Power Surge | FEATURE

The Devils accomplished a feat Friday night on Long Island that hadn’t been achieved in nearly a decade. The club scored four power-play goals en route to a 5-4 overtime victory against the New York Islanders.

Though it was the 16^th time in franchise history that the Devils posted four man-advantage tallies in a single game, it hadn’t been done since March 1, 2014 (coincidentally also on Long Island in a 6-1 victory).

“You don’t have many nights like that where you click and all those opportunities go in,” head coach Lindy Ruff said following the win. “I think we found the right spots and we’ve got some talent that can bury opportunities.”

The Devils lead the NHL with nine man-advantage scores and have the No. 2-ranked power play in the NHL with a 42.9-percent success rate behind only Detroit (46.2%). New Jersey has connected on nine of its 21 opportunities.

The obvious caveat is that it’s still very early – just four games into the season. And the Devils will likely not maintain a 40-plus percent clip (Edmonton led the NHL last year at 32.4 percent and no other team topped 26 percent). But it’s hard to ignore how fluid and effective the team looks on the man-advantage through the opening four contests.

“We have a lot of talent,” forward Ondrej Palat said. “Jack (Hughes), (Jesper) Bratt, (Tyler Toffoli), Luke (Hughes) now with Dougie (Hamilton). It’s a lot of talent. We just need to work hard and the goals will come.”

The Devils certainly have a lot of talent. But the club had similar talent last season when it finished 13^th In the NHL at 21.9 percent. So, what’s with the marked improvement?

“The skill is there. It’s more of just another year of playing together,” said Jack Hughes, who is tied with Jesper Bratt for the most power-play points in the NHL with seven. “We all know each other’s reads now.”

New associate coach Travis Green has taken over handling the power play from Andrew Brunette, who departed as head coach of Nashville. Though there hasn’t been a complete overhaul of the power play, some minor tweaks have been made for this year.

“I think he’s done a very good job of connecting the dots for a lot of guys,” Ruff said of Green. “Trying to get that whole group connected on what we’re trying to do power-play 1 to power-play 2. Changing up our breakouts. You saw (Friday) night two or three different breakouts that we were able to create some opportunities with.

“Inside the zone the motion is a little bit different. But the group as a whole is starting to mature, starting to see the plays, we’re hitting our marks, we had good traffic on some goals.”

Like all teams, the Devils have their set plays and structure inside the zone. But it’s been the maturation of those post-hoc plays and reads that has allowed them to elevate their play on the power play.

“You have your basics, the structure,” Ruff said. “It’s knowing what Plan B is when Plan A starts to breakdown. I think the players have done a good job of realizing what that next play is going to be.”

“Good pre-scout, reading off that, knowing our options and knowing which ones to hit and when, moving the puck fast,” Luke Hughes said. “Us making plays.”

The Devils have so much talent that part of it is just allowing that talent to flourish. With their motion and quick puck movement, they’ll create open lanes and gaps. It’s just being on the same page throughout the process.

“It’s more like basketball where you have some set plays and then you read off of it,” said Hamilton, who has two power-play goals through four games.

“It’s a communication thing. It could be right when the faceoff happens or right when the penalty happens we have ideas what to do depending on the team we’re playing,” Bratt said. “You read off the team you’re playing and their strengths. We’ve read off that to find things that work for us, and how we can be a 5-man threat everywhere the puck is. The motion and winning pucks back are key to that.”

The team’s ability to win puck battles is, in fact, the foundation on which everything else is built.

“It all starts with how we’re hunting pucks on the forecheck and on draws,” Bratt said. “After shots we were always winning pucks back. Then we get to stay in the zone. We put the work in the zone instead of having to skate all the way back and restart a new breakout.”

“We’re winning battles at the beginning so we don’t have to chase the puck and do break outs,” Palat echoed. “The creativity of our players. We just need to keep going and keep working hard.”

Winning those battles not only improves the team’s zone time, but the amount of reps, looks and flow for the power-play unit. And that, perhaps more than anything, has created the opportunity for the hot start. From there, it’s all about the execution.

“We’re not wasting too many power plays. We’re pretty sharp off the get go,” Jack Hughes said. “In the past it’s taken us two or three power plays to get going. Now, our second unit scored to kick us off (Friday night) and our first unit took over. Being sharp and having really good, skilled players.”