Thursday night at The Rock was an early-season heavyweight matchup. The New Jersey Devils entered with 18 points and a .692 points percentage, both tops in the Metropolitan Division. Their opponents, the Montreal
Canadiens, entered with 19 points and a .731 points percentage, both tops in the entire Eastern Conference (and second in the entire NHL behind only the Colorado Avalanche). The battle of the East’s best did not disappoint, with lots of twists, lots of turns, and eventually a Jesper Bratt breakaway goal in overtime to lift the Devils to a 4-3 victory.
Let’s rewind to the beginning, we’ll circle back around to Bratt’s heroics. The night began about as well as you could have hoped, which I’m sure made Jared happy. After missing seven games, Cody Glass returned to the lineup tonight. Just in time, too, as the Devils’ once-vaunted defense had been taking on a lot of water in recent games. Getting one of their best defensive forwards back would certainly help that. But it wasn’t Glass’ defense that made a difference early on, it was his offense. Before the game was two minutes old, Glass wired a sick shot past Canadiens’ goaltender Jakub Dobes for a very early 1-0 lead. This was especially good news considering New Jersey started the evening 6-0-0 in games in which they scored first (spoiler alert: they would make it 7-0-0). It was wonderful to see Glass back in the lineup, and even more encouraging to see him produce so soon upon returning.
But the extremely good vibes would be short-lived. One minute and six seconds later, the Canadiens would tie the game on one of the flukiest plays you will ever see. Noah Dobson collected a loose puck along the far wall and flung it in the general vicinity of the net. His shot caromed off of Kirby Dach and high in the air, so high that no one on the ice knew where the puck was. So where was it exactly? It just so happened to take the absolutely perfect bounce, fluttering up and over Jacob Markstrom and into the net. It was a magic bullet shot, and it cost New Jersey their lead.
From there, the game settled down. New Jersey was the better team for the rest of the first period and into the second, but they just couldn’t finish plays off. If the Devils had lost tonight, one of the big storylines to me would have been the large amount of golden chances they just barely missed. There were numerous times this evening where a Devils player made a pass that would have set up a teammate with a five-alarm opportunity, but the pass was in a skate or to the wrong side of a stick or straight up fumbled. Something always seemed to happen to thwart a prime New Jersey chance, and if the Devils were just a little crisper this evening, we could’ve been looking at a lopsided win. Instead, we got a nailbiter, and while those missed opportunities and unlucky breaks would not have been the entire reason they lost, it would’ve been a big part of the story. Thankfully, New Jersey made it a moot point.
Eight minutes into the second period, the Devils would finally break through. Simon Nemec activated down the right flank and fired a shot toward the net. It ricocheted back to him behind the net, and he made an Elias-ian pass to Ondrej Palat right in front, who scored to put the Devils ahead.
No, none of what you just read is inaccurate. Palat actually scored a goal. For the Devils. In a game that counted. Granted, Nemec did the heavy lifting, but give credit to Palat for finally burying one. He looked so relieved too, and I don’t blame him. It’s ironic that Palat manages to find his scoring touch after being taken off the Hughes-Bratt line. No one’s complaining though, it was a big goal.
And by the way, I’m only barely exaggerating when I describe Nemec’s assist as Elias-ian:
This is one of my favorite goals of all time. Obviously there are some differences, but Elias’ pass here bears a striking resemblance to Nemec’s feed to Palat. Now if Nemec can actually make this play in Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final too, then we’d really having something cooking here.
The middle frame would end with the Devils up 2-1, but the Canadiens would get the first two goals of the third period. The first of those two is one that Markstrom absolutely, unquestionably, indisputably needs to save. Jake Evans floated down the wing and threw a nothing shot on net. Somehow, Markstrom let it slip under his pads and in for a backbreaking goal. The first goal of the night was not one I blame Markstrom for, as mentioned, it was a fluky play. This one, however, is completely unacceptable. The fact that it came less than a minute into the final frame made it even worse, as it completely deflated the Devils right out of the gate in the third.
Then almost exactly halfway through the period, Oliver Kapanen would give Montreal the lead. Alex Newhook fired a soft shot on Markstrom from a tough angle, and Markstrom coughed up a room service rebound right to Kapanen in front, who backhanded it home for a 3-2 Canadiens advantage. It was yet another easily avoidable goal, and while the Devils weren’t dominating play in front of Markstrom, they were certainly playing well enough to win. Instead, they fell behind thanks to a couple of softies.
From there, Montreal was content to play prevent defense. They packed the house in front of their goaltender, blocked a million shots, broke up a million passes, and sent a million dump-ins deep into the Devils zone. Time was winding down and it looked like New Jersey was heading for a very frustrating loss. But with the net empty in the final minutes of the game, Timo Meier broke through. Meier had gone nine games without scoring a goal, which we have seen far too often from him during his time in New Jersey. We know he’s capable of scoring in bunches, we’ve witnessed it, but we know he’s also capable of prolonged cold spells, and he entered tonight’s contest in the middle of one of those. But just over a minute to go, Jack Hughes flung a pass into the crease, Dawson Mercer and several Canadiens all poked away at it, and it came to Meier at the side of the cage, and he roofed it past a sprawling Dobes to knot the game at three. It was a massive goal, and it secured at least a point for the Devils.
Then in overtime, Nico Hischier won the opening faceoff and New Jersey basically never gave the puck up. Montreal did have one opportunity with possession, but that was quickly snuffed out thanks to a great defensive play by Meier. He stood up Newhook inside the Devils’ blueline, which allowed Bratt to swoop in for the takeaway and skate all alone on Dobes for a breakaway. Bratt deked to his backhand, slipped a shot five-hole, and the New Jersey Devils skated away with a big 4-3 victory in their return from their west coast road trip.
It wasn’t a perfect game, but the Devils played well enough to get a win. They faded a little in the third, but after so many opportunities passed them by, they made their final two chances count. Meier secured one point, Bratt secured the other, and the Devils will wake up tomorrow at the very top of the Eastern Conference standings.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com
Please, Make It Stop
Another game, another injury.
As fun as this win was, it was not without a major cause for concern. Dougie Hamilton left a few minutes into the second period, and he did not return the rest of the game. According to the Natural Stat Trick shift chart, he took three shifts in the second period before exiting, his last coming about five minutes into the frame.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe did not give us an update on Hamilton after the game, aside from saying he will be evaluated tomorrow. NJ.com’s Ryan Novozinsky is saying it’s a lower-body injury though, so there’s that.
Hamilton’s time in New Jersey has unfortunately been marred by injuries since he came over in 2021. He’s only had one fully healthy season in red and black (2022-23) and I think we were all hoping 2025-26 would be his second, especially with Brett Pesce on the shelf for a while (put a pin in that for one second). Fingers crossed for good news on Hamilton tomorrow.
A Little More Clarity
During tonight’s game, we also got this little nugget thanks to the magic of social media:
So…yeah. Don’t expect Pesce back anytime soon.
Please Hit The Net
I thought Luke Hughes had a pretty bad game tonight. He didn’t make any dynamic offensive plays, and while he was fine defensively, that’s not why the Devils just paid him $9m per season for the next seven years. Through the first 14 games of the season, Hughes is still searching for his first goal, which is concerning. I think Hughes not being able to hit the net is unfortunately starting to become A Thing:
According to Natural Stat Trick, Hughes had four shot attempts tonight. He ended with zero shots on goal. Every single one of his shots tonight was either blocked, or he missed the net.
Taking a look at his Hockey Reference page, prior to tonight’s game, Hughes had 23 shots on goal on 68 total shot attempts. Make it 23 shots on goal on 72 total attempts, meaning only 32% of his shot attempts actually make it to the goaltender. In comparison, Hamilton is up to 44% after tonight. Considering Hamilton is the player we all expect Hughes to replace in the very near future, I think this is a fair comparison.
Has Hughes always been this bad at hitting the net? In a word, yes. Hughes had 121 shots on goal on 328 attempts last season (37%), and 135 shots on goal on 401 attempts in his rookie year (34%). If Hughes really is going to ascend into the upper echelon of defensemen in the NHL, he needs to start figuring out how to avoid shin pads when he shoots the puck.
Pure Domination
Some matchups are just inexplicably one-sided, and Devils vs. Canadiens is one of them. New Jersey entered tonight’s contest having won 16 of the last 20 meetings between these two squads. Make it 17 of 21 after tonight. Montreal must see New Jersey in their nightmares.
Home Sweet Home
With their win tonight, the Devils remained perfect at home, having won their first six games at The Rock to start the season. They won’t go 41-0-0 in New Jersey this year, but establishing the Prudential Center as a tough place to play would go a long way toward making this a successful season for the Devils. Here’s hoping they can keep it going.
Next Time Out
New Jersey is back in action on Saturday when they welcome the Pittsburgh Penguins to town. Set your alarms, puck drop is scheduled for 12:30pm.
Your Take
What did you think of tonight’s game? What is your level of concern on Dougie Hamilton injury? What about Jacob Markstrom’s play? Who on the Devils impressed you the most this evening? As always, thanks for reading!
