A First Look | 10 TAKEAWAYS

Three games into a brand-new season and the notebook is already starting to fill up.

The opening week always feels a little different. Everything is still new, the sample sizes are small and it's far too early to draw any sweeping conclusions. But that doesn't mean there aren't things worth noticing.

There are already a few early trends developing on the ice, milestones being reached and little details around the rink that have caught my attention. And, as is usually the case with 10 Takeaways, I've also stumbled across a few things I had absolutely no idea about before this week.

From Swiss hockey history, to a racehorse named Hughes that sent me down an unexpected research rabbit hole, there's already plenty to get into.

So, with the season officially underway and the first week in the books, here are 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

1.

Jesper Bratt continues to quietly climb his way through the Devils' record book.

Although, is it that quiet? 

With his assist on Luke Evangelista's power-play goal Tuesday night, Bratt reached 520 career points, tying Kirk Muller for fourth-most in franchise history.

That same assist was also No. 348 of his career, pulling him even with Travis Zajac for fifth-most assists in franchise history.

Which means his next point moves him alone into fourth, and his next assist moves him alone into fifth.

It's pretty remarkable territory for a player who entered the organization as a sixth-round pick in 2016.

And perhaps the best part is that Bratt is only 28 and just beginning his 10th NHL season. These aren't records he's approaching at the tail end of his career. He's steadily working his way up lists with plenty of hockey still ahead of him.

The next names in front of him are getting awfully familiar, too. 

In points, Travis Zajac sits third at 550. In assists, John MacLean is next at 354, followed by Scott Gomez at 361 and Scott Niedermayer at 364.

Bratt's already spent nearly a decade building his place in Devils history.

Now you can quite literally watch him climb it.

2.

I've watched enough warmups over the years that, at any given moment, I can pretty much tell you where to look for a specific player, and they'll be doing something very specific. 

Whether its the waterbottle cheers at the bench between Jesper Bratt and Nico Hischier, or Timo Meier taking a moment to chill, leaning on the boards by the bench, always looking towards the opposing team, or the part of Dougie Hamilton's routine where he bounces a puck off his stick 19 times (yes, I've counted many, many times) before the final bounce is lobbed off his skate. 

Spend enough time around these guys, and you'll begin to learn all their little intricacies. 

Everyone has their routines. Certain shots they take, places they stand, teammates they interact with. It's like choreography. I know when to look in certain areas of the ice because I know exactly what's coming next.

Which is why I've picked up on a new one from Evan Rodrigues (well, actually two, but one is more of a responsibility than a routine).

Towards the mid-way mark of warmups, Rodrigues makes his way toward the corner to the right of the net and tries to shoot a puck directly into the closed photographer's hole.

And we're talking about a target that's basically puck-sized.

It's not exactly an easy shot, but Rodrigues keeps taking his crack at it until he gets it just right.

Just another tiny routine added to the warmup checklist.

3. 

He's also, it seems, the new puck distributor.

If you’ve watched Devils warmups over the years, you may have noticed one player stationed near the net early during warmuips with an important responsibility: keeping the pucks flowing onto the ice as his teammates get ready to cycle through their line and pairing rushes.

After everyone takes their initial first few spins around the ice and shooting into an open net, the responsibility then shifts with someone collecting all those pucks from the net and sifting them out to center ice where the rest of the team is standing waiting for rushes to begin. 

This year, it aopears Evan Rodrigues has taken over the job.

Last to hold the position was Paul Cotter, who did a valiant job with the puck distribution

Someone has to keep the supply chain moving.

4.

As if one Jack Hughes wasn't fast enough.

There is now a racehorse named Hughes, and yes, he was named after Jack.

Back in February, shortly after Jack scored the overtime golden goal for Team USA at the 2026 Olympics, SF Racing announced it had named one of its two-year-old colts Hughes in honor of Jack. 

SF Racing's Tom Ryan pointed specifically to Hughes' leadership, competitiveness and will to win during the Olympics as inspiration for the name. At the time, Hughes the horse hadn't even raced yet. He was simply a highly regarded horse preparing to begin his career under Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert.

(And if you're wondering how I suddenly know this much about horse racing, I can assure you it required a whole lot of research. This is decidedly not my area of expertise!) 

So why is the name popping up again now?

Well, this Hughes is (also) really, really fast.

Since making his racing debut in June, Hughes (the horse) has raced four times... and won all four.

His latest win came this past weekend in California, where he won by six lengths and earned himself a spot in one of the biggest races for two-year-old horses, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

So, what started as a fun Olympic tribute in February is basically starting to become a pretty notable name in horse racing.

My next assignment... figure out if Hughes (the human) knows about Hughes (the horse).

