After having a solid second week to the young NHL season collecting four of six possible points, the New Jersey Devils didn’t exactly have a great week but did manage to end it on a positive note. This week the Devils played the Philadelphia Flyers at home to wrap up their three game home stand. Then they began their four game road trip as they took on the Buffalo Sabres. Let’s take a look back at how the Devils did this week:
Bullied by the Flyers Game (1/26/21)
Lineups:
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
James Van Riemsdyk got the Flyers on the board first as he deflected the puck in the back of the net off an Ivan Provorov shot from the point. His goal at the 15:03 mark gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead after the first period.
Fifty-nine seconds in, Van Riemsdyk added his second goal of the game as he deflected another puck off of a Provorov shot from the point to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead. However, Michael McLeod would score his first NHL goal to get the Devils within a goal. Moments later, veteran Travis Zajac would even the score up as a tipped in a shot from Andreas Johnsson. The score would be tied 2-2 heading into the third period.
Period three saw the Flyers take control for the rest of the game. Philadelphia would get goals from Nolan Patrick, Joel Farabee, and Ivan Provorov to help them seal the victory for the Flyers. Pavel Zacha added a late goal but it didn’t matters as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the New Jersey Devils by a final score of 5-3.
Game Highlights
Looking for Payback (1/28/21)
Lineups:
New Jersey Devils
Philadelphia Flyers
Recap:
New Jersey got on the board first as defenseman Damon Severson added his first goal of the season off the rush to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. That lead didn’t last long as Nate Prosser added his first on the season to get the Flyers even with the Devils 1-1 after the first period.
The score would remain tied till the third period when Michael Raffl broke the tie at the 2:10 mark. About four minutes later, Flyers captain Claude Girioux would seal the victory for Philadelphia as he blasted a shot behind Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood. Flyers went into win by a final score of 3-1.
Shootout in Buffalo (1/30/21)
Lineups:
New Jersey Devils
Buffalo Sabres
Buffalo would get on the board first as Eric Staal would give the Sabres the 1-0 lead at the 9:03 mark of period two. Except, they couldn’t keep that lead as Devils rookie Ty Smith evened up the score scoring his second goal of the season on the power play. PK Subban and Pavel Zacha would get the assists in the game tying goal. After the second period, the score was tied 1-1.
Period three was a scoring frenzy as New Jersey grabbed the lead early as Andreas Johnsson scored his first goal as a Devil to put his team ahead. The lead didn’t last long as Tobias Rieder added his third goal of the season to tie the game back up. At the 10:56 mark, Victor Ollofsson scored his fourth of the season on the power play to regain the lead for Buffalo. Janne Kuokkonen scored his first National Hockey League goal moments later to tie the score up at 3-3.
This game required overtime where neither team could get the game winner during 3 on 3 play. In the shootout, Sabres captain Jack Eichel would net the game winner to give his team the 4-3 victory over the Devils.
Game Highlights
Ending the week with a W vs Buffalo (1/31/21)
Lineups:
New Jersey Devils
Buffalo Sabres
After losing three in a row this week and escaping yesterday’s game with a point, the New Jersey Devils were able to come away with a victory. Michael McLeod and Andreas Johnsson would score twice in the first period giving the Devils a 2-0 lead after the first period.
However, Curtis Lazar and Rasmus Dahlin would tie the score up for the Sabres in period two. Miles Wood with seconds left to go in the period gave the Devils their lead back.
At the 3:53 mark, Rasmus Ristolinen would even things back up on the power play. However, New Jersey was able to pull through and got the W as they got goals from Michael McLeod (his second of the game) and an empty net goal by Miles Wood who also scored his second of the game to give the Devils a 5-3 victory over the Sabres.
Game Highlights
How they doin’? My thoughts on this week
This week wasn’t really as good as the first couple of weeks into the season for the New Jersey Devils. Clearly, they were outclassed and outmatched playing the Philadelphia Flyers who are a much better team then they are. Then again as a reminder, this is a young Devils team. These two games showed that there is still still plenty of developing and growing to do here. Which is ok as the expectations are still low for this young team and core.
However, the New Jersey Devils did redeem themselves a bit as they picked up a point on Saturday despite losing in the shootout to the Buffalo Sabres. Then they played their best game of the week as they took down the Sabres 5-3 in regulation. The week didn’t start off very good but, at least they ended it with three points in the standings.
Looking ahead to next week:
2/2 New Jersey Devils @ Pittsburgh Penguins 7PM EST
2/4 New Jersey Devils @ Pittsburgh Penguins 7PM EST
2/6 New Jersey Devils vs New York Rangers 1PM EST
The Xperience Hockey Talk 