- The Matchup: St. Louis Blues (7-7-1) @ New Jersey Devils (10-5-0)
- The Time: 7:00 pm EST
- The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN — Devils Hockey Radio
Last Devils Game
On Election Day, the Devils faced off against the 2nd best team in the league, the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers came into town with an impressive 11-2-2 record and the best player in the world working on possibly hitting 200 points in a season; something not seen in the NHL since the days of Wayne Gretzky. There were Devils fans that were sure their team could defeat the Oilers, but at the same time, no one would have blamed you for being scared of an Oilers team on fire heading into this game.
Connor
Hellebuyck started in net for the Devils, marking his first appearance before the home crowd. The teams came out ready to play, and while the Devils outshot the Oilers in the first period, it was the Oilers who would strike first on the scoreboard, taking a 1-0 lead on a goal from Evan Bouchard at 8:29 in the period. The Devils did not let this minor setback deter them however, scoring 3 unanswered goals in the 2nd period in less than 10 minutes, including a power play goal (!!!) and 2 back to back goals by Hughes II. The Oilers eventually tied the game up on a power play goal from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins late in the 2nd period and another power play goal from Leon Draisaitl in the 3rd period, sending the game to overtime.
After a scoreless overtime period featuring a lot of open ice for a lot of talented players, the game would go to the horrible shootout. Jack Hughes was stopped in the first round before McDavid scored to put the Oilers up 1-0. Jesper Bratt would get the Devils on the board, tying it up in the 2nd round. From there, Hellebuyck closed the door and Arseny Gritsyuk gave the Devils a win in the 4th round with a beautiful goal. And there was much rejoicing!
Last Blues Game
On Tuesday the St. Louis Blues faced off against the New York Rangers in the world’s most overrated arena. It was their 2nd game in their current 4 game road trip and they headed into New York holding a winning (just barely) record of 7-6-1. The Rangers jumped out to an early lead, with a goal from Adam “New York or Bust!” Fox scoring less than 2 minutes into the first period. The teams went scoreless in the 2nd period before the Rangers put the game out of reach with 2 more goals less than 10 minutes apart in the 3rd period to go up 3-0. The Blues scored a meaningless goal at 19:01 of the 3rd period to end the game at 3-1, dropping their record to 7-7-1.
Joe Hoefer started in net for the Blues and took the loss to drop his record this season to 6-4-1. However, he does hold a respectable 2.39 GAA and a .918 SV%. Jordan Binnington has only started 4 games for the Blue so far this season, sporting a horrible record of 1-3-0 with a 4.11 GAA and a .846 SV%.
Injuries, Roster for Tonight, Yada, Yada, Yada.
Per Kristy Flannery, the Devils were off on Wednesday, so we will have to wait until today to get a better idea if there are going to be any changes to the roster for tonight’s game.
Grimace’s Prediction and 2026-2027 Record Tracker
Well folks, it was only matter of time before Grimace got back into the win column. His prediction against the Dallas Stars came true as the answers truly were “in the living room.” He is feeling confident these days and has predicted another win tonight against the Blues. As he mentioned to me in his best Austin Powers impression “The St. Louis Blues will certainly have the blues after the game tonight….you get it…because they’re the Blues, and they will be sad….because they are gonna’ lose….”
Grimace’s 2026-2027 Season Prediction record currently stands at 2-3.
Your Take
For right now, the Devils are on a roll. They have 8 wins in their last 10 games and so far Hellebuyck is a perfect 3-0. Obviously he will lose a game at some point and the Devils will not continue to win at an .800 winning percentage for the rest of the season. At the same time, this is starting to feel different than previous seasons. Jackson wrote a post recently about hot starts by the Devils in prior seasons which you can read here, but I have to say that personally, I am feeling confident that maybe this year, things will finally start to change with some consistency.
In a shameless bit of non hockey related self promotion (approved by Chris – thanks Chris), I wanted to plug my podcast on here, if any of you are interested in listening. We have a light hearted, fun discussion about any movies, music, or video games mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. Please feel free to listen to us on any of the formats below and any feedback is welcome (positive and negative). Also, please follow us and subscribe, even if you think we stink. :).
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