It wasn't pretty, but much needed. The Devils, for the first time in their last six tries escaped Tuesday in Ottawa with a win! For those of you who may have forgotten:
While it was more of a Lizzo, than a Sydney Sweeney, that won't matter in April. The Devils special teams was an absolute zero. With the extra attacker they yielded no results and in addition were unable to kill any of their three penalties against, resulting in all three Ottawa goals. Jersey once again shot themselves in the foot, as Stefan Noesen took a high-sticking penalty 36 seconds into the game and a minute later on the first scoring chance of the game NJ was down 1-0.
Jacob Markstrom looked very shaky for the first two periods, however it seemed the net crashing, kamikaze approach by Ottawa's forwards sparked a deeper level of compete from Marky. The big Swede stopped all 18 third period Sens shots to lock down the wen, won, how do you spell it? Win, its called a win...sorry as a Devils writer thats kind of new to me, still getting used to it...
We have found a bottom six line
The Gritsyuk-Glass-Brown was the story here all night, and propelled NJ in all zones. While the offensive contributions can easily be seen in the boxscore, the play of all three in the D-zone and neutral zone is what really forced Ottawa to crumble. Blocked shots, takeaways and smooth breakouts and transitions with speed were a welcome sight for a Devils team that has been stuck in the mud without Jack Hughes.
Jesper Bratt continues to not impress
It's come to the point where I must think he's injured. This is a borderline superstar that looks a little slow, cant catch or throw a clean pass with regularity and hasn't put a puck in the net in over a month. While we expect there could be a fall off with Jack Hughes out, this is beyond that. His few assists in this span have been mostly secondaries and 63 just doesn't look like himself. He was held out of practice a few days ago, was it routine rest or is something ailing the normally dynamic forward?
A message to the fans that think Stamkos wouldn't be a great add
First off, they would not be taking his whole contract. With two years left at $8m, NJ is likely take on 50% tops in any deal for the winger.
He's 35, not 75. Veteran players are needed. Not every player on a winning team is in their "prime". The Devils alone have had tons or older, former stars that fit Cup teams nicely. Mogilny, Carpenter, Lemieux, Neal Broten, Nieuwendyk, the list goes on and on.
Stamkos is similar to Tavares in Toronto, and has been very productive over the last four years. 100+pts, 80+pts twice and last year's "miserable" season he had 53 points. He also has played 79 or more games in each of those seasons. Getting PP minutes with the high skill playmakers the Devils have would surely see a bump back up in offensive production for the vet.
Stamkos Since 21-22'
In addition his number last season despite his struggles in a new enviornment were still better than anything the Devils had outside of Bratt, Jack, Nico and Timo.
Last Seasons Point Totals
While this season his pace has been even lower at 11pts in 29g, that's still better than Brown(9pts), Cotter(6pts), Palat(5pts), Glass(4pts), Glendenning(3pts) and Noesen(3pts)* Numbers before last night's game.
Stamkos is a 1,200pt player, who will hit 600 goals this season. A two-time Stanley Cup Champion, yes Palat was on those teams but can a guy like Jack Hughes relate more to Palat or Stamkos? His veteran presence, size and still elite finishing is exactly what NJ needs. If you loved and miss Toffoli, I don't see how this guy doesn't fill and exceed that void for you.