Evangelista Finding the Formula | FEATURE

There are plenty of things Luke Evangelista has had to figure out since becoming a New Jersey Devil.

A new team. New teammates. A new city. A new place to live.

Where his stuff belongs in the locker room?

That part, he's got covered.

“I feel like I take pride in being a good stallmate,” Evangelista said. “I don't like to be messy. I keep — I stay in my borders. I don't overlap another guy's stall.”

Borders, apparently, are important.

And Evangelista has landed between two pretty good ones.

Inside the Devils locker room, his stall sits between captain Nico Hischier and Timo Meier, the very same two players he's spent training camp skating alongside. So far, Evangelista has fit quite nicely between them.

Both literally and figuratively.

It's been part of a transition that's happened remarkably quickly considering how much change Evangelista has packed into just a few weeks. After being traded from Nashville to New Jersey 26 days ago, he's had to pack up belongings, find somewhere new to live and learn an entirely new organization and group of teammates. He's been through a training camp and preseason games, team bonding and the occasional day off.

“It's honestly just been kind of a whirlwind,” he said. “Focus on, you know, meeting the new guys, kind of getting integrated with everyone, and then obviously finding a place to live, like packing up all your stuff from Toronto and Nashville, and trying to kind of move your whole life to different cities.”

But where the logistics have been hectic, the hockey, and fitting into the room, has come a little more naturally.

From the opening days of camp, Hischier liked what he saw.

“I think he's a very smart player that can finish chances but also create,” the Devils captain said. “It’s been great. A great guy. Fits in perfectly well with this group here,” Hischier said. “And obviously on the ice, he has a lot of skill, he’s a very smart guy that sees the ice very well. He fits perfectly on our line. We’re just trying enjoy ourselves out there, have fun and work hard and he fits in perfectly."

It hasn't taken long for that to show itself.

Evangelista had three points in his two preseason games, including a two-goal outing on Long Island, while Hischier and Meier had a goal and an assist in their two preseason games. More encouraging than the production itself was how quickly the three began reading off one another.

For Evangelista, it started to come together after the first 20 minutes of the first preseason game. He used that intermission to recalibrate.

“I think I was trying to play a little bit too slow, bringing pucks back,” he said after the game of the first period. “Once we started putting pucks in behind, forechecking, winning battles and getting that sustained offensive-zone time, I thought that's when we started to click.”

Meier has seen the fit, too.

“He's got a lot of skill,” Meier said. “He's hard on pucks, especially playing with Nico we try to go and play a simple game and get in their zone and try to outwork the other team. I think he's got that extra skill of making plays but also realizing when he's got to put a puck in and crafty on some loose pucks.”

It's early, of course. Chemistry isn't declared after a handful of practices and preseason games.

But it's an encouraging start.

And maybe there's something fitting about Evangelista finding himself planted directly between Hischier and Meier in the room while simultaneously learning how to fit with them on the ice.

Because when it comes to his stall, Evangelista is very particular.

You know those little dividers between players' spaces inside an NHL locker room?

Consider them sacred territory.

“You know how the little lines separate?” he said. “The borders. Like, I just stay in my borders. I don't cross over lanes.”

He's tidy. He's organized. He respects personal space.

And, perhaps most importantly, freshly taped sticks do not touch the floor.

“Once I tape my sticks, I don't want them, like, I don't want the blade of my stick touching the ground until I go on the ice,” he said.

It's a habit that goes all the way back to minor hockey. Evangelista would tape his stick with white tape, add wax and then watch his fresh tape immediately collect whatever dirt and dust was sitting on the locker room floor.

That wasn't going to work.

“I'd put it on the ground and, you know, the minor hockey rooms, they're dirty. They're so dusty,” he said. “So before I even got on the ice, my tape would be scuffed and dirty and have dirt on it.”

The solution was simple.

Keep the blade off the ground.

And apparently, once Evangelista establishes something that works, he sticks with it.

“It's been like as long as I can remember,” he said.

His commitment to an orderly stall didn't develop entirely on its own, either. Evangelista had a pretty good example in Nashville of exactly what not to do.

“I hate to throw him under the bus,” Evangelista began. Which, naturally, meant someone was about to be thrown directly under the bus.

“I played with a guy, Jonathan Marchessault, who, he was a mess. He was everywhere,” Evangelista laughed. “So I try and basically be the opposite of him, pretty much.”

It was all in good fun, of course. Evangelista said the two had a good relationship, helped by the fact that Marchessault was just as willing to take a chirp as he was to deliver one.

“Marchy was very vocal and he'd be chirping everyone, but he could also take it,” Evangelista said. “Everyone would give it right back to him. You could call him on his shenanigans and he was like, ‘You know what? Fair enough.’”

Evangelista's locker room habits aren't much different from his habits away from the rink, either.

“My apartment, my living space, I feel like historically has been tidy, proper,” he said. “I try and keep it neat for the most part.”

For all the chaos that comes with an unexpected move, Evangelista has enjoyed discovering what his new home has to offer. Growing up in Oakville, Ontario, being in New Jersey puts him an easier trip away from family, with more flight options back home.

He's learning the geography of Jersey, too.

“I didn't even realize, like, if you live in Hoboken or Jersey City or something, you're closer to Manhattan,” Evangelista said. “Which I had no clue.”

His early review?

“It's like sneaky good,” he said. “Sneaky, sneaky good.”

The same might be said of how seamlessly everything has started coming together.

The move itself has been a whirlwind. But the room has become comfortable quickly, and on the ice, he's beginning to find his place alongside the same two guys he sits between every day.

After his two-goal night in the preseason finale, Evangelista spoke about exactly that.

“It was good to get a win like that, make some plays and gel with the line mates,” he said. “Kind of connect there, build some chemistry.”

There's still plenty to build.

But for someone who has spent the last few weeks figuring out where everything belongs in an entirely new life, Evangelista seems to have found his spot pretty quickly.

Right between Nico and Timo.

And, of course, safely inside his borders.