There’s a wagon rolling down Lafayette Avenue in Newark, New Jersey. The New Jersey Devils have won eight games in a row following Sunday’s victory against the Colorado Avalanche. Their current record sits at 8-1-0. They are currently tied for most points in the standings in the NHL (tied with the Utah Mammoth, who have played one more game, entering play on Tuesday). What is it that’s fueling the Devils success?
Going into Sunday the Devils had the best special teams in the league. That was calculated by an inaccurate, yet widely used old-time formula, of adding power play and penalty kill percentages. Ken Hitchcock’s rule of thumb was that the best teams had theirs add up to over 100. After Sunday's game the Devils sat at 124.5. Last season, they ended with a 110.9 and ranked top three in the league in both categories.
If we took away all the power play goal for the Devils during their eight game win streak, would any of them be a guaranteed loss? Their October 13th 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jacket featured two power plays goals and an empty net. That second Columbus goal was in the last thirty seconds of the third so with everything considered those goals were a result of the specific game factors.
The Devils would also score two power play goals in their win 3-1 win Friday over the San Jose Sharks. The third goal was an empty net goal as well. Just taking away the power play goals would give the Sharks a 1-0 advantage. Could have been a San Jose win, but a one-goal lead isn’t enough for us to say “yeah Sharks would have definitely won if New Jersey couldn’t convert on the man advantage”.
The Devils' first game of the season remains their only loss, a 6-3 drumming at the Carolina Hurricanes. That game was tied until Seth Jarvis scored at the 17:17 mark of the third so the Devils were pretty close to at least leaving with a point. Carolina has been a house of horrors for the Devils in recent seasons, especially in the playoffs. If they can finally slay that dragon it might be an intangible and unmeasurable step toward this group doing something special.
Injury luck has not been on the Devils' side either. Evgenii Dadonov, who was supposed to balance scoring especially in the bottom nine, was injured with a fractured hand. Jakob Markstrom had to make a cameo appearance against Columbus and found himself on the injured list before returning to the bench on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, Brett Pesce was injured in what head coach Sheldon Keefe said was “not great” and he would not be traveling to the team. Jonathan Kovacevic has yet to play this season and Stefan Noesen just returned.
Pesce had been playing on the Devils top defensive pairing with Luke Hughes who himself had a delayed start to training camp because of a contract dispute. Top defensive prospect Seamus Casey was recalled on Sunday. Casey also spent time early this season injured. Fellow defender Brendan Dillon returned from offseason neck surgery and has been a pleasant surprise. Jake Allen has become the defacto number one since Markstrom’s injury and currently has 3.40 goals saved above expected. That’s good for 15th in the league.
The Devils return to action on Tuesday when they return the favor and play the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. They might see old friend Scott Wedgewood in net. Colorado’s crease is manned by a tandem of former Devils in Mackenzie Blackwood and Wedgewood, yet the former is currently out with an injury while Wedgewood has filled in admirably and found himself as the league’s third star last week. Guess who’s the third star for this week? That would be Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils.