Meier's Mad March | 10 TAKEAWAYS

The month of March has officially come to a close and boy what a month it was for Timo Meier.

Meier's Month of March Madness.

Did that work? I tried, ok?

Timo dominated the storylines for the Devils this past month, out there as an absolute wrecking ball and world-beater. It's no secret Meier has had a tough season when it comes to his health, he's played 62 of the team's 75 games this season but there's clearly a difference we're seeing in Meier now that he's playing with a much healthier, less banged up and bruised body, that earlier this year. Although, he'll never use that as an excuse. No matter how many times you ask an athlete whether a surge in personal success after injuries can be attributed to that said health... they rarely bite. Timo is no different. 

"When you have injuries, obviously that sucks," is what Meier responded asked about this very notion. "Everybody wants to play healthy, but that’s kind of the sport sometimes. You have a couple of bruises. I feel good now and that’s a good thing."

But words are one thing, tangible results are another... and his stat lines speak for themselves.

As the calendar flipped over to April, Meier picked up right where he left off, scoring a rocket of a power play goal against the Penguins on Tuesday night. That line of Meier, Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt have found some unbelievable chemistry, which also pays dividends on the power play. They're just so much fun to watch. 

We'll touch on all three players and more in this week's edition of 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

1.

I think sometimes we might get too focused on one single word. After the Penguins game it was the word 'scared' and while it's only natural, I don't believe the word was used as a face value definition.

Of course they weren't scared in the literal sense of the word but it is easy to jump on it because it was a key phrase we heard last night. Which is why I made it a point to follow up what they meant by scared because that might not be the best word to describe what happened in the third period against the Penguins.

So here are the follow ups:

Timo Meier:

“We just, I think, when we’re at our best everybody wants the puck, everybody wants to go out there and make plays if there are plays there. I thought we kind of, you know, weren’t ready. Everbody, it didn’t look like anybody wanted the puck like that. It’s tough.”

Jonas Siegenthaler:

"t’s not making the right plays or just throwing the puck away. I think we’ve just, in the future, have got to stick with it, even if it’s a tight game.”

“We’ve been in that situation quite a bit this year, at some point we’ve got to learn from it. Today we didn’t do the right thing."

Travis Green:

"I think that can get over stated. I don’t think they were scared. We weren’t making plays and the other team had some momentum and found their game. I don’t think they were literally scared and if they were I’d be surprised."

"It’s frustrating to see how we played. Especially with how well we were playing. To hear them, I think the scared part is probably a confident thing more than a scared thing and when the other team gets mometntum, your confidence and ability to make a pass can change."

2.

It was tough, although not entirely unexpected, to hear the news that in all likelihood we won’t be seeing Dougie Hamilton return to the ice this year. Yes, there are just seven games left, but there’s always that hope that a player can at least get back for a game or two to end their year on the ice instead of off of it.

But that is the nature of the beast.

The loss of Dougie has been enormous this year and it’s impacted so many aspects of the game. I talked about this a couple of weeks ago in a 10 Takeaways, when I had the chance to speak one-on-one with Travis Green.

I’m bringing back his thoughts because I think they really summarize what a loss like his has had in so many different aspects of the team's overall game.

“He knows pressure situations. Everyone knows about his shot, but you know, it does affect a big chunk of our team whenever you lose a top guy on the back end, it’s going to leave a mark. It’s left a mark on our forwards, being able to have a guy like that that can get pucks delivered into the net. Everyone wants forwards to score, get to the net. There’s a real art to getting the puck into the net, getting the puck on your stick and off your stick and Dougie is one of the best in the league at that.

“That’s one area that I’ve seen, you watch young defensemen when they get into the league, they have a hard time getting pucks to the net,” Green continued. “It’s just that they’re not used to the speed of the players coming out and the willingness of opponents to block a shot is extremely high in the NHL and those are all just the things that you learn as you’re longer in the league. That part of the game we’ve missed, his ability to create offense just by joining the play, I think we’ve missed a lot this year.”

3.

