The New Jersey Devils opened their road trip on a positive note Sunday night as they managed to squeak by with a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild.
Some notes:
1) Despite missing several key players in Mike Cammalleri, Patrik Elias and John Moore, among others, the Devils went into Minnesota and beat an excellent team - especially at home - in their own building.
Cory Schneider was good when called upon but it wasn't as if the Devils played poorly and relied on him to bail them out. They legitimately played well.
The Wild closed the gap quite a bit in the 3rd period after the Devils took the lead (hello, score effects) but New Jersey still managed to out attempt them 49-37 (41-32 at even-strength). The Devils also out chanced the Wild 26-15 (23-12 at 5 v 5).
By all accounts that was an impressive win for the Devils and certainly one they could use.
2) I thought Jon Merrill played a strong game for the Devils. He used an active stick in the defensive zone to break up several rushes as well as a back door pass that almost certainly would have ended up in the back of the net if it got through. Merrill was also accurate with his outlets and didn't chase play like we've seen him do in the past. Oh, and he scored a goal on a nice give-and-go with Sergei Kalinin. I've been critical of his play at times but credit where it's due: he was good last night.
Good stick by Merrill leads to clean zone exit for the Devils. https://t.co/patTqhm1GZ
— Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell) January 11, 20163) I liked what I saw from Joseph Blandisi. He showed some good bursts of speed through the neutral zone, had several controlled zone entries and wasn't afraid to try and make some plays with the puck. Blandisi had two 5 v 5 scoring chances, which tied him for the team-high, and three shot attempts.
He also got into it a little bit with Nino Niederreiter and Jared Spurgeon on different occasions and didn't back down or allow himself to be pushed around. I liked that.
4) Your daily Cory Schneider blurb: he leads the league in games played and owns an incredible .926 save percentage. The Devils have asked a lot of him this season and he's come up big almost every night. It's amazing to me that some people still aren't sold on him as one of the NHL's elite goaltenders.
5) We'll file this into the 'never saw this coming' category: the NHL season is half over and the Devils are sitting in a playoff spot.
There will be some bumps along the road - especially for a team that doesn't possess much high-end talent - but it's important to keep the big picture in mind. John Hynes has a team everyone expected to be a bottom feeder in a playoff spot deep into the season. Even if they don't make it Hynes deserves a lot of credit for putting a system in place that allows this team to be competitive on a nightly basis.
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