Detroit certainly has a case that Siegenthaler got away with one tonight as well. Either way, while the scrums and the big hits might be entertaining to some degree, I would much rather watch a hockey game without worrying all that much that the other team is taking runs at the Devils with impunity. To all the NHL officials out there, please get these teams under control.

In any case, the Devils survived both the Red Wings’ dirty play and their actually hockey play, escaping with a 4-3 win. It was their first win in four games, and it reset the vibes around this team, at least for one night. Markstrom was magnificent, the offense was opportunistic, and The Rock remains an imposing place to play. The ship has been righted for now.

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com

Welcome To The Rock​

When I say The Rock has become an imposing place to play, I mean it. With tonight’s win, New Jersey is now 8-0-1 at the Prudential Center this season. That’s such a breath of fresh air considering the Devils’ struggles on home ice the past few seasons. Obviously they won’t play to that pace at home all year, but becoming a strong home team could make this a special season.

Taking Stock Of The Injuries​

As has become a tradition with the New Jersey Devils, let’s go over some of the injury information.

Like I mentioned before, it appears Hischier and Nemec avoided injury after taking dirty hits from Compher and Chariot respectively. That’s great news, as those two are some of the more indispensable Devils at the moment.

Elsewhere, Arseny Gritsyuk, who was seen limping and walking around with ice around his ankle after last game, appeared no worse for wear tonight. It’s refreshing to see a player appear compromised after a game but not actually have to miss time.

Finally, Cody Glass returned from a brief injury absence, which is great news. Even better news is that he scored in his return, redirecting a Luke Hughes shot home in the first period.

Becoming A Habit​

Speaking of Glass, he scored in the season opener. He also scored in his first game back from his first injury. And now he scored in his first game back after his second injury.

I’m not saying we have to keep injuring Glass on and off for the rest of the year…but I’m not NOT saying it either.

Oh, Ondrej​

This feels like beating a dead horse, but I just have to bring it up. Ondrej Palat was set up with not one, but two one-on-one’s with Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot tonight. The first was off a turnover in the offensive zone where Palat scooped up a lose puck to Talbot’s right and darted toward the net all alone. The second was on a straight up breakaway. He failed to score on either chance.

As I said, I hate beating this dead horse. But it continues to be morbidly amusing to me just how incapable Palat is at producing goals.

Next Time Out​

The Devils are back in action on Thanksgiving Eve when they host the St. Louis Blues. Puck drop from Newark is scheduled for 7:00pm.

Your Take​

What did you make of tonight’s game? Who on the Devils impressed you the most? Do you agree with my disdain for the Red Wings’ antics? How encouraged were you by Markstrom’s performance tonight? What do you expect next time out against the Blues? As always, thanks for reading!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...te-push-in-4-3-victory-over-detroit-red-wings

 

[New Jersey Devils]

New Jersey Devils Prospect Update: Happy Trees and Samu Salminen’s Four-Point Night

Center Samu Salminen had a monster night for Denver. Let’s talk about it.

Salminen’s Big Night​

On November 21st, Samu Salminen had a four point (1 goal, 3 assist) effort against ASU, the second four point night of his career. Followed up by another point in the game after that, Salminen’s point totals are now 11 in 14 games, on pace to shatter his career high of 28 points last season.

It’s unclear what the future holds for Salminen. As a senior, he will have an opportunity to sign wherever he wants to this summer. Whether Salminen’s game can translate to the highest levels also remains to be seen, but the Devils could certainly use more centers in their system. Hopefully, the Devils will add him to their extended roster next year.

The Hot List​

A few other Devils prospects have been heating up recently.

• After a slow transition period to North America, Lenni Hammenaho now has four points in his last five games for Utica.
• Winger David Rozsival has been on absolute fire recently and now has 11 points in 20 games for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL

#NJDevils David Rozsíval put together a strong weekend in the USHL, recording his first two multi-point games with 3 goals and 5 points in 2 outings. pic.twitter.com/kD1JS6UgD1

— Czech Prospects (@CZprospects) November 23, 2025

• Defenseman Chase Cheslock added two assists this week and now has 8 in 13 games, more than halfway to his career high in collegiate points at 14. Cheslock has seen an increased role for St. Thomas this year.

The Not List​

• Goaltender Jakub Malek has been reassigned to Adirondack of the ECHL, which is probably for the best right now as Utica has been playing Daws every night and Malek needs to play. Daws in net hasn’t helped the team much though, as the Comets dropped both games this weekend.
• Defenseman Anton Silayev has one point in thirty games. His diminished role and ice time has been well-documented on this page. What a difference a new coach makes.
• Winger Josh Filmon remains the only prospect of the Devils without a point, either in Utica or in Adirondack. Filmon has gone 0 for 4 in both leagues.

Happy Trees​

Lastly, enjoy this moment of levity from Utica, featuring defensemen Ethan Edwards and Dmitri Osipov.

Painting some happy little trees

We had Ethan Edwards and Dmitri Osipov follow a Bob Ross tutorial, it went… good?

Join us this Saturday for Art Night presented by @MunsonUtica
: https://t.co/1GVXDygJn0 pic.twitter.com/6icung6U1E

— Utica Comets (@UticaComets) November 18, 2025

Your Take​

Post your comments below.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/p...ppy-trees-and-samu-salminens-four-point-night

 

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Gamethread #22: New Jersey Devils vs. Detroit Red Wings

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (13-7-1) versus the Detroit Red Wings (13-8-1)

The Time: 7:00 PM ET

The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN

The Game Preview: See my preview from this morning.

The Rules: If you have been a reader here, you already know the rules. But for the rest, a reminder: please do not swear in the comment section, and keep comments relevant to the hockey game going on. Beyond that, do not attack any other commenters, and do not ask for or pass along illegal streams on this board.

LGD!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...ead-22-new-jersey-devils-vs-detroit-red-wings

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Here Is What The New Jersey Devils Are Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving week to you and yours. As we get set to celebrate one of the most important American holidays (and notable NHL standings benchmarks), I figured this would be as good a time as any to take stock of what our favorite team, the New Jersey Devils, have to be thankful for. Sure there are plenty of ways this team can complain about the current state of the organization, but despite the Devils entering today on a three-game losing streak, there are still plenty of positives to take from the first roughly quarter of the season.

We’ll go through the players alphabetically, and we’ll include every Devil that has played at least one game for the team this season. Let’s begin:

Jake Allen: Long-term security

Jake Allen has largely been pretty great for the Devils since coming over at the 2024 trade deadline. A free agent after last season, it was unclear whether New Jersey would have enough cap space to retain him, despite general manager Tom Fitzgerald’s stated desire to keep him in the Garden State. Well Fitzgerald and Allen got creative with a five-year, $1.8m AAV extension signed right under the wire before free agency opened this past summer. It was way more years than any of us expected, but a far lower AAV to counter-balance that. Allen is surely thankful to have some long-term security at this point in his career.

Jesper Bratt: Goal-scorers

Bratt has been an assist machine throughout his career, culminating in his 67-assist campaign in 2024-25, a new franchise record. This year is no different, as he leads the team with 16 helpers thus far. It’s not all that close either, with Luke Hughes’ 11 assists representing second place. Bratt’s elite playmaking ability makes everyone around him a goal-scorer, but I’m sure he’s still thankful he plays with many players who can finish the chances he sets up for them.

Connor Brown: Shooting percentage benders

Brown got off to an excellent start in New Jersey, with five goals in his first nine games. He’s gone his last five contests without so much as a point, but even with that cold spell (that included a stint on IR) Brown is still shooting 25%. That, of course, is unsustainable, and we’ve already seen his hot stick come back down to earth somewhat. Still, shooting 25% a quarter of the way through the season qualifies as living good to me.

Seamus Casey: Trade Rumors

I feel for Casey. He’s a talented, young, right-shot defenseman, arguably the most difficult commodity to find in today’s NHL. On almost every other team in the league, Casey would be getting regular NHL playing time already. He just happens to be on the one team with a glut of righthanded blueliners, so even with all the injuries, Casey has only played two games with the big club this season. He’s not exactly lighting it up in Utica with three points in eight games, but I’m sure Casey would welcome a change of scenery so he could have a much clearer path to NHL playing time. Every time his name pops up in a trade rumor, I’m sure he’s thankful to hear it.

