First Period
After putting together four good shifts to start the game, the New Jersey Devils took a bad penalty when Anthony Mantha went to the box for hooking in the neutral zone four and a half minutes in. Cody Glass won the first draw on the penalty kill, allowing the Devils to clear the puck. The forwards did well early on, but Dougie Hamilton was screening Jake Allen a bit when Linus Karlsson took a shot from the side of the high slot near halfway into the kill, as the Canucks went up 1-0.
The Devils went
to the power play when Jonathan Lekkerimaki was called for high sticking Brett Pesce a couple minutes later. Hischier won the draw, but Bratt’s weak pass to the point was immediately picked off and cleared. The Devils took three turns to get full possession back in the offensive zone, wasting most of the first unit’s time. But when they did get back in, completing passes, Nico Hischier took a pass in the bumper and scored his 200th NHL goal to tie the game!
After a hard Luke Hughes slap shot, Kevin Lankinen had to replace Leevi Merliainen due to Merlialinen’s skate blade being broken. With the equipment crew unable to fix the skate, Lankinen was forced to enter. This would prove costly to the Canucks. Filip Hronek was skating backwards with the puck in their defensive zone and fanned on a pass, allowing Amadeus Lombardi to shoot on Lankinen. Lankinen allowed the shot to leak through, and Jesper Boqvist smacked the puck into the net! The Devils went up 2-1.
Second Period
The Canucks gained Leevi Merliainen back in their net to start the second period. Yet again, the Devils looked like they were outclassing the Canucks at five-on-five to start this period. Thankfully, they didn’t take a back-breaking penalty. But Brock Boeser would take a hooking penalty for Vancouver, sending the Devils back to the power play a few minutes into the period.
Nico Hischier won the draw, but the Devils were forced back. When they regained possession, Jesper Bratt cut across for a backhand, but Merliainen made the save. The Devils were forced back again, but the first unit stayed on. Jack Hughes made a nice feed to Nico Hischier, but Merliainen blocked it with his pad. Nico poked at it, and Jesper Bratt came in from behind to shoot the puck through Filip Hronek to give the Devils a 3-1 lead!
Throughout the second period, the New Jersey Devils were running right over the Vancouver Canucks. But Jake Allen was still tested from time to time, including a huge pad save on Jake Debrusk after Elias Pettersson made a great pass to him on the rush. After this, the Devils slowed down quite a bit, but they got a late-period power play when Luke Hughes had his stick knocked out of his hands. This didn’t draw the call, but he played the puck with his skates, and Drew O’Connor poked at the puck, taking Hughes down in the process. He went to the box for tripping.
This power play did not look very good early on, but the last minute of the period featured a lot of in-zone time for them. Here, they broke the Canucks down as Dougie Hamilton was quarterbacking the power play. With 9.6 seconds to play, Nico Hischier scored at the side of the net when Jack Hughes feathered a pass across the crease after Bratt drew defenders to the slot and sent the puck down low.
After the goal, at center ice, Evan Rodrigues knocked Marco Rossi down with his stick when Rossi hit him with his glove. Rodrigues was reviewed for a spearing major. He was gifted a four-minute double minor instead of the major, but it looked to me like he deserved a game misconduct.
Third Period
The Devils set out to kill the remaining 3:51 of the Rodrigues penalty to start the second period, sending out Cody Glass, Dawson Mercer, Brett Pesce, and Brenden Dillon. Glass won the draw, and Dillon cleared down to Vancouver. Glass was strong on Vancouver’s entry, allowing Mercer to force them back to center. After another entry, Glass cleared down the ice and went off for Hischier and Bratt. Siegenthaler and Hamilton came on for Dillon and Pesce. Hamilton got the next clear to allow the Devils more breathing room before disrupting Vancouver’s next entry, allowing Hischier to clear the puck and change. Gritsyuk and Meier went on with Dillon and Pesce as the Devils ramped the pressure up on Vancouver, drawing a penalty to negate the remaining 1:51 of the Canucks penalty. Brock Boeser went off for hooking Timo Meier.
At four-on-four, Luke Hughes stripped the puck on the wall and sent his brother Jack ahead. He did not get his best shot on goal, but it still went forced Merliainen to smother it under his arm. Declan Chisholm later picked off a pass to Filip Hronek right in front of Allen on the other end. A couple shifts after the penalties expired, Paul Cotter threw a big hit on Evan Rodrigues, but the two did not fight despite exchanging words at several points.
