Devils Finish Another Huge Win Over Wild

November 3, 2023

The New Jersey Devils grabbed another win over the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center, 5-3, on Thursday. Having full force during their power plays shows much more improvement from the Devils than the last couple of games.

New Jersey continued to dominate the offensive side of the red line. Even with Nico Hischier missing from the lineup, the Devils skated flawlessly around the offensive zone. The team, which began the season with slow first periods, finally took a 2-0 advantage. It began with a goal by Alexander Holtz off an assist from Nate Bastian. That was followed by a goal-front shot from Michael McLeod off a feed from Ondrej Palat. Both first-period goals were during five-on-five.

The second period featured a goal of one of the NHL's best powerplayers. Timo Meier tapped in a pass from league point leader Jack Hughes.

On the other side of the red line, the Devils continued sloppy and frantic play in the defensive zone, failing multiple attempts to clear the puck from the zone. This gave Minnesota chances to get the puck off bad passes. They missed multiple opportunities to get the puck out into the neutral zone.

Although the Devils rely on their speed and skill, they need to start using their bodies and complete more checks to get opposing teams off the puck. It showed in the failed attepts to clear a pass on Krill Kraprizow's power-play goal and Marco Rossi's 3rd period score. Once again, the Devils offense gave New Jersey a solid lead, but poor defensive play allowed the Wild to stay in the game.

Devils’ Jesper Bratt scored a power play goal in the third period, but the Wild quickly responded with a Jake Middleton goal.

Hughes dominated the game even when not scoring. He drew a penalty off Matt Bodly to stop the Wild's final push. Add a second penalty to Kraprizov, and the Devils add a PP goal by Hamilton on the five-on-three and close out the game with time remaining on the final power play.

Losing Damon Severson and Ryan Graves in the off-season was a necessary subtraction, but both players were strong at clearing the puck. By the third period, coach Lindy Ruff started fiddling with the defensive lines, moving Luke Hughes up with John Marino. The two players played together for much of the playoffs last season and seemed to have worked well.

The Devils would win again off a four-point game by Jesper Bratt, two-points by Jack Hughes, and the team's strong power play. To continue the drive in a competitive Eastern Conference, the Devils must clean up the defensive zone play to match the offensive dominance.

Up Next For Devils

Up next is the struggling St Louis Blues as New Jersey's road trip continued. Last year, the Devils used the first long road trip to establish that they had arrived as a power in the NHL. Now, the Devils need to continue to perfect their game and play a more complete game on both sides of the rink.