Dennis Cholowski: Tom Fitzgerald and Sheldon Keefe

Cholowski just can’t hack it at this level, I’m sorry. Yet despite that, Fitzgerald and Keefe insist on keeping him in the lineup while some key defensemen are on the shelf. Cholowski is thankful for the job security.

Paul Cotter: Seasons that end in an odd-numbered year

Take a look through Cotter’s career stats. He seems to have an “every other year” thing going on. His first full (well, close to full anyway) season was 2022-23, when he posted 13 goals in 55 games. Not bad. He plummeted down to seven goals in 76 games in 2023-24, before rebounding in a big way last year with 16 goals in 79 games with New Jersey. This year he has one measly goal in 21 games. Cotter can’t get to 2026-27 fast enough.

Evgenii Dadonov: The neutral zone

Here’s a quirky one: According to NHL Edge, Dadonov has spent 18.9% of his total ice time in the neutral zone. That is good enough to place him in the 93rd percentile league-wide. How exactly does spending a lot of time in the neutral zone benefit the team? I have no idea. All I know is Dadonov seems to be very thankful that the middle-third of the ice exists.

Nico Daws: The waiver wire

Much like Casey, Daws must be thankful that the NHL has avenues for him to seek employment elsewhere. If the league had Major League Baseball’s old reserve clause, Daws would never really see the light of day in the NHL considering the organization’s insistence on keeping Allen and Jacob Markstrom around long-term. I suppose Markstrom’s recent injury troubles could change that, but I’m not going to say that Daws is thankful for another player’s misfortune. I’ll just leave it as Daws being grateful that there are ways that he can go elsewhere and get some actual playing time.

Brenden Dillon: Jack Eichel

In game one of last April’s first round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, Dillon took a borderline dirty hit from William Carrier. That hit caused a major neck and back injury for Dillon, leading to doubts as to whether he could continue playing hockey. Amanda Stein wrote a great piece diving deep on this whole saga that I recommend, but the gist of it is that after exploring all possible options, Dillon decided to have artificial disk replacement surgery over the summer. Just a few years ago, the surgery was thought to be highly risky for a hockey player to have, so much so that the Buffalo Sabres refused to let Eichel get the surgery while he was with them, setting in motion his trade to Vegas. Eichel got the surgery while with the Golden Knights, and he proved that it is absolutely a treatment a hockey player can come back from. Dillon reached out to Eichel over the summer about it, the two shared a few conversations, and that gave Dillon the confidence to try it for himself. Amid a sea of injuries to the Devils’ blueline, Dillon has been a rock from day one, keeping the unit afloat. New Jersey is thankful to Dillon, and Dillon is surely thankful to Eichel, not just for what he did for his hockey career, but what he may have done to help Dillon’s long-term, post-career quality of life.

Cody Glass: Defensive acumen

Cody Glass just has not been able to stay healthy during his time in New Jersey, which is a major problem. But because of his defensive utility, he will always have a job when he is healthy enough to play. Glass’ ability to shutdown the opposition has proven extremely useful, to the point where you don’t need him to post big point totals for him to be an important part of a contender.

Luke Glendening: PTO’s

This one is obvious. Glendening won an NHL contract from the Devils for his solid work in the preseason while playing on a PTO. He wasn’t really on many teams’ radars during the preseason, so he had to go the PTO route to find work again. Credit to Glendening for taking advantage of his PTO to win a job out of camp, though the Devils could certainly use an upgrade over him on the fourth line.

Arseny Gritsyuk: Telegram

Gritsyuk has come over to North America and not looked out of place at all. His shot has come as advertised, and his all-around game has come better than advertised. Still, coming to the U.S. is difficult for any young, foreign player, so I’m sure Gritsyuk’s adorable Telegram journaling helps with the transition to a new life. Being able to be yourself and keep in touch with those back home has certainly aided Gritsyuk as he adjusts to life in New Jersey.

Brian Halonen: Darcy Kuemper

On November 1, Halonen scored his first career NHL goal. He beat the Kings’ Darcy Kuemper for the score, which is a pretty notable goalie to get your first goal off of. Good for Halonen for beating Kuemper and creating a memory he’ll never forget.

Dougie Hamilton: His modified no-trade clause

Hamilton’s name has been in more trade rumors than I can count in recent times. And aside from actual trade rumors from NHL insiders, it seems like every Devils fan who has ever lived has concocted a trade that involves Hamilton in some way recently (raises hand). At the end of the day, Hamilton has accumulated generational wealth due to his hockey career, so it’s hard to feel too sorry for him, but I can’t help but feel a little bad that so many people both inside and outside the Devils organization want him gone in some capacity. Hamilton must be thankful for his modified no-trade clause, which to be specific is a 10-team trade list. We don’t know which 10 teams are on that list, but something tells me the Vancouver Canucks are not one of them.

Nico Hischier: Sheldon Keefe

Hischier has obviously been a top player in this league for a long time, but unlike some of the truly high-end forwards, he had never averaged 20 minutes or more per game until Keefe showed up. John Hynes, Alain Nassredine, and Lindy Ruff all kept Hischier’s ice time in the high-teens during their coaching stints in New Jersey. But then Keefe showed up last year and gave Hischier a huge boost. In 2024-25, Hischier averaged 20:23 per game, and this season it’s up even more to 20:54. We as Devils fans should be thankful that Keefe figured out the revolutionary strategy of playing your best players a lot. But I’m sure Hischier is even more thankful than us for the boost in minutes.

Jack Hughes: Timing

It is yet another season in which Jack Hughes will miss significant time due to injury. After suffering his freak accident at a team dinner earlier this month, Hughes will not return until somewhere around New Year’s Day, give or take a week or two in either direction. The big difference between this year and the last two seasons though, is that this months-long injury does not outright end Hughes’ season. It is obviously possible that he suffers another major injury once he returns, but for now, Hughes will not be on the shelf for the remainder of the season this time.

Luke Hughes: Hold-outs

Luke Hughes got absolutely paid this offseason, signing a seven-year, $9m AAV contract during training camp. Hughes missed all of camp and preseason, putting pressure on Fitzgerald to get a deal done. In the end, Hughes gave up some concessions on the length of his deal, so it wasn’t a total defeat for Fitz and the Devils. But Hughes secured a $9m AAV because of his willingness to hold out. Hughes and his accountant are surely thankful for that.

Shane Lachance: Jay Pandolfo

Longtime Devil Jay Pandolfo has guided the Boston University men’s hockey team to some dizzying heights since taking over prior to the 2022-23 season. In three seasons with the Terriers, Pandolfo has led them to three Frozen Fours, including a National Runner-Up finish a season ago. Shane Lachance was a middling prospect for a while, but thanks to his time at BU under Pandolfo, Lachance developed into a promising young prospect, to the point where New Jersey thought highly enough of him to snag him in a three-team trade last season (though I’m sure having his dad in the organization played a role too). Lachance has battled some injuries this fall, but he made his NHL debut on November 15th against Washington, with hopefully many more games to come. Lachance is thankful for Pandolfo’s tutelage, helping him rise to the NHL ranks.

Juho Lammikko: ZSC Lions

After spending a few seasons in the NHL, Lammikko played for the ZSC Lions in Switzerland for three seasons. He played well enough there to draw Tom Fitzgerald’s interest, signing a 1-year, $800K contract with New Jersey prior to this season. Lammikko is thankful to the Lions for helping him get back to playing in the NHL.

Nathan Legare: The AHL

I’m sorry, I’m really not trying to be mean here. But Legare has only gotten into one game this season, and I have a hard time seeing a long NHL career ahead of him. I do see him being able to carve out a long-term role in the AHL though, which should keep Legare employed for a while. There’s no shame in not being able to stay consistently in the NHL, it is the toughest league in the world. Legare can become an AHL staple and make a nice little career for himself.

