A Strong Start to 2023 | THREE THINGS

The Devils started the first month of 2023 on the right foot, going 9-2-2 and picking up huge wins over Metro Division opponents like the NY Rangers, Carolina Hurricanes, and Pittsburgh Penguins. It was a big departure from December where New Jersey had to dig deep and overcome some adversity.
Let's take a look at three big games and moments from the month of January in this edition of Three Things presented by GEICO.

1. The Long Road Trip

Only nine days into the New Year and the Devils hit the road for their longest road trip of the year: 12 days, five cities, and approximately 6,075 miles traveled. Things kicked off in Raleigh where the Devils were taking on the Hurricanes for the second time in 10 days. New Jersey went into enemy territory and picked up a big 5-3 win, starting off the road trip right. After traveling to the West Coast and a practice, the Devils continued their winning ways with a back-to-back against the Southern California teams: 6-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Jan. 13 and a 5-2 victory over the LA Kings the next night.
The team headed north to San Jose where they snuck out a 4-3 shootout win over the Sharks. It was an eventful game that saw multiple goals to quickly start a period. Defenseman Ryan Graves scored in the opening 29 seconds of the first period while cvaptain Nico Hischier tied things up, 2-2, just 11 seconds into the third period. With just 10 seconds left in regulation, Devils leading scorer Jack Hughes sent the game to overtime as his goal evened the score, 3-3. Tomas Tatar's goal in the shootout locked up the fourth win on the Devils' five-game road trip.

New Jersey headed up to the Pacific Northwest for the final game of the trip, taking on the Seattle Kraken. It was a close game against a hot team; however, the Devils fell 4-3 in overtime. Even though it was a loss, the Devils still picked up a point and finished the five-game swing with nine of ten possible points (4-0-1).
While the team was in Seattle, Nathan Bastian and John Marino hit up Pikes Place Market to do what the locals do, throw fish.

2. Jack's a Star

Jack Hughes is having an incredible year for the Devils, but January was one of his best months. The 2019 first-overall pick had 23 points in 13 games, 13 of those were goals. Over a point per game and averaging a goal a game? Not too shabby. Hughes scored in 12 of those 13 games, recorded nine multi-point games, and had four multi-goal performances.

If you're impressed by those stats just wait. Hughes set franchise history by becoming the fastest player to reach the 60-point milestone, and was the third fastest in franchise history to score 30 goals. With such an incredible month, Hughes was named the NHL's First Star for this first time in his career.

3. Overtime Wins

To end the month of January, the Devils found themselves going to extra minutes several times. In the final six games of January, New Jersey had five games either go to overtime or a shootout, and the Devils won four of those five games.
Although a team doesn't necessarily want to play extra minutes each night, those close wins gave the Devils a chance to experience how intense games get towards the end of a season when the playoffs are on the line. Hughes stepped up big in those games, scoring four of his 13 goals, including the overtime winner in Dallas. Dougie Hamilton also had an impact, scoring three goals and three assists over those four games to help the team pick up valuable points in their playoff push.