Devils Topped by League-Best Panthers | GAME STORY 

NEWARK, N.J. - The New Jersey Devils welcomed the league-leading Florida Panthers to Prudential Center on Tuesday night and if anything, showed they can hang with the best of them when they're playing their smartest hockey. Although the score ended in favor of the Panthers, 5-3, New Jersey never looked outmatched or without answers. They had some counterpunch.

The Florida Panthers are the league's top team and although the Devils found themselves down 2-0 early in the game, there was a clear determination in New Jersey's play to make a game of it.

"Definitely not happy with our start," Timo Meier said, "I thought maybe a little nerves, just the last 24 hours maybe affected us in the start, but not really an excuse. I thought we battled back well, we had some legs but I think overall we didn't come up with enough pucks and win enough battles."

"That first 10 minutes of the game, I didn’t like our passing," interim head coach Travis Green said, "I think our execution, our guys looked and didn’t have a lot of poise with the puck, any time you don’t pass the puck well or receive the puck well, it’s really hard to gain a lot of traction in your game.

Jack Hughes opened the scoring for the Devils after New Jersey had fallen into an early 2-0 hole. His wrist shot deflected off of Florida defender Gustav Forsling and past goaltender Anthony Stolarz. The power-play goal cut the Panthers lead to 2-1 at 11:45 of the first period. The opening frame ended 2-1 for the Panthers and the Devils would follow up their first period with some of the better hockey they've played in recent weeks.

Fight on they did, finding a new sense of energy with Green behind the bench and as the second period began, there was a noticeable pep in New Jersey's step, forcing the Panthers into turnovers and the Devils finishing their checks and winning their wall battles. Passes were crisp and confidence looked high.

That was nowhere more obvious than on Timo Meier's 2-2 game-tying goal at 11:01 of the second period.

Meier put together an unbelievable individual effort, fighting through both Dmitry Kulikov and Niko Mikkola, splitting the Panthers' defensemen in front of Stolarz, and one-handing the puck off his backhand into the net.

"I just tried to keep it simple and go to the net," Meier said, "It was bouncing off, I don’t know how many things, but you know I thought we had some life. But then they kind of get a goal, we were too easy to play against and we’ve got to clean that up.”

But the Panthers are the league's top team and that ends up being no easy task for any given opponent. Florida charged on with two more goals after Meier's tying goal, one by Eetu Luostarinen and a second goal by Nick Cousins to double up their lead.

Then Colin Miller unleashed a bomb of a shot with 8:44 to play to bring the Devils within one. His shot had such velocity, that it entered the net just as quick as it exited. New Jersey kept pressing after the Miller goal but was never able to find the equalizer.

The Panthers hit the empty net with 7.2 seconds left to bring the final score to 5-3.

"I really like how we battled back in the game, I didn’t like our start tonight," Interim head coach Travis Green said, "Any time you get down 2-0, it’s not the way you want to start a game but I give our guys credit, they fought back and battled back. We were right in it to the end."

COLUMN: Devils Respond to Coaching Change with Improved Effort

Here are some observations from the game:

• The energy was noticeably high, as was the effort by the team on home ice tonight. The spark of change paid dividends when it came to the compete level from top to bottom in the lineup. The beginning of the second period was a perfect example with sustained pressure right off the faceoff in the offensive zone, three chances in quick succession and forcing Panthers goaltender Anthony Stolarz to make some of his best saves up until that point of the game. In close, the Devils had two chances in the blue paint and although Stolarz made the saves, it looked like a renewed energy and enthusiasm was in the Devils game.

"I thought they really started to feel good about themselves,” Green added, “Any time you when you’re down 2-nothing and you come back, get a couple of goals you can feel momentum. Our guys were engaged tonight. Any time something like this happens, you know your team wants to win badly."

• Timo Meier has goals in three straight games (four if you include the off-side goal scored in San Jose that was called back) and seven points (4g-3a) in his last six games.

"I liked his game tonight," Green said, "It might have been one of the better games I’ve seen him play. I just liked his straight-line hockey that he played. He had some bite in his game, he’s a big body, he’s hard to handle. It was very promising to see his game tonight."

• Jack Hughes’ opening goal for New Jersey was his seventh of the season on the power play, behind only Tyler Toffoli (8) for the team lead.

• Interim coach Travis Green loaded up his first line on several occasions, made a few tweaks at different moments of the game putting Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt on Nico Hischier's wings. 

"I planned on doing that ahead of time, occasionally,” Green said sharing his philosophy, “O-Zone draws, ecetera, icings, try to get some matchups that are favorable for us. The first time I did it, I liked the look that we had so I stayed with it. I’m not afraid to get into a mix where we have six guys that we mix and match a little bit depending on the game, confidence in all those guys. Any time you put arguably your top three players together, they like it as well.

• One significant lineup change was made by Green and the coaching staff, electing to sit rookie defenseman Simon Nemec for the first time since he joined the NHL team from Utica in the AHL. This morning, Green was open with his thoughts about his decision-making, emphasizing it is not a form of ‘punishment’ but in fact a normal part of the development process for a young player.

Here are Green's full comments from this morning on his decision:

I had a great meeting with (Nemec) today. I think he's going to have a great, really long career, be a really good player in this league. I really like him as a player, and man, when he first came up, just watching him, I was, I don't want to use the word shocked, but I was really happy with how he played. But also in saying that, I walked to him this morning and said I think your game has dipped in the last three weeks. We've been talking about keeping him in, pulling him out, and we talked about why. I think it's really important, I've worked with young players over the years, to be honest with them. But also make sure that you keep their confidence because I don't want to take that confidence away from players, especially young players. I told him that he's going to get back in. But we talked about some things that I want to see, we want to see, a lot of that has to do with his skating. He just doesn't have that pop that he had when he first came up and the season is a grind, the NHL is a grind. We see a lot of young defensemen sometimes not play every night. Now there's nothing wrong with that, it's up to us to make sure that we move them along and make sure that his play raises as he plays more and grows as a player. When I left the room today, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a terrible thing that he wasn't playing tonight and make sure there's confidence.

• Ondrej Palat did not play against Florida, out with a lower-body injury. In Palat's absence, Jesper Bratt wore the second A alongside Jack Hughes.

• With 6:21 left in the second period, play stopped after referee Pierre Lambert was struck in the face by an errant puck. Lambert fell to his knees, clutching his face, before fellow referee Tom Chmielewski blew the whistle to stop play. Both the Devils and Panthers athletic trainers tended to Lambert on the ice before he was able to skate off on his own.

Lambert left the game for several shifts but was able to return before the end of the second period.