Zack MacEwen: Hockey’s obsession with tough guys

I admit this is a little unfair to MacEwen, who has shown legitimate hockey skill in his time in New Jersey. But we can all admit that he’s more known for his toughness and fighting ability than his goal-scoring or playmaking. Hockey front offices want at least a few tough guys on their team. It’s why the Senators traded him, because they wanted an upgrade in toughness and fighting ability in Kurtis MacDermid. As long as MacEwen can rely on his toughness and raw strength, he’ll have a job.

Jacob Markstrom: Tom Fitzgerald

Another obvious one. I still believe in Markstrom, I really do. But he of course has been terrible so far this season. When he’s actually healthy enough to play, that is. But despite his age, injury history, and significant struggles, Fitzgerald gave him a two-year, $6m AAV extension anyway. Again, I do believe Markstrom will figure it out eventually. But he absolutely has to be thankful to Fitzgerald for inking Markstrom to a deal in spite of all the red flags.

Timo Meier: The month of March

We know the drill by now: Meier has trouble scoring in a Devils sweater until the calendar flips to March, when he inexplicably goes on a tear. It seemed like Meier was bucking the trend early on, but another prolonged goal drought has him at a mere six goals through 21 games. I really don’t want to wait another few months to see Meier light up scoreboards again, I hope he can get rolling sooner. But at the very least, we all know we can count on Meier Madness.

Dawson Mercer: Modern recovery methods

The Devils’ ironman is thankful for advances in modern medicine and strength and recovery training, which have allowed him to not miss a single game since his debut in the 2021-22 season. Obviously there’s more to it than that, as credit needs to go to Mercer’s own toughness and ability to avoid injury. But either way, Mercer doesn’t get to this point without all the modern tools at his disposal.

Simon Nemec: Confidence

Nemec has had a bit of a breakout this season. It’s not a full-on star turn, as he has still had plenty of mediocre to bad games this season. But it’s undeniable that Nemec has greatly improved over last season’s disappointing campaign. We have been told for a while now that confidence is very important in Nemec’s game. That’s impossible to quantify of course, but I do think we see a much more confident Nemec these days. A huge boost in ice time and responsibility has surely given him a lot of that confidence. And to his credit, he’s taken this opportunity and run with it. He’s still not perfect, but Nemec is starting to blossom, and he’s surely thankful for the confidence he’s developed.

Stefan Noesen: Regression to the mean

Noesen has been disappointing in his second season back in New Jersey. His early goal-scoring last year was unsustainable, and we saw that regression in the second half (though to be fair, injury played a role in that). But this year the regression should be a positive thing for Noesen soon. Yes he’s been disappointing, but he only has one goal on 18 shots on net. That’s well below his career shooting percentage mark, and regression to the mean should come soon, meaning the goals should start falling for Noesen. Once that happens, he’ll be thankful.

Ondrej Palat: Tom Fitzgerald

In an ideal world, I would have a unique entry for every player, but I cannot possibly choose anything than Fitzgerald here. Palat must be extremely thankful to Fitzgerald that he gave him a very lucrative contract with extensive no-movement protection a few years ago. Extremely, extremely thankful.

Brett Pesce: Extra padding

Pesce has been a shot-blocking warrior over the course of his career, and in late October that penchant for blocking shots finally came back to bite him as he took a shot to his hand against the Avalanche and has been out since. It’s hard to get anymore padding on a player’s gloves, but if I were Pesce, I would ask for bulkier equipment to help protect myself. If he could get his hands on some extra padding, he would be grateful for it I’m sure.

Jonas Siegenthaler: A return to form

I wonder if Siegenthaler was still not fully healthy at the beginning of the season. Even if he was, his play had taken a turn for the worse, to the point where I felt the need to write about it around a month ago. But Siegenthaler has started to return to form lately. He’s still not quite as impactful as he can be, but Siegenthaler showing significant improvement would be a very welcome sight for the Devils. And I’m sure Siegenthaler himself is thankful to start finding his game again.

Colton White: Determination

White is a classic NHL-tweener. He got into a few NHL games here and there every season from 2018-19 to 2022-23, didn’t play in the NHL from 2023-24 to 2024-25, and now finds himself filling in once again. It can be a hard life to live, being on the NHL/AHL bubble indefinitely. But credit to White, who must be thankful that he has an inordinate amount of determination to keep living this life. Good for him.

What I’m Thankful For​

As for me, I’m thankful for the opportunity to write for my favorite hockey team at a blog as incredible as this one. And I’m thankful to all of you who support our work here at All About The Jersey. Believe me, whether it’s praise or criticism, it means more than you know to be able to share a love of the New Jersey Devils with the readers here. My deepest gratitude to all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving. Let’s all have a wonderful holiday.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...s-what-the-new-jersey-devils-are-thankful-for

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Moore-On or Moron: Pre-Thanksgiving Edition

We’re a quarter of the way through the season, so it’s time for everybody’s favorite game…..Moore-On or Moron.

I am a person who prides myself on having good takes and great opinions. Some of them are just spot on, A+ takes that more and more people should be saying. Others might be on the right track, but they need more time in the oven before they’re ready. Regardless, I like to throw out Devils takes in this article and then grade them. Are they the ramblings of an actual moron? Or am I on to something, hence, Moore-On. There’s only one way to find out.

Before diving in, I wanted to wish all of our readers, commenters, and contributors a happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Yes, even the ones I argue with in the comments section all the time. You know who you are, but it’s all in good fun and I have nothing but love for people who take the time to comment. I may even throw some Thanksgiving dinner takes in at the end if I’m feeling my oats.

The Devils Can’t Rest on their Laurels Being in a Playoff Spot on American Thanksgiving​

If you’re a longtime NHL fan, you’re probably familiar with the trend of NHL teams being in a playoff spot come American Thanksgiving and their likelihood of maintaining that spot.

It’s not a perfect science by any means. The Edmonton Oilers have been out of a playoff spot the last two seasons on American Thanksgiving only to wind up representing the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Final. The St. Louis Blues famously went from worst to first and won the Stanley Cup in 2019. But when upwards of 80% of the teams holding a playoff berth on Thanksgiving wind up making it, it’s a talking point for a reason. It’s part of the reason why I preach that banking points early in the season is so important. It’s gets harder to make up points as the season goes along, even if you’re “only four points” out of a playoff spot.

I think a lot of people are looking at this year as potentially being different, and I can understand that with the level of parity we see across the league. We’re in the middle of a season where nobody is tanking, nobody wants to admit they’re rebuilding, and teams are trying to be good. There hasn’t been much of a separation in the standings like there has been in year’s past, thanks in part to the loser point, but also thanks in part to the aforementioned teams trying to be competitive.

The Devils are in a playoff spot at the moment, but they’re only four points clear of the cutoff. Compare that to three years ago or last year when the Devils were 9 points clear of the cutoff and I get the trepidation from fans that their spot is far from secure.

Frankly, those people are right. They may be in a playoff spot on Thanksgiving, but nothing is assured. And while it is hard to make up points in this league, its still a league where everyone goes on a run at some point and everyone has bad weeks at some point. The Devils had a bad week last week on the tail end of their road trip, and another bad week or two opens them up to getting overtaken for their position.

In two of the last three seasons, the Devils banked so many points in the first half of the season where their playoff spot was secure and all they really needed to do was go NHL .500 the rest of the way. They built a cushion where every regular season game didn’t feel like a must win.

That’s not there this year. And that could actually be a good thing.

The Devils can’t just sit back and go on cruise control. They have to scratch and claw to get every point they can. They can’t take opponents lightly. They can’t take nights off. They have to play hard.

Now, they need to play better than what we’ve seen of late. I don’t think anyone is disputing that. The Tampa and Philadelphia games last week were two of their worst performances of the season. They beat Detroit, but Detroit controlled the pace for large stretches of that contest.

The good news for the Devils is that the schedule does ease up a little bit here. They have a lot of home games coming up and they’re unbeaten in regulation on home ice. And as much as they’ve been ravaged by injuries, they’re eventually going to start getting guys back. They got Cody Glass back the other night. Brett Pesce will be back at some point. So will Jack Hughes and Johnathan Kovacevic.

