It certainly wasn't pretty, but when all was said and done the New Jersey Devils left home ice with two points on Wednesday night.
Having been off for eight days prior, the Devils were rusty coming out of the all star break and it certainly showed.
They found a way to win, though, which was refreshing for a fan base that's watched a team lose in the most painful way possible on a regular basis for the better part of three years.
10 takeaways:
1) I'll start with the positives, and the play of Adam Larsson. Playing 25 minutes - primarily against Phil Kessel's line - Larsson scored the game-tying goal, added four shots and was the only defenseman on the Devils who posted a better than 50CF% in the game. Larsson now has points in six of his last eight games, and continues to look more and more like the player New Jersey thought they were getting when they selected him 4th overall.
2) Larsson wasn't the only young Swede who factored into last night's win, though. Jacob Josefson only played 11:07, but played almost six minutes on a penalty killing unit that went 5/5, and he scored a beautiful shootout goal that turned out to be the winner. What a trooper.
3) How about the play of Cory Schneider? He made some excellent saves, and faced a few ridiculous flurries from Toronto while stopping 29-30 en route to the win. He now has a .921SV% on the year, and is certainly living up to his contract thus far. He's been one of the few steady contributors on the Devils this season.
4) It wasn't all roses and rainbows, as there were some very questionable in-game decisions made. None more so than giving Jordin Tootoo(!!) 3:01TOI on the power play, which ranked him 4th on the team and 3rd among forwards. That is just absurd given, you know, he's the worst offensive player in the lineup.
5) What makes that Tootoo stat even worse is the fact Adam Henrique - one of the team's only good, young players - played just 14 seconds on the man advantage. 14 seconds. Tootoo also saw more PP ice than Scott Gomez, Travis Zajac, Jaromir Jagr, Martin Havlat, Eric Gelinas, etc.
6) One last thing regarding those power play decisions: Adam Henrique is literally New Jersey's best power play weapon. He leads the team averaging 7.11 points/60 of 5 vs 4 ice. That's the best total on the team, and puts him 7th in the NHL (minimum 75 PP minutes). How he sits while Tootoo takes a regular PP shift is beyond me.
7) Tuomo Ruutu barely played over six minutes in the win against Toronto. He's certainly not the player he once was but I think he's deserving of more ice than that.
8) Patrik Elias looked good coming out of All Star weekend. He had a few good chances, scored a beautiful shooting clinching goal and assisted on New Jersey's lone goal while logging over 21 minutes of ice. It's nice to see he still has something left in the tank.
9) Eric Gelinas: 15:22TOI. Least among all Devils defensemen.
10) For those worried about the Devils wrecking their good pick: they're still 5th last, and next up is Pittsburgh coming off an embarrassing loss to Washington.
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