Ten games, ten wins, ten takeaways.
The Devils are turning heads around the league as they continue to put together an impressive run of 10-straight victories (going for 11 on Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs) and they've done it while facing different forms of adversity, and winning in different ways.
Over the ten wins the Devils have managed a goal differential at 42 goals for and just 18 goals against. None of this would have been possible without a complete commitment to team play, which in the end brings out the best in individual play. These last 10 games have had a bit of everything.
Let's run it back in this week's 10 Takeaways presented by Ticketmaster.
Ten Wins | 10 TAKEAWAYS
Amanda Stein runs it back and takes you through every game of the current 10-game win streak
By
Amanda Stein
Team Reporter, NJD.tv
2. Oct. 28: Devils Shutout Defending Champs
REWIND: Devils 1, Avalanche 0
Now, this was a fun one!
The defending Stanley Cup champions came into Prudential Center and prior to the game, there was talk about this being a benchmark game, how do you stack up against the defending champs?
Turns out, pretty well.
Jack Hughes had the lone goal against the Avalanche, while John Marino handled the heavy lifting of defending against Nathan MacKinnon. I remember watching the game and thinking that there were very few - if any - shifts, when MacKinnon was on the ice and Marino, was not. Marino played a team-high 22:01.
Post-Game Quote:
"It's all about the team," Ruff said post-game. "We have different moments, it's any line that's contributing, it's any defense pair, it's our goaltender making big saves. When you're going that well, it's all about team play and everyone participating in the wins and we've been doing a really good job with that."
"The first thing was like win the (first) game as a New Jersey Devil, that was in Detroit and everything came down for me," Vitek Vanecek said, "That felt really good and now a home game so I'm really happy."
REWIND: Devils 7, Blue Jackets 1
Near identical goals by Nico Hischier and Ryan Graves just 33 seconds apart against the Blue Jackets put the Devils up 3-0 on the Blue Jackets, en-route the first real route of the season. Seven goals-for is a season-high number and at the time so was their 50 shots on net. It marked the first time since Feb. 11, 2009, that the club had registered at least 50 shots against an opponent.
This was also the game where the Devils honored Ken Daneyko for his 40 years with the franchise, which made it all too appropriate to have three defensemen score a goal. Graves scored, so did John Marino and the team favorite after the game was the goal by Jonas Siegenthaler, a first career power-play goal, which was what made everyone in the locker room smile after the game. Siegenthaler is not known for time spent on the power play, but Lindy Ruff put him out there in the waning seconds of a man advantage and with a flurry around Elvis Merzlikin's net, the puck popped out to Siegenthaler whose goal gave the Devils a 5-1 lead.
With three defensemen scoring goals, Lindy Ruff joked after the game that 'That one was for Dano.'
Post-Game Quote:
"We want to reach something this year ... that's our goal," Siegenthaler said. "We don't want to sit back and be the 'young guys' like last year. We want to prove everybody wrong and, so far, we've done that. But there's lots of hockey left and we just got to make sure we stay consistent."
REWIND: Devils 4, Canucks 1
Could this be another tricky one? There's always that thought that creeps into your mind when you travel across the continent and change time zones. The club traveled immediately after the Columbus game, for a late-night flight to Vancouver, Canada, giving the team the Monday to practice in Vancouver before facing the Canucks.
This game, despite the Canucks lack of success to that point in the season, was a character win because admittedly, they did not play their best. The start felt quite stunted before the team found their legs. But this was also the start of seeing the Devils win games where they perhaps weren't the 'better team on the ice' or 'not playing their best'. It feels like this was a building block, a confidence-building game, where if they stick to their strengths, they can still pull out victories.
Mackenzie Blackwood was in the net for the Devils against the Canucks, picking up the win for his fourth victory of the season.
Post-Game Quote:
"I wouldn't say today was our best (win)," Nico Hischier said. "but hey, we found a way, we got better each period, and at the end of the day we got the two points and that's all that matters."
REWIND: Devils 4, Oilers 3
This one was wild. Absolutely wild. The Devils may have put the league on notice after this one, never count them out until that final whistle is blown - even when facing major adversity.
Remember how Lindy Ruff said the club is going to have to find different ways to win? Being comfortable with the uncomfortable? Well this game against the Oilers had just about all that.
Adversity? Check.
Mackenzie Blackwood goes down with an injury - later determined to be a knee injury, sprained MCL - in the third period making a save on the Edmonton power play. In comes Vitek Vanecek in an awfully difficult situation, the Oilers still on the power play, cold off the bench and letting in the Oilers man-advantage goal on the first shot he faced.
Uncomfortable? Check.
The win streak was on the line. So was Jesper Bratt's season-opening, consecutive game point streak. Two-goals down? Give them 7 seconds, the Devils will be right with you. Ryan Gaves tied the game at three, then Bratt scored seven seconds later to set a franchise record for the two fastest goals, beating it by a single second.
Before Graves and Bratt the previous record was set back in 2001.
All night the Devils had been chasing the game, their first lead arriving at 16:52 of the first period from Bratt.
Post-Game Quote:
This was also a game where we got a glimpse inside the Devils locker room during periods. Unhappy with how they were playing the leaders in the locker room stood up, challenging the entire team.
"We all had that feeling, we can turn this around, we can play a lot better," said Bratt. "And we all said if we want to play playoff hockey and win important games at the end of the year these are the games you've got to turn around."