Nothing is set in stone though, which is why the Devils need to get back to how they were playing during the eight-game winning streak. It starts with being better defensively, being more structured, and making better decisions with the puck.

Verdict: Moore-On

The Department of Player Safety Once Again Has No Idea What They’re Doing​

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the injury epidemic that has spread across the NHL this season.

I tried to offer a few potential solutions at the end of that article, with one of them being simply having the officials call the actual infractions on the ice as they happen. A novel concept, I know, but I still suggested that. I also suggested that if the Department of Player Safety was actually all that interested in the safety of the players, they would put their foot down and make an example of somebody with all of the tomfoolery we see in some of these games before a player gets seriously hurt.

Watching the game against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday, I was reminded yet again that the league really doesn’t care about the wellbeing of their players.

J.T. Compher set the tone for what was to come with his dangerous boarding penalty on Nico Hischier. It’s the type of hit that really has no place in today’s game, and Hischier was fortunate to escape with no serious injury. The officials actually did call a boarding minor penalty there, so I do give them some credit there.

I also didn’t have an issue with the officiating crew letting Stefan Noesen go after Compher in response after he exited the penalty box (and nearly scored). It was the type of hit that required a response, and I would’ve had a bigger issue with the Devils had they allowed a hit like that on their captain to go unanswered. I did think Noesen getting an extra two minutes out of a scrap where Compher dropped his mitts first was a little excessive, but if that’s the price to pay for sticking up for your captain, so be it.

The problem is that the referees ultimately let things get out of control by continuing to swallow their whistles, only calling Dougie Hamilton for a pair of minor infractions from that point on. It’s actually wild that for as physical a game as this was, Detroit didn’t get called for any penalties until after the game was over. By continuing to allow the boys to police the games themselves and not being the adult in the room, they let things get out of hand with every post-whistle shoving match over the next couple periods. Players would go 15 feet out of their way to finish checks (something James van Riemsdyk did in the second period as he chased after Simon Nemec). When he wasn’t busy embellishing taking Evgeni Dadonov’s butt to the face and acting like he got hit by the Rikishi stink-face, noted crybaby Dylan Larkin was shoving Nico Hischier after scoring a goal.

Which led to Ben Chiarot attempting to spear Simon Nemec twice in a scrum, connecting once.

Which led to Jonas Siegenthaler getting a measure of retribution by knocking Lucas Raymond to the ice with a blindside hit several minutes later.

Which led to the postgame scrum and a whole lot of pushing and shoving when fake tough guy Dylan Larkin and the rest of the Temu Florida Panthers wouldn’t take their loss like a man and get off the ice.

Of course, the Department of Player Safety could have stepped in after the fact and at least made a cursory effort to pretend to do their jobs. After all, you’re definitely not allowed to spear someone in hockey. It’s supposed to be an automatic major penalty and game misconduct. The DoPS could’ve sent the message that this won’t be tolerated and try to regain some semblance of control by giving Chiarot a game when the officials failed to catch it on the ice during an actual game.

Instead, they slapped a repeat offender in Chiarot on the wrist.

Crazy how much Corey Perry's chin resembles the outline of #nhljets Ben Chiarot's butt-end. #NHL is reviewing the incident. No call on play, could've been a match penalty. Perry needed 20 stitches, including some below top layer of skin. pic.twitter.com/VfWOzNbwqz

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) November 25, 2017

Detroit’s Ben Chiarot has been fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for butt-ending New Jersey’s Simon Nemec.

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) November 25, 2025

Clearly, Chiarot hasn’t learned from his previous transgressions, as fining a guy $5K when he has made over $33M in his career isn’t an actual deterrent. But that’s what we’ve come to expect from the DoPeS at the DoPS. When you let a former goon in George Parros run the department and they’re too afraid or incompetent to hand down some discipline with actual substance, boys will continue to be boys and the inmates will continue to run the asylum policing themselves. It’s probably not going to change until the next Todd Bertuzzi-Steve Moore incident happens and everyone is horrified at the resulting injury, resulting in a PR nightmare for the league and all sorts of unwanted attention.

I want to be clear that I get this sounds like I’m coming across as being whiny about the physicality in the sport. I don’t have an issue with physicality. I don’t have an issue with checking, or finishing checks, or a well-timed hit to separate a player from the puck.

However, I do have an issue with physicality that I deem unnecessary, and it seems like there was a lot of that in this game. Between Compher’s hit (that wasn’t fined) and all of the extracurricular nonsense, its a minor miracle that Hischier and Nemec didn’t get hurt, and I am going to be sensitive to that when it seems like the Devils are losing somebody to injury every game.

Verdict: Moore-On

The NHL Officials Have it out for Sheldon Keefe, and by Extension, the Devils​

Kruton made an interesting comment in the postgame thread the other night and I wanted to highlight it here.

“Devils are second-to-last in penalties drawn this season and boy was it apparent tonight! I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

I don’t know what’s going on either buddy, but I thought it was worth looking into and maybe you’re on to something.

According to Moneypuck, the Devils are indeed second-to-last in penalties drawn at 5v5. They’re 31st in PIM/60 at 6.37, with only the Penguins getting a more unfavorable whistle. The Devils aren’t getting punished more than other teams though, as they’re in the Top 10 in terms of fewest penalty minutes taken per 60 at 7.79. This wasn’t the case last year in Year 1 under Sheldon Keefe, as they were 14th in PIM drawn/60 at .799 and 14th in PIM taken/60 at 8.37. It should also be noted that for most of Keefe’s tenure as Maple Leafs coach, Toronto ranked somewhere between average and below average when it came to drawing penalties.

On the surface, it doesn’t make a ton of sense that a team that skates as well as the Devils aren’t getting more calls than they are. You would think that they’d draw more of the clutching and grabbing, holding and hooking types of penalties as guys like Jack Hughes, Luke Hughes, and Jesper Bratt make a move on a guy and a defender gets beat. It seems like the only calls the Devils are getting are the ones that are blatantly obvious…..tripping calls, high sticking (although the refs missed one of those last night as well), and what I would deem procedural penalties like puck over the glass or too many men.

Sheldon Keefe certainly has a reputation for working the officials. It seems like every time the MSG cameras pan to the Devils bench, Keefe is giving one of the linesmen an earful. He’s been (wrongly) ejected from games before. Wes McCauley, who is one of the NHL’s longest tenured officials and likely has a lot of influence behind the scenes being as he’s the son of former NHL Director Of Officiating John McCauley, has a noted conflict of interest when it comes to Keefe. Yet, for whatever reason, the league hasn’t seen fit to remove McCauley from games Keefe is coaching in.

I think there’s a natural inclination in any fanbase to think that the officials are out to screw them and their team. We tend to view things through rose-colored glasses and come up with narratives to ultimately suit our own agenda. I also think hockey is a fast game, referees miss a lot of calls, and their tendency to call games even stevens so neither team has an advantage has more of an impact on games than if they just called a bunch of penalties on one team. If its a penalty, its a penalty. Call it.

That said, I don’t think there’s any sort of league-wide conspiracy to screw over Sheldon Keefe, and by extension, the Devils. At least, not yet.

Verdict: Moron (although I reserve judgment to change my mind if new information presents itself)

Simon Nemec Should Be Off Limits in Trade Discussions​

There’s been a lot of bumps in the road getting to this point, but after 109 NHL games, it looks like Simon Nemec is on his way to being the potential top-pairing right-handed defenseman that the Devils envisioned when they made him the #2 overall pick in 2023. He hasn’t even turned 22 years old yet, and he’s just beginning to scratch the surface of what he can be.

I’m not giving up that type of player easily.

I’m certainly not doing it now with the Devils other right-handed defensemen in Brett Pesce and Johnathan Kovacevic on LTIR. But under the very hypothetical situation that the Devils ever get all of their players healthy at one time…..take a minute to pause and laugh at that idea that THAT will ever happen…..I’m not taking Nemec out of the lineup. And I’m certainly not shopping him in a trade for your run of the mill second line scoring winger.