After last night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins Luke Hughes has claimed sole possession of second place in rookie scoring... behind Chicago's phemon Connor Bedard. Luke is on a run of four straight games with a point (1g-3a) as he works his way up the rookie scoring board. The 20-year-old is up to 42 points this season (9g-33a), one point ahead of another rookie defenseman, Brock Faber in Minnesota.

That's where the race will be as the regular season winds down, with Arizona's Logan Cooley (39pts) and Minnesota's Marco Rossi (37 pts) making their own push. But when it comes down to the wire, that second place spot looks like it’s going to go to either Hughes or Faber and Luke doesn’t appear to be slowing down.

4.

I loved what Nick DeSimone had to say about playing with Luke and he pointed to that goal above as an example of what type of job a defensive partner for Luke has.

"He’s a special player," DeSimone said, "Just try to know what he’s good at and try to enhance that as much as possible. Give him the puck with speed and kind of let him take it from there. He’s just so good when he’s got time and speed with the puck. Just try to maybe take the first check, the first forchecker and get it to look. Give him his space and time to make plays, Toronto goal, for example, he got it in space and created a goal out of it… he’s pretty good at that!”

5.

Did you see this absolute rocket from Devils defensive prospect Ethan Edwards? It was a massive goal for Michigan to tie the game against MSU and eventually book their ticket to their third consecutive Frozen Four appearance. Just an absolute bullet.

Edwards’ goal tied the game at one in the second period and started a string of Michigan goals, as the Wolverines went on to win the game 5-2.

6.

The Devils have played 75 games this season and only once has the team gone to a shootout. That would be a team record if it holds for the entire 82-game season. And, unless the trend changes drastically for the remaining seven games, it should stand.

To date, since the shootout was implemented, the Devils' record for the fewest amount of shootout games in a season is five, that's a mark they hit twice before once in 2010-11 and again in 2020-21.

7. 

Did you know the Devils have played the second most shootout games in NHL history since it was implemented during the 2005-06 season? In the 1,478 games the Devils have played with the possibility of going to a shootout, they’ve gone 177 times, behind only the Florida Panthers 183.

The Edmonton Oilers once went an entire season without a shootout. That was during the 56-game season in 2020-21 when they didn’t play in a single shootout.

8.

Jesper Bratt has been the model of consistency. On Tuesday night, Bratt reached a new career-high in points, converting on a breakaway for his 74th point of the season. The past two years he's ended with 73 points and now he'll have seven more games this regular season to add to his career-high numbers. 

Not only was his 74th point a new career high, it was also his 350th NHL point. 

Also, one more power play point for Bratt will be his 100th with the man-advantage. 

Unless I've thoroughly jinxed things, safe to say he'll get there.

9.

Nico Hischier is the latest Devils player to hit the 60-plus point mark. With his two points against Pittsburgh - and his six points in his past three games - Nico has 61 points in his 64 games this season. That's three straight seasons of 60-plus points for the captain, who carries immense responsibility at both ends of the ice.

10.

Every coach has their keywords and one we've heard a lot from interim head coach Travis Green is at times, playing an 'immature' game. When you hear the word, for me anyway, it's associated with age but I knew there was way more behind it when it came to what Green is trying to get across. So I asked him this week if he could explain more in-depth what that immaturity means, beyond age.

"Some of it is experience," he said, "Some of it is making simple mistakes that you can’t make at certain parts of the game. I thought (the Buffalo game) was one of those games where (…) we had our chances to score, we didn’t score. When you play a close hockey game where both teams are in the game trying to win and probably, if you looked at that game both teams

“There are a couple of tiny things that we talked about wiht out group today that might have cost us the game. Like simple details like lining up in the wrong spot on the faceoff, obviously we made the mistake on one goal, but there’s lots of mistakes made in the game, but it’s the mental things that you kind of have to learn as you go and you play in the league. When you get to the Stanley Cup playoffs or the Stanley Cup Final, it’s little details a little puck battles that a lot of nights determine games. It’s decisions that you make, whether it’s throwing the puck out blind to the slot in the offensive zone, or like I said, a simple formation on a faceoff that a lot of young guys haven’t gone through before. There’s different types of immaturity (...) A lot of this stuff you learn along the way."