A few notes from New Jersey vs New York:
1) Last night's game was a big schedule loss for the Islanders – they were playing in the latter half of a back-to-back and their third game in four nights – but credit to the Devils for not messing around and taking advantage of that. They went on the attack and created a couple excellent scoring opportunities on the first shift of the game and that set the tone for what was to come. The Islanders had their moments but the Devils controlled play for the vast majority of the game and were rewarded accordingly.
2) In my game preview, …‹I praised the decision to drop Kyle Palmieri to the 3rd line in order to balance the forward group and suggested the Miles Wood - Pavel Zacha - Palmieri line should be able to feast on soft competition against a shallow/banged up Islanders team. Did they ever. The Devils controlled play almost every time that trio touched the ice and they were able to generate a ton of quality looks both in the cycle game and on the rush. When all was said and done, they out-chanced the Islanders 15-2(!!) and put forth as dominant of a performance as we've seen from one line in a long time. They somehow didn't convert on the 600 chances they generated, but it's very encouraging they were able to get that many.
3) Keith Kinkaid didn't start the game well – how he looked while allowing the breakaway goal was a little unsettling – but I thought he played an excellent game overall. Though he didn't face a ton of quality looks, the Devils were a little leaky at times and Kinkaid was always there to put out the fire. I thought he handled himself admirably against the 2nd highest scoring team in the league, especially considering he didn't have much notice he was going to play.
4) Damon Severson definitely earned himself some rope with the performance he put on last night. He fired five pucks on net, scored a couple goals, made some slick passes in the offensive zone to create Grade A chances for teammate, and was mostly solid in his own zone as well. Hynes clearly took notice as Severson led all Devils in ice time at 5v5 and finished just four seconds behind Sami Vatanen for the team-lead overall. Severson was certainly deserving of that ice as, on top of scoring twice, he finished with a +11 shot attempt differential and +9 chance differential, both of which led Devils blue liners. He was fantastic.
5) Ben Lovejoy is quietly playing good hockey. Like, really good. He seems to mesh very well with Will Butcher on the 3rd pairing – the numbers back that up – and he's handling himself quite well now that he's not playing big minutes against stiff competition every night. I have no problem with him dressing over Steve Santini on the 3rd pairing.
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