Never say never, of course. If the Edmonton Oilers were dumb enough to offer Connor McDavid for Simon Nemec, I’m doing that trade. But they’re not doing that, and I’m not trading Simon Nemec for, I dunno, Jordan Kyrou or Ryan O’Reilly or Nazem Kadri or Elias Pettersson or whoever is on the NHL Trade Boards nowadays.

Verdict: Moore-On

Once the Canucks Read the Writing on the Wall, The Devils Should Be All Over Quinn Hughes​

Elliotte Friedman reported late Monday night that the Vancouver Canucks have let it be known that they’re willing to listen to offers on “veteran players”. It should be noted though that that does not include Quinn Hughes at this time.

Of course, with half the players on the Canucks having bloated contracts and various no-move and/or no-trade clauses, what does that even mean? Are they trading Conor Garland or Thatcher Demko before their contract extensions (and no-move clauses) kick in? What do you think you’re getting for rentals such as Evander Kane or Teddy Blueger? What do you actually have that other teams want? There’s not really a whole lot on that Canucks roster that interests me.

With one obvious exception of course in Quinn Hughes.

The Vancouver Canucks are heading nowhere fast. They’re near the bottom of the NHL standings, they have an average at best prospect pool, and their best player and captain is a year and a half away from walking out the door for nothing. They are heading towards an inevitable rebuild. One where they really don’t have a whole lot of say in the matter when, not if, Quinn Hughes decides he’s not going to sign there long-term. The Canucks are going to have to take their medicine whether they want to or not.

The Canucks should trade Quinn Hughes sooner rather than later, and when they do, the Devils need to be all over it.

Of course, we’ve talked about this topic before. We’ve talked about once the Canucks stop being stubborn about their position and face a reality we all saw coming from a mile away, they should try to maximize what they have in their best trade chip in Quinn. We’ve talked about how they should take the best offer for Quinn, whether its from the Devils or not. We’ve talked about how if they do this sooner, they’d get a better return from a team knowing they’d get Quinn for two playoff runs. Where even if Quinn leaves as a free agent, who cares if he does….IF you win it all with him.

Whether or not the Devils put together THE most competitive offer if the Canucks shop him around the league is up for debate. But they certainly need to come to the table and try to land the second best defenseman in the NHL right now if they can. You don’t just wait until July 1st, 2027 to “get that player for free” when “all he’ll cost is money”. Not when you can win now and the player in question can separate you from the rest of the pack. Not when you can get a Norris-caliber defenseman who probably has every intention of resigning with you so he can play with his brothers.

I get the Devils cap situation is what it is at the moment and how exactly are you fitting Quinn in right here and right now with the Devils already operating in LTIR. I leave that to smarter people than me to figure out. All I’m saying is that I’m not letting first round picks, Anton Silayev, Seamus Casey, Lenni Haamenaho, Dougie Hamilton, Jonas Siegenthaler, Brenden Dillon, and a bunch of the other mid-tier contracted players on the Devils stop me from making this deal.

Not Simon Nemec though. I gotta draw a line somewhere.

There’s a path to a trade. Figure it out….assuming Vancouver is willing to play ball.

Verdict: Moore-On

Mac and Cheese is the Go-To Thanksgiving Side Dish​

No.

I don’t know how macaroni and cheese became a Thanksgiving side dish. If there was a meeting, I wasn’t consulted on it and I should be consulted on such things. Mac and cheese is fine on its own but much like your weird Uncle Steve, I don’t want to see or hear from you on Thanksgiving Day.

But here’s a quick Thanksgiving side dish power rankings courtesy of an expert in the field. If you don’t believe me when it comes to my expertise, check my waistline. You’re free to comment on these rankings but if you disagree, it likely says more about you than me.

1. Bird Stuffing
2. Sweet Potatoes
3. Regular Stuffing
4. Mashed Potatoes with Gravy
5. Corn
6. Fresh Rolls/Baked Bread
7. Cranberry Sauce
8. Some sort of house salad
9. Green Beans
10. Getting Speared by Ben Chiarot After Eating Too Much at Thanksgiving Dinner
11. Mac and Cheese

Verdict: Moore-On the great Thanksgiving side dish power rankings. Moron on Mac and Cheese.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/general/63527/moore-on-or-moron-pre-thanksgiving-edition

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Ondrej Palat Should No Longer Be an Every Night Player for the New Jersey Devils

Ondrej Palat’s contract has been maligned since the day he signed it with the New Jersey Devils. The five year, $30 million deal that was inked back in July of 2022 was never seen as a deal that would age well. It was a bit too much per season for a guy who had broken 60 points just once in his career. It was also seen as a deal taking up too much of the Devils’ cap space going forward for them to make other impactful moves in the seasons that would follow. While I’m glad to say the Devils have done alright regarding that last point, the money was definitely too much per season. As for how it’s aging?

I think saying that it aged like rotting milk would be too generous.

Palat’s first season in New Jersey I would deem passable, as he did contribute 23 points (0.47 points per game) in 49 games; the other 33 were missed mostly due to injury. While a 38 point pace for a $6 million wing isn’t fantastic, I’m willing to forgive a bit due to again the injury as well as the strong postseason performance that he turned in. Everything after that 2022-23 postseason, however, has been a steeper decline than most would’ve expected. 2023-24 saw Palat appear in 71 contests and record just 31 points (0.44 ppg) while last season he increased his games played to 77, but saw a drop again in production to just 28 points (0.36 pg) in those regular season contests. He did put up two assists in five playoff games, but didn’t really do much on the ice aside from that.

I think what’s most disappointing about Palat isn’t just his production, but how low it is when you consider who he’s frequently on a line with. He’s regularly been given ice time with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt for most of the last two seasons when he (and Bratt and/or Hughes) has been healthy. Considering the point totals they’ve put up, it’s concerning to see how little Palat has produced. IT’s to the point where I have referenced him as an anchor to both of those players at this point. Heck, Jack and/or Jesper might have eclipsed 100 points in a season of their respective careers if they had someone on their line who could put their passes into the net.

And now this season? If this isn’t rock bottom for him as an NHLer, I don’t know what is.

Through the first 23 contests of 2025-26, Palat has two whole points. That’s right, just one goal and one assist in 23 appearances. To give even more perspective on how bad that is, Brenden Dillon has outscored him. Cody Glass has played roughly half the number of games and has double the points Palat has. Ditto that for Paul Cotter, albeit in the same number of games as Palat. Stefan Noesen has one more point in six fewer games, and he missed training camp and the preseason with an injury. Brett Pesce has only played in nine games and has three points. PTO player turned signee Luke Glendening, who is making league minimum has three points! A winger who is making us much as Palat is being tied for SEVENTEENTH in team scoring alongside known offensive defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler is ridiculous!

Which leads to my main point: Ondrej Palat should no longer be playing every night for the New Jersey Devils. Is he honestly bringing anything at this point that a replacement level player couldn’t bring? Heck, at least if it’s a prospect playing, there’s still a higher ceiling for them to achieve. Palat is just out there clogging up a lineup spot and forcing whatever line he’s on to feel as if they’re playing shorthanded.

As a final aside, I know Palat has been discussed a lot on this site, and he’s certainly been the target of my ire more than once. The man was a legit NHL player, cup champion and deserves the respect he’s earned for his accolades. At the same time, whether his play style finally caught up to him, his skill decline came on earlier than it does for many, or if the ever faster game just passed him by, he’s not playing like an NHL level player anymore. I know we’ve said it will be easier to stomach buying him out this coming summer (or trying to move him) but having him on the ice every night isn’t the Devils icing their best 20 available players. The team sits at the top of the Eastern Conference as I finish writing this. If they want to remain there, they need to play their best available group every night.

Even with a few injuries right now, that still should mean that Ondrej Palat is shifting into the press box role, rather than being a part of Sheldon Keefe’s Middle Six every night.

What are your thoughts on Palat’s 2025-26 so far; do you think his ineffectiveness merits him coming out of the lineup? Do you still believe he should be playing every game for the Devils? Do you think a healthy scratch or two might jump start his production? Would you be okay if he was consistently used in a fourth line role? Will the Devils move him or buy him out this summer? Leave any and all comments down below, thanks as always for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate!