The Canucks fittingly showed little fight throughout the rest of the game, as the Devils just missed on several chances to extend their lead as Jake Allen’s workload calmed down over the last 20.
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 Post Hockey Game Stats
Jake 500
Giving up just one screened goal in his 500th NHL game, Jake Allen faced just over 2 expected goals from the Vancouver Canucks this afternoon and came up big with some strong saves and steady positional play in the crease. Allen goes up to 2-1-0 this season, 38-40-4 as a Devil, and 227-206-45 in his total career with today’s win. Through the first four games of the season, Allen has been stronger than not in his three appearances, though I suspect that things are going to slow down for him a bit from here. The Devils have been able to play him in these three out of four because of how many rest days they’ve had, as he had four and then three rest days between starts. He will have to settle for just one or two to the next game, as the Devils play four games in six days from Monday to next Saturday.
Nico 200
Jake Allen turned out to be only one of the Devils to reach a career milestone today, as Nico Hischier scored his 200th and 201st career goals in a three-point game. In Devils franchise history, Hischier ranks fifth on the all-time scoring list, though he will tie Bobby Holik and Travis Zajac for tied-third all-time with his next goal. Meanwhile, with a secondary assist on Nico’s second goal, Jesper Bratt passed Travis Zajac to take sole possession of fifth place all-time on the Devils’ assist leaderboard at 349.
The Devils have needed Nico to get going with the goal scoring, as he was held scoreless through the team’s first three games. Two of those goals helped the Devils go three-for-four on the power play today, though it was practically a three-for-three considering their last power play spanned 11 seconds. So, after the power play started 1-for-14 (7.14%), they are now officially 4-for-18 (22.22%). That’s a world of difference.
Better Penalty Kill?
The Devils went two-for-three on the penalty kill today. Technically, that isn’t great, but it is better than their 62.5% kill rate over the first three games. What I found encouraging, though, was how well they approached the penalty kill after the Rodrigues penalty. They were able to pressure the puck on entries and along the wall, forcing the Canucks to try and make good passes. The frustration they inflicted on Vancouver led to Brock Boeser’s second penalty of the game, and they did it by rolling three forward units on the kill who were able to change frequently due to the number of times they cleared the defensive zone. More of that in the future will lead to better results.
Two Games, Two Goals for Boqvist
While I am still not convinced that the right players are centering the third and fourth lines, I am really encouraged by the chemistry that Amadeus Lombardi and Jesper Boqvist have built over two games together so far. Boqvist had four shots on goal today, including the game-winning goal, while Lombardi and Rodrigues had a shot each. Lombardi’s, of course, led to Boqvist’s goal in the first period. And just like that, this is already the hottest start to a season Boqvist has ever had. He’s never scored two goals in the first five games played of a season, and his career-best was two assists in the first three games he played for Florida in 2024-25. In the two seasons Boqvist had 10 goals for the Devils, it took him 17 and nine games to get on the scoresheet for the team. Hopefully, by getting on the board early and often, Boqvist can get going on a big year, as he has historically been a high-percentage shooter when he actually gets shots on goal.
Keep Your Stick Down
I was incensed by Evan Rodrigues’s spearing penalty on Marco Rossi at the end of the second period. I was sure it was going to be called a five-minute major, as Rodrigues made direct contact with Rossi during the incident. I was angry for three reasons. First and foremost, Evan Rodrigues is 33 years old. He should know better. Second, the Devils had just gone up three goals. Putting his team at risk of having to kill a five-minute major penalty was incredibly thoughtless of Rodrigues. Third, I would hate to see a team take runs at the Devils’ stars because a bottom six player made a really bad decision.
Thankfully, for the Devils, the Canucks looked like they wanted no part of making the Devils pay for what Rodrigues did. And for that matter, the only Canuck who really gave it to Rodrigues was Paul Cotter, who threw a big check on him and seemed ready to get going with a fight. If this incident were flipped, where a Devils player was speared and the team did not fight afterwards for him, I could not imagine how upset this board would be at the lack of toughness on display by the team. So, I am not sure how Canucks fans are feeling right now, but I was shocked that nobody even tried to drop the gloves on Rodrigues or really rough him up after a whistle. He got away with it this time, but I would hope that this never repeats as long as he’s a Devil.
Your Thoughts
But what did you think of this afternoon’s game? Did you think the Devils missed some opportunities? What did you think of the late-second period lull before the power play? What did you think of the spearing penalty? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and thanks for reading.
