After sleeping their way through the first half of yesterday's game against the Coyotes, the Devils got a lucky bounce on Adam Henrique's 2nd period goal, and never looked back en route to a 4-1 win.
It wasn't the prettiest game, but there were certainly some positives.
Some notes:
1) After recording an assist on Mike Cammalleri's 3rd period goal, Adam Larsson now has 17 points over his last 29 games. That's a 48 point pace over an 82-game schedule, and this is while Larsson has seen essentially no power play time, not to mention he's patrolling the blue line for a very low scoring team. This is exactly what the Devils were hoping for when they selected Larsson 4th overall. It took some time, but the reward looks to be worth the wait.
2) Speaking of Cammalleri, his point totals aren't overly high, but his goal totals certainly are. He has 25 goals in 57 games (35 goal pace) and is doing exactly what Lou Lamoriello brought him in to do. He's earning every penny the Devils gave him. Now they just need to find some more forward talent up front, because he can't do it all.
3) It was nice to see Travis Zajac get on the scoresheet with a pair of assists last night. It hasn't been a good year for him - a couple good games late in the season won't change that - but he's likely going to be here for the long haul, so it's important to finish strong and enter next year with some confidence. I've been a big defender of Zajac in the past, but that was when he was piling up 50 points and playing great defense. This year he may not reach 30.
4) Damon Severson had four shots on goal against Arizona, and continues to average well over two shots per game. I'd like to see that trend continue, because defensemen who have done that in their rookie campaign have generally had very good-to-elite careers.
Prospect Updates - Ryan Kujawinski was held pointless in a 6-0 North Bay loss to Sam Bennett and the Kingston Frontenacs. After recorded 23 points in 27 games with Kingston, Kujawinski has tallied 16 goals and 31 points in 30 games with North Bay.
- Joseph Blandisi scored a pair of goals in Barrie's 3-0 win over Peterborough, giving him 51 goals and 110 points in 66 games this season. Blandisi leads the league in goals by a good margin (2016 draft eligible Alex Debrincat is 2nd with 45) and there's only a couple games left in the regular season, so Blandisi very well could be the OHL's lone 50-goal scorer this season.
- Connor Chatham won't play again this season, as he recently underwent surgery, and there's only a few games left for Plymouth. He'll finish the 2014-15 campaign with 37 points in 48 games. He recorded 31 in 54 games last season, so there wasn't much improvement this year.
- After fighting in consecutive games, John Quenneville didn't play in Brandon's last couple games, presumably with an injury from one of his fights. He has 43 points in 54 games on the year.
- Brandon Baddock notched an assist in Edmonton's 6-3 loss to Medicine Hat. Braddock has 39 points and 134PIMs in 69 games this season.
- Ryan Rehill was held pointless in a 2-1 loss. He has 19 points in 65 games this season. Refill had 20 points in 72 games last year, so really there has been no improvement in terms of offensive output.
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