5.

Jake Allen’s next start will put him into some pretty exclusive company.

Allen played his 499th career NHL game Tuesday night against Utah, leaving him one shy of 500. For a goaltender, 500 games carries a little extra weight. The demands of the position make longevity difficult, which is why reaching 500 can feel a little like the goaltending equivalent of a skater reaching 1,000. In fact, be honors and recognition, that is the exact equation. Silver stick for a skater at 1,000 games, silver stick at 500 for a goalie.

When Allen gets there, he’ll join a relatively small group in NHL history to reach the milestone, another marker in a career that began all the way back in 2012 with the St. Louis Blues.

He'll become just the 85th goalie in league history to play 500-or-more games.

6.

Timo Meier joined some pretty impressive Swiss company when he played his 700th NHL game.

Meier became just the fifth Swiss-born player to reach 700 games in the NHL, joining Roman Josi, Nino Niederreiter, Mark Streit and Kevin Fiala.

But here's the part that's cool: so much of Switzerland's NHL history is being written right now - and so much of it is being written in Jersey, and with ties through Jersey. 

Streit is the only retired player among that group. Josi, Niederreiter, Fiala and Meier are all still playing, and Nico Hischier isn't all that far behind. At 610 games, he's already sixth all-time among Swiss-born players.

For a country whose NHL footprint was once relatively small, that's a pretty impressive generation of longevity.

And there are plenty of ties to New Jersey throughout this current generation of Swiss hockey.

Hischier and Meier are obviously here now, along with Jonas Siegenthaler. Akira Schmid began his NHL career with the Devils before moving on, and New Jersey has had a distinctly Swiss flavor for several years now.

Not a bad run.

And not a bad time to be watching Swiss hockey history unfold, particularly from New Jersey, which has had a pretty good seat for a lot of it.

7.

Speaking of which, even newcomer Luke Evangelista arrived in town with his own Swiss connection. After spending the start of his career in Nashville with Roman Josi as his captain, he came to New Jersey to find another Swiss captain waiting for him.

"He’s a fantastic human. You can tell that already," Evangelista said of Hischier. "I joked with him that I have good experiences with Swiss captains. I had (Roman) Josi in Nashville and now I get Nico here. He’s a great dude. Getting a chance to play on a line with him to start, I sit next to him, we’re stallmates. It’s been great playing with him, too."

8.

A little animosity in October never hurt anyone.

Well, the schedule makers certainly aren't making us wait this year.

One of the stranger quirks of last season's schedule was just how long it took for the Devils and Rangers to finally see one another. We went through training camp, the entire first half, the Olympics and nearly five months of the regular season before the Hudson River Rivalry finally made its season debut on March 7.

Then, suddenly, we got three Devils-Rangers games in 25 days.

This year? They're wasting no time.

The Rangers come to Prudential Center on Oct. 15, giving us the first rivalry game just two weeks into the Devils' season.

And I much prefer it this way.

There's something about a Devils-Rangers game that belongs throughout the season, not saved almost entirely for the finish. 

So thank you, schedule makers.

No waiting until March this time.

Have you got your tickets yet? If not! What are you waiting for!

9.

Here's one early-season trend the Devils will certainly want to change: through three games, they haven't played with a lead yet.

They've won a game, thanks to Jack's overtime winner on opening night, and they've shown an ability to push back when trailing. But they haven't yet experienced what it's like to get out in front and play with a lead with this group.

Instead, there's been a lot of chasing.

That can be a difficult way to consistently play. Falling behind can force you to open things up, take a few more chances and expend a lot of energy simply trying to get yourself back to even.

Against Philadelphia, the Devils successfully chased the game down, tying it before winning in overtime. Against Utah, they kept finding ways to pull themselves back within striking distance, but never quite got all the way back.

It's only three games, so we're talking about an extremely small sample size. But getting that first lead  and then getting the opportunity to dictate a game from out front, feels like an important early box still waiting to be checked.

The Devils have already shown they can chase.

Now they'd probably like to see what it feels like to make somebody else do it.

10.

Things I didn't realize until this week, when I heard he was in the building: assistant coach A.J. MacLean's father is Paul MacLean, the longtime NHL player and coach.

Paul played more than 700 NHL games before moving behind the bench, where he spent decades coaching in the league and won the Jack Adams Award as Ottawa's head coach in 2013.

And here's where this realization made me feel particularly old.

When I was working in Montreal, I covered a playoff series between the Canadiens and Senators with Paul behind Ottawa's bench. Fast forward all these years, and I'm now covering the Devils with his son, A.J., behind theirs.

I've officially worked with both generations of MacLeans.

Nothing like an NHL family tree to remind you just how long you've been doing this.