After a disappointing loss to Columbus the New Jersey Devils were looking to bounce back against Philadelphia on Thursday night and they did just that.
Cory Schneider was excellent stopping 27-28 while players other than Mike Cammalleri and Adam Henrique found the scoresheet in the 4-1 win.
Some thoughts:
1) Kyle Palmieri may have been the best player on the ice in this one. He was one of New Jersey's top players in possession and managed to get on the scoresheet with regularity as he scored on an absolute snipe and picked up a pair of nice assists on Travis Zajac's power play markers.
After a slow start to the year he seems to be finding his stride having recorded two goals, five points and 12 shots in his last four games.
2) Last season Travis Zajac had four multi-point games in 74 appearances. This season Zajac has two multi-point efforts in just nine games and is almost halfway to last season's goal total (11). He's riding the percentages right now as he's currently shooting 25% (he's a 10.5% shooter for his career) so he's not going to continue scoring goals at this pace but he undeniably looks the best he has in years. It's amazing what a new coach and some capable linemates can do to you.
3) I'm sensing a trend with New Jersey's power play goals against the Flyers.
As a whole I really like Palmieri in that spot on the man advantage. He is a capable shooter, obviously, so players have to respect the shot and leave some passing lanes open as a result. Palmieri is an underrated playmaker and clearly has the ability to take advantage of teams when they do.
4) Speaking of Palmieri, he joins Cammalleri, Henrique and David Schlemko(!) as the only Devils with a 5 vs 5 goal this season.
5) Eric Gelinas didn't play a lot but he was effective when he did. He was New Jersey's best possession player in terms of shot attempt differential (+4) and he picked up an assist while adding three shots from the back end.
I was really impressed by the play he made stretching out to keep the puck in and poking it over to Palmieri right before Zajac's 2nd goal.
Hopefully he remains in the lineup because, if not anything else, he's a weapon on the man advantage and has shown the ability to make plays in that situation on a regular basis.
Everything about this goal is beautiful. https://t.co/sJdymTumfh
— Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell) October 30, 20156) Even-strength ice time:
Andy Greene - 20:03 Adam Larsson - 19:17 Jon Merrill - 14:39 John Moore - 14:13 David Schlemko - 11:18 Damon Severson - 10:10 Eric Gelinas - 8:53
It's a good thing Greene and Larsson don't really play on the man advantage or they'd be run into the ground. They play a ton of minutes as it is; especially considering the depth the Devils have on the back end.
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