6. Nov. 6: Devils Win 4-3 in Overtime to End Road Trip
REWIND: Devils 4 (OT), Flames 3
Yup, they did it again! In recent years, traveling to Calgary has not been very kind to the Devils, could this be the game where the streak comes to an end? Turns out, Lindy Ruff's group wasn't satisfied with just a five-game win streak because they worked hard to make it six.
Fabian Zetterlund had the overtime winner, the Devils winning in Calgary for the first time since Jan. 13, 2017. It was a game where the Devils faced the reverse adversity than they saw against the Flames. They saw a 3-1 lead disappear as the Flames chipped away at a comeback.
Five players were on four-game points streaks after the game in Calgary.
Miles Wood
had seven points (4G, 3A),
Nico Hischier
had five (2G, 3A), as did
Nathan Bastian
(1G, 4A).
Michael McLeod
(1G, 3A) and Tomas Tatar (4A) each had four points.Post-Game Quote:
Post-Game Quote:
"I worked hard for it," said Zetterlund of his overtime, power-play winner. "I know when the puck is coming there I won't miss."
REWIND: Devils 3, Flames 2
Surely this one felt like the game where the win streak would come to an end. Two overturned goals? This felt like it could be the end.
Except it wasn't, because that's not the mentality of anyone on the Devils bench. Jonas Siegenthaler had a goal overturned on an off-side review, the goal deemed off-side 29 seconds before the goal was scored. That was then followed by Yegor Sharangovich having a goal overturned for goaltender interference. On top of the two overturned goals, the Devils were held to just five shots in the first period, which is a season-low.
It was off the rush that Nico Hischier scored the game-winner, a goal he himself was impressed with.
"To be honest, I first couldn't believe it," Hischier said of his game-winning goal, "because I had this move, it was a little bump-fake, five-hole. I had this move in my head but I thought I'm way too far out. It was pretty cool. It got me fired up."
Speaking of Nico, the Devils improved to 9-0-0 when he records at least a point and the club improved to 5-0-0 when they are the first to trail in a game, making no lead safe against New Jersey.
Post-Game Quote:
I think the biggest takeaway from the game was one of Nico Hischier's quotes. After a big win calling his team's first-period performance 'embarrassing'. This quote made its rounds, amplifying how the Devils are growing as a group and individuals, happy with the win but not the process to get there. Accountability. It wasn't all pretty.
"It wasn't pretty for sure," Hischier said, "It wasn't our best game,I think we didn't have our legs the first period. To be honest, it was an embarrassing first period, but hey, we found a way and came back, at the end, if you can win those games, it's huge."
REWIND:
This one was a nail-biter. Vanecek, who had been playing so well, gets rocked by Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot in the second period and was face down for a bit, while slow to get up. Vanecek gutted it out through the end of the second and briefly in the third before he and the club decided Vanecek would call it a night to recuperate.
In to the game comes Akira Schmid, called up while the team was in Calgary in the absence of Blackwood. Schmid had yet to register an NHL win last season in his four starts, the pressure immense in this one, coming in for relief and a potential eight-game win streak on the line. With eight minutes to play in regulation, Schmid came in, those eight minutes leading to an overtime period and Nico Hischier scoring the game-winner for a second consecutive game. The Senators could not capitalize on their overtime man-advantage, but the Devils did and that's all she wrote against the Sens.
Tatar also extended his point streak to six games with a point against the Senators, which matched the longest point streak of his career, set first in 2014-15
Post-Game Quote:
"I thought about …. I don't even want to say it," Schmid said with a grin of coming into the game knowing there was a win-streak on the line.. "Obviously you don't expect your first win to be like this, but I'll take it, for sure."
9. Nov. 12: Devils Win Nine in a Row, Stop Coyotes Road Show
REWIND: Devils 4, Coyotes 2
Vitek Vanecek was on the mend, but the Devils gave him a complete night off to ensure he would be healthy going forward. So after a big first NHL win, Schmid earns his first win while starting a game. The Coyotes were riding a three-game road win streak but the Devils put an end to that.
Nico Hischier extended his point streak to seven games, which marked a new career high.
Post-Game Quote:
"I've got so much respect for these goalies," Nathan Bastian said, "They've got to hang in there all game and a lot of weight is on their shoulders. We saw Vitek step in, in Edmonton, the way he handled that, and the same way Schmid did, and almost even tougher obviously, with the lack of NHL experience."
REWIND: Devils 5, Canadiens 1
Double digits!
A ten-game win streak, to be honest, felt very daunting. When you go from single digits to double? There's something intimidating about it.
But not to the team, apparently.
Jack Hughes had a two-goal night and the Devils held Montreal's top line off the board completely in the dominant victory. The first period was played relatively evenly, with Vanecek, in his return to the crease, and Montreal netminder Jake Allen putting on a goaltending show, but in the second the Devils pulled away and never looked back.
The bright spot, other than the win, was watching Vanecek return to the crease and look like he was right back into the form he was in before Chabot caught him in the crease a few days prior.
Dougie Hamilton had a big night, a goal and an assist, to mark a five-game point streak (3g, 4a), his longest since joining the Devils.
The final buzzer went off and there it was, a tenth straight victory for the franchise. A first since the 2005-06 season.
And for head coach Lindy Ruff it tied a personal streak as a head coach. Only once prior had he coached a team to 10 straight wins, which was while he was with the Buffalo Sabres between Oct. 4, 2006 to Oct. 26, 2006.
Post-Game Quote:
"It's all about the team," Ruff said post-game. "We have different moments, it's any line that's contributing, it's any defense pair, it's our goaltender making big saves. When you're going that well, it's all about team play and everyone participating in the wins and we've been doing a really good job with that."
