The Final Countdown | 10 TAKEAWAYS

How did we get here? It feels like in a blink of an eye the Devils have played 79 of their 82 games. Just three left.
There are times when a season tends to drag, feeling tired from the grind, lots of late nights, all those things that come with an NHL season. But when you're faced with the finish line, it feels like no time has passed since the beginning of training camp, where did the time go? By the time we meet next week, everyone will have gone their separate ways for the summer and we'll be wrapping up an entire 82-game season.
In the meantime, because I don't like to dwell on all that, here are 10 Takeaways from the final full week of the Devils season, presented by Ticketmaster.

2.

There seemed to be one person and one person only who knew that Yegor Sharangovich scored the power-play goal against the Carolina Hurricanes, and it was Yegor himself. With that big grin that Sharangovich has mastered, he pointed right to the blade of his stick as they celebrated what many believed was Boqvist's goal originally. I loved the moment because it offers a real insight into the young group that is growing together. The playfulness of that moment in what has been a difficult season by all accounts, to me shows that despite the results, the team is bonding, becoming a strong core, and enjoying playing with one another.
Just look at the interaction between Sharangovich and Boqvist, the cheeky way Sharangovich is saying not so fast, Jesper, that goal was mine!

3.

Someone asked me on Twitter this week why I thought it was a big deal that Mackenzie Blackwood was getting in two of the final three games this season. I used the words "vitally important" because that's what I believe it is, even in a season that will end after 82 games.
I think it's more about the mental side of things than anything else. For Blackwood to get into a game before a long off-season can be the reassurance he needs that the necessary progress has been made to bring him up to the level he needs to be in order to compete at the highest level. If Blackwood wasn't playing these final two of three games, it would be close to, if not more than nine months between games when the next NHL season begins in October. That's a very long time and the competition of an NHL game cannot be replicated in the same way during the summer as it is in the heart of the season.
If I'm Blackwood, I'm looking at how my body is responding to the heat of the battle, I'm looking to see and feel what more I need to do to get to the point of feeling my best. I'm using this opportunity, no matter how small, to carry some momentum into the summer and right into training camp.

4.

I don't think Nico Hischier will want to ever remember his 2020-21 NHL season, which started with a leg injury in training before the season started, a bout of covid, and a sinus fracture that required surgery to repair. It was an awful season for the young captain, struggling to gain any momentum because of the injuries and recoveries he had to deal with.
That's part of why Hischier has been named the Devils nominee for the Bill Masterton Trophy, given annually to the player that bestexemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to the game of hockey.
Sure sounds like our Nico.
It's not a team nomination, the nominee is selected by the New Jersey chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, but I couldn't imagine a better pick myself. Couple all those struggles that he had last season and compare it to this year, and it's night and day.
I think Lindy Ruff said it best when he was most recently talking about Nico:
"I think we've got the real Nico now."

5.

I'm concerned. P.K. Subban did not travel with the team on the final road trip of the year due to a flu bug and I have no idea who is going to control the music in the locker room. I'm not there either, but I promise I'll find out somehow! Any guesses?

6.

Alexander Holtz has made the most of his opportunity with the Utica Comets, adjusting and improving to the North American game. He's also setting records. He's played in 52 American Hockey League games with Utica this season with 26 goals and 25 assists. That puts him at 51 points in 52 games. When he hit the 50-point mark, that became a new Utica rookie record.

Holtz's 26 goals also leads the Comets.

7.

While we're talking Comets, a huge congratulations to them for locking up the 2022 North Division. Now let's hope for a long Calder Cup run!
This video is sweet:

8.

Just three games remain in the Devils' season and Damon Severson could become the defenseman with the most points in a season since the 2006-07 NHL season.
Severson currently has 44 points, which equals the most recent high for a defenseman set by Will Butcher in 2017-18. One more point for the Devils veteran defender, and it will mark the most points by a Devils defenseman since Brain Rafalski's 55 points in 2006-07 when he had eight goals and 47 assists.
Severson currently has a career-high in assists with 33, while his 11 goals match his career-high from 2018-19.

9.

Nikita Okhotiuk has had a great start to his NHL career. With a goal in his first game, an assist in his second, the young man is all smiles at 21-years-old living out a dream, he didn't look out of place. It's fun to interview the kid, who just has a real zest for life, and he's very engaging. If ever you walk by him in the hallways of Prudential Center and he knows you, you are guaranteed that he's going to stop, say hello, and ask you how you're doing. He's just that type of kid.
But what is really remarkable is that he only learned how to speak English during the 2017-18 Ontario Hockey League season. That's not that long ago! When he arrived in Ottawa, where he was drafted and played with the 67s,
he told me, back in 2019
that he spoke zero words of English. For a while, he would use Google Translate on his phone to communicate with his billet family and teammates. It's a really impressive thing he's done, adjusting to life in North America, taking a real hold of the English language, all while still working at carving out his dream of an NHL career. 2017-18 was only five years ago!

10.

I do have to take this moment to address the passing of Guy Lafleur earlier this week. I know it's not particularly Devils related, but it sent ripple effects through the hockey world as one of the game's greatest (and coolest) left us at the age of 70. In some long-winded way, what Guy Lafleur was able to do as a hockey player and man in Montreal, played a role in me ending up here in New Jersey five years ago. I don't know that without his flare and captivating talent I would have been introduced to the game of hockey in the same way that I was.
Lafleur captivated the eyes of my Irish immigrant stepfather when he moved to Canada in 1972. My stepdad (whose favorite player by the way was always Larry Robinson), remembers using hockey as a way to integrate himself into life in Montreal. The thrill of the game, on the backs of players like Lafleur, Robinson and others made him a fan. And he carried that all the way through to when he met me at three years old. My biological family wasn't into hockey, even though it sounds weird for a family in Canada, but it's the truth.

My stepdad brought me to my first NHL hockey game when I was 10. And that was it. It was something he and I would do together every year, and he would tell me stories of all those years of greatness with Lafleur and Robinson. I'm not sure without them that I'd ever have been introduced to the love of the game in the same way I was, and I doubt all these years later I would be sitting here in New Jersey working with the Devils.

I owe a lot in a sense to Lafleur. He will be so very much missed by so many.
May his memory be a blessing.