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Five takeaways from New Jersey vs Vancouver:
1) Taylor Hall had another fantastic game despite drawing a tough matchup against one of the league's best shutdown defenders in Chris Tanev.
Hall was flying around the ice and one of the few able to generate consistent offense throughout. He had a pair of assists -- though one came on an empty-netter -- as well as four shots on goal, a game-high six scoring chances, and he was the only player on the team above ground in possession. It wasn't even close, either. Hall finished with a 54 Corsi For% while the next closest player, Damon Severson, finished at 44.44%.
Hall is always good, but he's taken his game up a level of late tallying 11 points, 17 shots, and 22 chances over the last six outings.
He's been absolutely spectacular and is perhaps the biggest reason the Devils have gotten off to such a good start.
2) Though the scoreboard suggested otherwise, I thought the Devils played a poor game and were undeserving of the two points. The Canucks dominated territorially and had the Devils on their heels for much of the game. They had no problem generating looks in dangerous areas on a consistent basis while the Devils couldn't find the front of the net with a search warrant.
3) Cory Schneider is looking an awful lot like the Cory Schneider we've grown accustomed to seeing. He's stopped 71-74 shots over the last couple games and has made some downright stupid saves in the process. The Devils have been poor defensively this season, and are unlikely to noticeably improve until Travis Zajac returns, so Schneider is going to have to be really good if the Devils are to continue their winning ways.
4) I know Halloween is over, but Steven Santini was carved like a pumpkin during his 24 minutes of ice last night. At 5v5, the Canucks out-attempted the Devils 34-9(!!!) and out-chanced them 18-4(!!!!) with Santini on the ice. For the most part, he's at least held his own playing big defensive minutes. That was not the case last night.
5) I was not a fan of Nico Hischier taking a back seat in the 3rd period last night (he skated four shifts, 2nd fewest, and played just over two minutes). Why? Only two Devils had a positive scoring chance differential at 5v5 and he was one of them (Hall was the other). The guys who played a lot for their defense were the players actually getting caved in as Brian Boyle had a minus-9 chance differential in 13 minutes of 5v5 ice, Blake Coleman had a minus-7 chance differential in 12 minutes, Brian Gibbons had a minus-4 differential in 10 minutes, and I already alluded to how Santini fared.
Nico was doing just fine. Let him continue to grow and get used to playing in those situations.
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Nico Hischier is doing just fine
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