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...-every-night-player-for-the-new-jersey-devils

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Finding Wins: Simon Nemec Scores Overtime Goal to Deliver 3-2 Devils Win Over Blues

First Period​

The New Jersey Devils had a chance to take a lead in the first minute of the game when Dougie Hamilton bounced the puck off of Jordan Binnington, giving Nico Hischier a rebound opportunity. His shot was saved, and the puck bounced over Timo Meier’s stick as he came crashing towards the crease. A couple of shifts went by, and Cam Fowler gave the St. Louis Blues the lead on their first shot of the game. From wide by the boards, he wired a slap shot right past Markstrom’s glove.

Juho Lammikko had a wide-open chance to tie the game off a feed from Stefan Noesen, but he could not convert the point-blank shot. He shot it right into Binnington. A couple minutes later, Jesper Bratt took a long pass from Dougie Hamilton off a faceoff for a partial breakaway, and his shot glanced off the far post. The Devils then iced the puck twice, already getting their third and fourth icings of the first seven minutes of the game.

The Devils’ dominant possession finally paid off just a minute or so past the halfway mark in the first. After Meier shot a one-timer off Binnington, off a turnover generated by Bratt, Dougie Hamilton funneled a centering shot-pass that was deflected down. With chaos in front, Timo Meier tied the game at 1-1!

The Devils went to the power play when Nathan Walker was sent off for interference on Timo Meier less than a minute after their goal. The Devils tried to create chaos in front again on the power play, but Mercer was tied up on an early chance in front. Then, Nico Hischier shanked a one-timer opportunity, which led to Dougie Hamilton taking a cross-checking penalty on Mathieu Joseph. The teams played at four-on-four for a minute. Robert Thomas made Markstrom look foolish on a wrist shot above the blocker, as Markstrom didn’t move on the goal that gave the Blues another lead.

Timo Meier was hooked down on a clean breakaway with a minute and 15 seconds to play, but no call was made.

Second Period​

The Devils had a poor start in the second period, looking like a team that was having trouble motivating themselves to play again. Jacob Markstrom finally got a chance to make up for his previous misplays when Dougie Hamilton missed Oskar Sundqvist at center ice. Sundqvist went off on a breakaway with Hamilton and Gritsyuk chasing him, and Markstrom stopped the backhand. This set the stage for the rest of the game, with Markstrom building confidence from here.

Getting their second power play of the game after a penalty by Justin Faulk, the Devils had their first big break of the middle frame. Glass had been tripped up in the neutral zone. Dougie Hamilton lost the offensive zone off the draw, and the Devils turned it right over after the re-entry. It took nearly the entire first minute to regain possession, which led to a blocked shot from the point. The Devils regained the zone again, and Timo Meier had a long shot saved by Binnington. Jesper Bratt took the puck and looked for a lane to zip the puck through, turning back and finding Luke Hughes. Hughes passed across for a Meier one-timer, and Nico Hischier tied the game on a rebound five-hole goal!

Juho Lammikko finally got on the box score, but with a penalty for hooking Dalibor Dvorsky. Brenden Dillon blocked a shot from Jordan Kyrou to start the penalty kill. After a second draw, Kyrou had another shot blocked before sailing one over the net. The remainder of the kill looked much better, with the Devils causing some issues for St. Louis’ puck movement. Ultimately, Markstrom only had to stop one shot.

Third Period​

The Blues had Jordan Kyrou with an early opportunity, but Nico Hischier made an excellent play on the puck before he could shoot on Markstrom just halfway through the first shift of the period. After a minute and a half of some bottom six play and an waved-off icing that looked like it should have been called, Ondrej Palat took a high-sticking double-minor penalty. Jacob Markstrom made some huge saves on Jimmy Snuggerud in the second minute, as the Devils killed the first half of the penalty.

The Blues cycled slowly in the second half of the power play, but Markstrom made a stop on Kyrou to freeze the puck with just a minute left to kill. This led Jim Montgomery to call timeout for the St. Louis bench, allowing his top power play unit to stay on the ice for their biggest chance to retake the lead again. Hischier and Mercer went out, but St. Louis won the draw. Jake Neighbors tried to backhand the puck through his legs to the front of the net, allowing the Devils to clear the puck all the way down. After three more clearing plays, the Blues saw their power play go by the wayside.

Jacob Markstrom made a huge save on Mathieu Joseph in front to keep the game tied with under seven minutes to play, and the game grew more chaotic as the teams started to take some runs at each other. Unfortunately for the Devils, this seemed to be coming at the expense of their defensive play. Still, the Devils were able to create some chances. Ondrej Palat had one such chance that he sailed high and wide of goal, as he had space to shoot but pulled the puck a little too much.

Overtime​

The Blues had the first possession in overtime, and they accordingly tried to waste time before Broberg turned the puck over to Hischier. The Devils changed, and Timo Meier went wide of goal before passing out to keep possession. Jesper Bratt beat Halloway in the neutral zone and went around the net, spinninig back to the blueline before playing catch with Meier. Bratt kept cutting and cutting until he passed Hamilton, whose shot missed the net. Hamilton’s later shot glanced off the glove. The Devils changed again with offensive zone possession, leading to some tired Blues skaters. Broberg, halfway through overtime, had not yet been off the ice. They finally got a change when the Devils lost the zone on their own.

Nico Hischier came back onto the ice and had a chance to take the puck around the net. He did so, finding Simon Nemec for a one-timer at the side of the net! Nemec gave the Devils yet another overtime winner!

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

Markstrom’s Bounceback​

Things did not start very well for Jacob Markstrom tonight. In the first period, it looked like he was having trouble tracking the puck, and he was sitting a bit too deep in the net. Between letting a shot from the wall beat him on the glove side and not even moving on the goal by Thomas, I was holding my breath and trying to prepare for another rough outing. I even hoped for Sheldon Keefe to bring Jake Allen in. But Markstrom never gave that third goal up, and he earned his victory and second star tonight. I do not think that Markstrom was as good as he was in Detroit, personally, but it’s good to see him have consecutive winning performances. It does seem like he’s starting to have some of his prowess on breakaways and high-danger chances again.

Nico Being Nico​

Nico Hischier factored into all three Devils goals today with primary points on each. Through 23 games, Hischier now has eight goals and 21 points, putting him on track for a similar output to the last few seasons. On top of this, Hischier has been having a strong defensive impact, facing the toughest matchups that teams have to offer. His penalty killing is improved from last season, and he is making more plays at even strength again. This is the kind of elevation that the team needed from its captain after Jack Hughes went out with his hand injury, and we are thankful for it.

Nico’s resurgence over the last few games has also boosted Timo Meier, who has been getting involved along the boards and in front of the net. With a second-straight multi-point game, Timo goes up to eight goals and 19 points on the season. If he maintained this pace for the entire season, Meier would finish this season with the second-highest single-season point total (67) of his career. Doing this while crunching defensemen behind the opposing goals makes the top line that much tougher to play against.

What would be nice is more consistency from the rest of the team. Natural Stat Trick reports that the Devils had 18 scoring chances at five-on-five in the first period compared to just five for the rest of the game. High-danger chances were even harder to come by. Nemec’s overtime goal was the first even strength high-danger chance the Devils had after Timo Meier had a chance in front of the net with 1:22 remaining in the first period.

Three of the Devils’ seven five-on-five high-danger chances were created by Stefan Noesen for Paul Cotter and Juho Lammikko, who combined for zero goals on four shots and 0.64 expected goals on those plays. After Lammikko was benched in the third period after his penalty, Noesen had to find shifts with other lines (the Devils had a 100.00 xGF% when Noesen played with players other than Glendening and Lammikko tonight). If Keefe does not trust Lammikko to play in a fourth line wing role, Fitzgerald really needs to make a call to someone in Utica — and he needs to swap Palat and Noesen in this lineup.

