Thursday night at The Rock was a heavyweight showdown to start the season. The New Jersey Devils entered with 18 points and a .692 points percentage, both leaders in the Metropolitan Division. Their opponents, the Montreal Canadiens, entered with 19 points and a .731 points percentage, both first 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 many twists, many turns and, finally, a Jesper Bratt goal in overtime to lift the Devils to a 4-3 victory.
Let’s go back to the beginning, we’ll go back to Bratt’s heroics. The night started out as well as expected, 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. But it wasn’t Glass’ defense that made the difference from the start, it was his offense. Before the game was two minutes old, Glass fired a sickening shot past Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes for a very early 1-0 lead. This was especially good news considering New Jersey started the night 6-0-0 in games where they scored first (spoiler alert: they would leave the score 7-0-0). It was great to see Glass back in the lineup, and even more encouraging to see him produce so soon after returning.
But the very good vibes would not last long. One minute and six seconds later, the Canadiens would tie the game on one of the most fortuitous plays you’ll ever see. Noah Dobson picked up a loose puck along the back wall and threw it near the net. His shot bounced off Kirby Dach and soared into the air, so high that no one on the ice knew where the puck was. So where was he exactly? As it happened, he hit an absolutely perfect rebound, fluttering over Jacob Markstrom and into the net. It was a magic bullet and it cost New Jersey its lead.
From there, the game calmed down. New Jersey was the better team for the rest of the first period and into the second, but they just couldn’t finish the plays. If the Devils had lost tonight, one of the big stories for me would have been the many golden opportunities they barely missed. There were numerous times tonight where a Devils player made a pass that would have given a teammate a five-alarm opportunity, but the pass was skidded or hit the wrong side of a stick or he fumbled the ball outright. Something always seemed to happen to thwart a great New Jersey opportunity, and if the Devils had been a little sharper tonight, we could have been looking for a lopsided victory. Instead, we bit our nails, and while those missed opportunities and unfortunate hits wouldn’t have been the only reason they lost, they would have been a big part of the story. Fortunately, New Jersey left it as a moot point.
Eight minutes into the second half, the Devils finally broke through. Simon Nemec activated on the right wing and shot towards the net. The ball bounced behind the net and made a pass from Elias-ian to Ondrej Palat right in front, who scored to put the Devils ahead.
No, nothing you just read is inaccurate. Palat actually scored a goal. For the demons. In a game that counted. Of course, Nemec did the heavy lifting, but you have to give Palat credit for finally burying one. He also seemed very relieved and I don’t blame him. It’s ironic that Palat managed to find his scoring touch after being pulled off the Hughes-Bratt line. But no one is complaining, it was a great goal.
And by the way, I’m hardly exaggerating when I describe Nemec’s assistance as Elias-ian:
This is one of my favorite goals of all time. There are obviously some differences, but Elias’s pass here bears a striking resemblance to Nemec’s pass to Palat. Now, if Nemec can also make this play in Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final, then we’d really have something brewing 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 fired a no-shot into the net. Somehow, Markstrom let it slip under his pads and got into a tiring goal. I don’t blame Markstrom for the first goal of the night; As I already mentioned, it was a fortuitous move. This, 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 from the start in the third.
Then, almost exactly halfway through the period, Oliver Kapanen gave Montreal the lead. Alex Newhook fired a soft shot at Markstrom from a tough angle, and Markstrom coughed up a room service rebound right to Kapanen in front, who put a backhander home for a 3-2 Canadiens lead. It was another easily avoidable goal, and while the Devils weren’t dominating the game against 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 defense. They packed the house in front of their goaltender, blocked a million shots, deflected a million passes, and sent a million dunks deep into the Devils’ zone. Time was running out and it looked like New Jersey was headed for a very frustrating loss. But with an empty goal in the final minutes of the match, Timo Meier broke through. Meier had gone nine games without scoring a goal, something we have seen too often 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 with just over a minute left, Jack Hughes threw a pass into the box, Dawson Mercer and several Canadians pushed it, and it reached Meier on the side of the cage, and he beat him past an outstretched Dobes to tie the game at three. It was a huge goal and secured at least one point for the Devils.
Then in overtime, Nico Hischier won the opening faceoff and New Jersey basically never turned the puck over. Montreal had a chance on possession, but it was quickly shut down thanks to a great defensive play by Meier. He stopped Newhook inside the Devils’ blue line, allowing Bratt to dive for the food and skate alone over Dobes to escape. Bratt hit his backhand, hit a five-hole shot and the New Jersey Devils walked away with a big 4-3 victory on their return from their West Coast trip.
It wasn’t a perfect game, but the Devils played well enough to win. They faded a little in the third, but after passing up so many chances, they took advantage of their last two opportunities. Meier got one point, Bratt got the other and the Devils will wake up tomorrow at the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com
Another game, another injury.
As fun as this victory was, it was not without some serious cause for concern. Dougie Hamilton left a few minutes into the second half and did not return for the rest of the game. According to Natural Stat Trick’s substitution chart, he took three substitutions in the second period before coming out, the last coming about five minutes into the frame.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t give us any updates on Hamilton after the game other than to say he will be evaluated tomorrow. NJ.com’s Ryan Novozinsky says it’s a lower-body injury, so there’s that.
Unfortunately, Hamilton’s time in New Jersey has been marred by injuries since arriving 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 (leave that for a second). Fingers crossed for some good news on Hamilton tomorrow.
During tonight’s game, we also got this little nugget thanks to the magic of social media:
So… yes. Don’t expect Pesce to return anytime soon.
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 paid him $9 million 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, unfortunately, Hughes not being able to get to the net is starting to become a big deal:
According to Natural Stat Trick, Hughes had four shot attempts tonight. He finished with zero shots on goal. Every one of his shots tonight was either blocked or missed the net.
Taking a look at his hockey reference page, before tonight’s game, Hughes took 23 shots on goal in 68 total shot attempts. Take 23 shots on goal in 72 total attempts, meaning only 32% of your shot attempts reach the goalkeeper. In comparison, Hamilton is up as much as 44% after tonight. Considering Hamilton is the player we all hope Hughes replaces 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 took 121 shots on goal in 328 attempts last season (37%) and 135 shots on goal in 401 attempts his rookie year (34%). If Hughes is truly going to ascend to the upper echelon of NHL defensemen, he needs to start figuring out how to avoid shin pads when shooting the puck.
Some matchups are 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 teams. Make it 17 of 21 after tonight. Montreal must see New Jersey in its nightmares.
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 be 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. We hope they can continue like this.
New Jersey returns to action on Saturday when it hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins in town. Set your alarms, drive delivery is scheduled for 12:30 p.m.
What did you think of tonight’s game? What is your level of concern about Dougie Hamilton’s injury? What about Jacob Markstrom’s work? Who the hell impressed you the most tonight? As always, thanks for reading!