Untouchable​

Simon Nemec now has five goals and 14 points this season. Two of the five goals are of the game-winning variety. One tied a game to give the Devils an overtime point. The other two were part of a hat-trick performance, leading to one of those overtime winners. And, of course, he also won the game against Washington with a shootout winner. Nemec now has more goals this season than he had points in the 2024-25 regular season. Most importantly, he is doing this while taking on a top-pairing role again. It would be one thing if Nemec was eating up bottom six competition on a third pairing, generating some goals in sheltered minutes. But that’s not reality for the Devils right now, who miss Pesce and Kovacevic while they wait for Hamilton to actually return to form from his injury. If Nemec was not playing like one of the best offensive defensemen in the league right now, the Devils would only be in the playoff bubble, rather than first in the Eastern Conference.

Happy Thanksgiving​

As we close out this recap for now, I would like to take a moment to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all. Happy Thanksgiving to the readers of this blog, as well as to the dedicated writers who keep the ship sailing. Happy Thanksgiving to the New Jersey Devils, who have rewarded their fans with hockey that is often interesting to watch, with a flair for the dramatic.

The Devils officially reach the Thanksgiving benchmark in first place in the Eastern Conference.

Your Thoughts​

What did you think of tonight’s game? Did you think the Devils deserved to win? What did you think of the change in pace from the first period to the second and third? What did you think of Markstrom’s performance down the stretch? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...ime-goal-to-deliver-3-2-devils-win-over-blues

 

[New Jersey Devils]

2025-26 Gamethread #24: New Jersey Devils at Buffalo Sabres

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (15-7-1) at Buffalo Sabres (9-10-4)

The Time: 4:00pm ET

The Broadcast: TV – MSG, Radio – Devils Radio Network

The Game Preview: Jackson had the preview this morning.

The Song of the Day: Out of Rochester, New York, King Buffalo is a neo-psychedelia outfit that, well, sounds pretty good. Today’s song of the day is their “Balrog.” May the Devils bring the hellfire to

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...thread-24-new-jersey-devils-at-buffalo-sabres

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Allen, Gritsyuk Lead Devils Past Sabres, 5-0, Keeping First Place

The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats

If you’re having trouble remembering the last time the Devils won a laugher, it’s because it’s been awhile.

Twenty seven days to be exact.

So it was nice to finally spend a third period not waiting for a bad bounce or sketchy call or late goal against to set up an overtime or shootout that’s essentially a coin flip; even more so with a rematch with Metro Division rival Philly looming less than 24 hours away.

Arseny Gritsyuk scored twice, which was more than enough support for Devils goalie Jake Allen, who was razor sharp in a 42-save, 5-0 shutout on Friday afternoon at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

Gritsyuk put the Devils up 2-0 on his fifth of the season 7 minutes, 45 seconds into the second period. It was a back-breaking goal for Buffalo, which had carried play to start the second. Shots in the period were 5-1 Buffalo when Gritsyuk buried a centering pass from Dawson Mercer.

Thanksgiving leftovers taste better with some Grits. pic.twitter.com/43BX4PImgq

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) November 28, 2025

The Devils got a pair of early third period goals from Brendan Dillon (a one-timer from the left circle set up by Connor Brown) and a breakaway from Paul Cotter (sprung by Brown in the neutral zone).

Move so nasty you’re gonna need to watch it 47 times. pic.twitter.com/3XUIDvG6SO

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) November 28, 2025

Gritsyuk would notch his second of the night and sixth of the season at 16:49 to ice the win. He scored off a give-and-go with Ondrej Palat, who scored as many points Friday (2) as he had in the first 23 games this season.

The Devils didn’t need five goals the way Allen was playing though.

It was redemption for the 35-year-old journeyman, coming off what might be his worst outing since coming over at the trade deadline in 2024. Last time out he gave up four first period goals to Philly, including three in just 26 seconds. He made amends Friday afternoon. His 42 saves were the most he’d made in a game since stopping 45 against Columbus late last season. It was his third 40-plus save game as a Devil.

He was at his best in the third period stopping 17 shots.

With the win, New Jersey improved to 16-7-1 and took sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference. They left Buffalo a point up on Tampa Bay in the conference standings and three ahead of Carolina in the Metro standings, which is something, considering the black cloud that seemed to hang over the Devils for the last month.

It was only the third time since beating the L.A. Kings 4-1 on Nov. 1 that the Devils didn’t need overtime/shootout to secure points. Five of November’s eight wins came in extra time, and Monday’s 4-3 win against the Red Wings was in doubt till the final seconds. They’re now 4-3 in the two weeks since Jack Hughes injured his hand at a team dinner in Chicago on Nov. 12 and have shown they can still bank points despite missing their franchise center.

The Game Highlights​

Up Next​

The Devils host the Flyers at 7 pm Saturday night. Philly, which has won two in a row, beat the Islanders in a shootout on Friday and sits third in the Metro, four points behind the Devils. They’ve been a much better home than road team. They’ll face Jacob Markstrom for the first time this season after torching Allen a week ago. Markstrom, who got off to a horrendous start this year, has looked much better his last two games.

Your Thoughts​

So what did everyone think? The Devils have shown themselves to be really resilient, especially this past week. Things were looking pretty ugly a week ago after lifeless losses to Tampa, Florida, and Philly. They showed a ton of fight in the two wins at home this week though and then routed Buffalo despite the high shot total they allowed. With (hopefully) only a month to go before Hughes returns they’re banking points and staying at or near the top of the standings.

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...n-gritsyuk-lead-devils-past-sabres-into-first

 

[New Jersey Devils]

Game Preview #25: Philadelphia Flyers @ New Jersey Devils

I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see much more of this tonight, and a LOT less of whatever the Flyers did the last time these two teams faced each other. | Photo by Rich Graessle/NHL via Getty Images

• The Matchup: Philadelphia Flyers (13-7-3) @ New Jersey Devils (16-7-1)
• The Time: 7:00pm EST
• The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio

Last Devils Game​

On Friday afternoon, the Devils defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-0. The game started at 4:00pm, which was thanks to it being the day after Thanksgiving. This game had everything a Devils fan could hope for. El Capitan Nico Hischier continued his point streak with his 4th game in a row with at least a point. He now has 9 points in his last 4 games. Paul Cotter finally got on the board again with an assist on Brenden “Bobby Orr” Dillion’s 3rd goal of the season, and with a nice breakaway goal of his own in the 3rd period. Ondrej Palat had 2 primary assists. Arseny Gritsyuk had his first 2 goal game of his career.

However, the biggest positive of the game, in my humble opinion, was the massive bounce back game from Jake Allen. It’s no secret that I’ve been a big Jake Allen supporter this season. It’s also no secret that Allen did not have a good game in his last outing, which was a 6-3 loss to Philadelphia on 11/22. However, Allen went out tonight to prove that the game against the Flyers was a fluke, and shut down any doubters with a 42 save shutout against the Sabres. Jacob Markstrom has been playing better, and Allen is back playing how he has been all season, minus that one game we all want to forget. Put simply, the game could not have gone any better today for the Devils.

Last Flyers Game​

Also getting in on the 4:00pm game action, the Flyers defeated the New York Islanders today, 4-3 in the shootout. The game was the 3rd game of a 4 game road trip which ends tonight in New Jersey. It was also their 2nd win a row and their 4th win in their last 5 games. The Flyers ended the 1st period of the game up 2-0 thanks to 2 goals 22s seconds apart. It’s nice to see that the Flyers are also doing this to other teams and not just the Devils.

The Flyers scored again, less than 2 minutes into the 2nd period, and it looked like they might run away with the game at that point. While not quite as bad as the 3 goals in less than 30 seconds that the Flyers scored against the Devils in their last game, the Flyers did blow a 3 goal lead in the 2nd period. The Islanders scored 3 goals in less than 15 minutes, to end the period tied at 3-3. Any momentum the Flyers had quickly evaporated with the game now tied.

The game eventually went to OT, and when not settled there it went to the home run derby, I mean the 3 point contest, I mean the shootout. The Flyers scored on their 1st attempt. The Islanders tied in up in round 2, before Travis Konecny won it in round 3.

Injuries, Roster for Tonight, Yada, Yada, Yada.​

There was a brief injury scare when Paul Cotter headed to the locker room after a hit, however he came back to score in the 3rd period and appeared to be fine as he finished the game. As expected, there have been no new updates as far as any injured players returning tonight. I suppose there is a small chance there could be some news on Pesce between Friday night and tonight, but that’s doubtful.

As of this writing there has also been no official announcement on the starting goalie for tonight either. I would also expect an update on that at some point today. My gut says that Keefe will go back to Jacob Markstrom for tonight. But I also would love to see Allen get “revenge” for his last game against the Flyers. We’ll have to wait and see. Luckily, with their recent play, both goalies have been giving the team a chance to win.

Grimace’s Prediction and 2025-2026 Record Tracker​

Grimace is very happy to be back in the win column with his correct prediction against St. Louis and feels confident the Devils will hit a 4 game winning streak tonight.

Grimace’s 2025-2026 Season Prediction record currently stands at 8-5-0.

Your Take​

For the first time in what feels like forever, everything went the Devils way against Buffalo. Markstrom has improved. Allen bounced back and both the Devils stars and supporting cast contributed. What else can you say but, let’s have more of this tonight please! Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below and thanks for reading!

In a shameless bit of non hockey related self promotion (approved by Chris – thanks Chris), I wanted to plug my brand new podcast on here, if any of you are interested in listening. We have a light hearted, fun discussion about any movies, music or video games mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. Please feel free to listen to us on any of the formats below and any feedback is welcome (positive and negative). Also, please follow us and subscribe, even if you think we stink.

YouTube

Apple Podcast

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Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...view-25-philadelphia-flyers-new-jersey-devils

 

[New Jersey Devils]

The Magic at Home for the Devils Comes to an End

You can’t win them all at home, but with a 4 point swing on the line against a frisky Flyers team you’d hope for a better effort than what we got tonight. The Flyers came to the Rock after playing in Long Island last night, while our heroes were back from curb stomping Buffalo.

This game was largely predicated on defensive lapses and questionable calls but the Devils looked a step behind the Flyers all night. While they mounted a comeback effort in the 3rd they eventually fell short, losing in a final of 5-3. Tippet (1g, 2a), Koncny (1g, 1a) and Zegras (1g, 1a) led the way for the Flyers while the Devils saw major contributions from Mercer (1g, 1a) and Bratt (2a).

1st Period: Started Badly/Finished Strong​

The Devils were quickly derailed by a phantom high stick by Nemec on Forrester less than a minute into the game. We really need to bring back shame, because that was a Golden Globe worthy performance by Forrester (not giving him the credit for an Oscar), but to the kill we went just :48 seconds in. Fortunately, the boys provided a solid kill but it left the Devils disjointed. The Neutral zone play was particularly sloppy and after a turnover an innocuous looking rush by Dvorak and Tippet quickly turned dangerous. Nemec was slow to stay with Tippet who took a floater in front from Dvorak, dangled past Markstrom and it’s 1-0 them.

The Devils did slowly got some ice back finally getting to their game at about the 11 minute mark. Nico led them in on a slick zone entry, tucking the puck under the defender’s stick to Bratt who cut across the high slot, and left it on a platter for Nemec. With Timo and Nico driving the net dragging the D with them Nemec was cocked and ready, ripping it home off the shoulder of Vladar at 12:09 for his 6th of the year. That goal vaulted him into the top in goals for defenseman this season and puts him on pace for almost 20 goals – truly remarkable.

View Link

From there the Devils took control of the first, leading to their first PP opportunity. The best chance came right as the buzzer sounded on a Timo one-time blast from the right circle, but we went to the period tied at 1.

2nd Period: Another Meltdown​

The Devils started the 2nd on the power play that didn’t really generate much dangerous. Immediately after our last shot was deflected into the corner, the Flyers caught a break with Michkov flying out of the box, creating a 2-on-1 off a nice stretch pass from the D-Zone. He got the pass from Konecny practically on top of Markstrom, where he was able to sneak through. It looked like Michkov might’ve pushed Markstrom causing the puck too cross the line, but Keefe choose not to challenge, so it’s 2-1 Flyers just 53 seconds into the period. Just a few short minutes later after a brutal D-zone shift for the 4th line, the puck came up to York at the blue line who put Noesen on roller skates, walked a few steps in and left it off for Travis Konecny who wired it home. 3-1 Flyers at 3:16.

Dread was creeping in as it really was looking like we were unraveling again against the Flyers as they added a 4th goal off ANOTHER 2 on 1, shortly after a snakebitten Jesper Bratt hit the post on a breakaway. The Flyers quickly countered as Tippet blew past Nemec on the left wing boards, and floated a nice looking saucer pass over to Zegras who buried it. Markstrom got a little piece, but it was 4-1 Flyers at 13:03.

at 16:04 Dillon and Couturier went off after getting into a conversation about gardening (probably) that started with a reverse hit that Dillon didn’t like. They discussed proper watering patterns in front, perenials around the side, and winter care back in front until Dillon decided to break his stick across Couturier – that led to 4 minutes for Dillon and 2 for Couturier. Shortly in the ensuing Flyers advantage though, The Deivls caught a break at 17:48 as the Flyers were called for too many men, leading to a power play for our boys.

After some good puck movement, great chances for Timo and for Mercer, we finally cashed in with :27 seconds left in the period. Bratt found himself onto the the left wing boards, was able to walk in and shot-pass to Mercer, who tipped it off Vladar’s pad, and Timo found the rebound, burying it short side.

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3rd period: Can We Get a Comeback?​

Welp, we could not, but it wasn’t without one of the best goals of our season – and an absolute highlight reel play from Dawson Mercer for his 10th of the year. After some tenacious forechecking by Gritsyuk, the Devils kept the pressure on, with Mercer making a stand at the offensive blue line. He rag dolled Trevor Zegras, walked around a diving Seeler AND Zamula before depositing a slick backhand through Vladar’s legs. Just an incredible individual effort that was all started by strong forechecking and a good neutral zone gap from Siegenthaler.

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So anyway, the comeback was not to be, albeit we got some great chances to tie it up. The refs missed a blatant high stick on Luke that really could’ve swung this thing, but somehow, someway didn’t see it (even while STANDING RIGHT THERE). I’d love to put the blame on the refs, but this was a poor effort and with the goalie pulled, Nemec fumbled it at the blue line, forcing him to take down Tippet who was awarded the goal as is the rule. 5-3 final, bad guys win.

Some Scattered Thoughts​

Luke and Nemec had a brutal game and we might be seeing some fatigue here from 25+ minutes a night. Both were puck watching all night – and were on the ice for all 4 goals each, and probably 3 could be attributed to one of the other’s weak defensive play. The decline in Luke’s play has been steady for the two weeks. He is no longer winning his minutes, and is generating very little offense like he was to start the season. Nemec looked like last year’s Nemec defensively, just too much passivity in both their games tonight. Not sure what the solution is because the alternative is Cholowski.

Markstrom saved what he could, but was largely left out to dry. He still makes me nervous and is absolutely swimming back there. He did make an outrageous glove save that kept it 4-3 in the 3rd. Hopefully we see his game creeping back to where we need it (and never wears the goatee mask again).

The 4th line is borderline unplayable (Lammikko-Glendening-Noesen). Just got buried in their minutes, outshot 7-1, had an xGF of 14.7% in 6:46 of ice time – that 3rd goal against was back breaking. Noesen is a shell of himself.

Glass, Brown, and Cotter didn’t look as bad, but were out shot 4-0 and generated .01 xGs as a line. Going to need more out of a 3rd line than that.

We were largely a two line team, with the Nico line and Mercer line dominating their minutes.

Bratt is still racking up assists, but man this guy needs to bury one. I’m not really going to kill him because he set up 2 of our 3 goals, but burying that breakaway would’ve really changed the tone of this game.

Siegs is a lowkey menace. Every little after whistle scrum or “conversation” there he is right in the middle.

Loved Dillon’s physicality tonight. He was trying to set the tone all night and had a couple of nice big hits. We would be in a world of trouble defensively if he wasn’t playing at the level he is.

There is basically zero wiggle room in Metro. Can’t win them all, and we were going to eventually drop one at home. Not sure what it is about the Flyers, but they have us figured out.

LGD

Source: https://www.allaboutthejersey.com/d...-magic-at-home-for-the-devils-comes-to-an-end