The New Jersey Devils scored a big win in the latest installment of the Hudson River Rivalry. But the most encouraging aspect of the game wasn’t their seven-goal outburst. 

Thursday night, at Prudential Center, the Garden Staters hosted their cross-river rivals, the New York Rangers, in the earliest meeting between the teams since the 2020-21 season. The Devils skated away with a 7-1 victory that was powered by a four-goal second period, strong goaltending and the team’s execution of its game plan.

Nico Daws started in net for New Jersey, stopping 18 of the 19 shots he faced, falling just a Pavel Dorofeyev power-play goal 8:02 into the third period shy of a shutout. He was opposed by New York’s Dylan Garand, who gave up four goals on 13 shots before being pulled 4:39 into the second period. Garand was replaced by Spencer Martin, who gave up three goals on 18 shots.

The Devils are hoping that Daws grabs the reins in net, so they can have a more traditional goaltender split. Before Thursday, Jake Allen had been the better of the two. 

“Nico’s been up here playing good and it’s nice to get a win for the goalie,” Dawson Mercer explained. “Obviously, give him that confidence. He had a good, strong showing here and obviously it would have been nice to give him that shout-out, but I’m sure he’ll get a lot more of those.”

“Great for him to get a win,” Keefe said. “Great for him to get us out of that first period clean. We didn’t give up very much, both teams. That was very hard checking the first period. The way the first period went, I mean, I don’t think either team would have expected the second period to blow open like that, because it was so tight in the first. But Daws got us through that.”

Both teams came into the game following wins during The NHL’s Frozen Frenzy on Tuesday night. However, each team still has plenty of questions it needs to answer. On Thursday night, New Jersey may have found a few.

“I would say no one in The League is the best version of themselves yet,” Jack Hughes told Devils Team Reporter Amanda Stein Thursday morning. “It’s so early, but we’ve just got to continue to work at what we’re trying to do. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

“I don’t think we’ve played nearly our best hockey,” Hughes continued. “If this group wants to go where it wants to go, we will have to pick our game up a lot. Six games in, we’re getting our feet under us. Tonight will be a great test for us.”

Game number seven was far and away the Devils’ best of the young season. Seven different skaters tallied multipoint performances. Three different defensemen had two-point nights, including a two-goal outburst from Luke Hughes. 

“For us, it starts in the D-zone,” Luke Hughes said. “Try to get out of our D-zone as fast as possible and defend and not give anything up. (Brett Pesce) He’s a great partner for me and he’s always looking for me in the offensive zone, so it’s nice for him to get rewarded tonight.”

The only forwards without a point were Jesper Bratt, Jesper Boqvist and Anthony Mantha. 

“When you get a game like this and the guys execute at a high level, and again, I’m not just focused on the offense and the puck going in,” Head Coach Sheldon Keefe explained after his 300th win. “I went back in the first period and there wasn’t a whole lot happening. But I went back and I watched every one of our D-zone coverage sequences in the first period, just little check-ins: how are we doing, how we need to tighten up, what it would look like. 

“There’s some things to clean up there, but I thought it was night-and-day difference from what we had in Detroit, from a structure standpoint. A lot of that is just the way the players are moving, skating, working, getting to spots. The urgency. They recognize it was a big game and they recognize what it can look like when they play like that.”

While New Jersey’s defensive structure was better, its special teams still need work. The Devils’ power-play came into the game against the Rangers sporting a 5-for-21 mark on the season and their penalty-kill came in at 12-for-17. After the game, those season marks stand at 5-for-25 on the power-play and 15-for-21 on the penalty-kill.

In the first period against the Blueshirts, while Kovacevic and Will Cuylle were in their respective penalty boxes following a brief fight, the Devils were granted a full, two-minute, five-on-three power-play. Noah Laba slashed Jack Hughes and Marcus Pettersson was called for holding Mercer.

However, New Jersey’s power-play couldn’t get anything going, as has been the story for five of their first six games. Less than a minute after Laba and Pettersson came out of the box, Jonas Siegenthaler went to the box for tripping rookie Alberts Smits. Unlike their power-play, New Jersey’s penalty-kill came through, allowing just a single shot on goal. 

“Our power-play was no good,” Keefe said. “And then our penalty-kill had to come out and do a job.”

Despite their continued struggles on special teams, the Devils showed how difficult they can be to beat with their strong five-on-five play. However, they still have questions that need answering. 

Jonathan Kovacevic made his season debut Tuesday against Detroit, which was a welcome return for New Jersey’s blue line, but it also meant that somebody had to come out. For two games in a row, that person has been Brenden Dillon. The veteran defenseman has not been bad and even has positive possession metrics, like a 58.0 CF% (all situations). However, his Relative Corsi percentage at five-on-five is -8.3%. That means the Devils’ shot-attempt share is actually worse with him on the ice than when he’s on the bench. 

Plus, Keefe seems to prefer playing Declan Chisholm, whom he told Stein Thursday morning, “I think it’s less about what (Chisholm’s) done, quite honestly and it’s what we think he can do. I think he’s a guy that was brought in here. There’s great belief about what he can bring and (we) want to give him (the) opportunity to play every day and get confident and comfortable.”

“The fact that he can skate the puck out in transition, get us out of trouble on our own end and through the neutral zone, just have a little bit better puck movement coming throughout our D core,” Keefe continued. “We think he can help us in that regard and I think he has. But it’s a work in progress. We’re going to keep looking at it. But I think, with a guy like him that you brought in that’s trying to evolve and sort of step into a role and get some traction in The League, we want to give him an opportunity to do so…So, it’s just natural with Kovi coming in, the numbers game, Dilly is the guy to come out.”

Chisholm’s all-situations CF% is roughly 59%, so not much different than Dillon’s. However, unlike Dillon, his Relative Corsi percentage at five-on-five is +1.7%, meaning the Devils have a better shot-attempt share with him on the ice than on the bench. 

Another thing New Jersey needs to figure out is its forward lines. Anthony Mantha started the season with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. And while Keefe has repeatedly said it would take time for anyone to adjust to how Hughes and Bratt play, he still made the move in Detroit to swap Mantha with Arseny Gritsyuk, who had been playing with Evan Rodrigues and either Dawson Mercer or Stefan Noesen. Those moves remained intact against the Rangers.

When Luke Evangelista recovers from the illness that has kept him out the last two games, one of Amadeus Lombardi, Jesper Boqvist, or Noesen is going to end up coming out, with Noesen being the most likely. Plus, when Connor Brown comes back from IR, he is going to draw into the lineup, meaning that another player has to come out, with the choice likely being between Lombardi and Boqvist. 

Although the Devils’ lineup remains a work in progress, Thursday’s game showed what they can look like when they fire on all cylinders. 

As time wound down in the opening period, J.T. Miller turned the puck over in New York’s zone. Evan Rodrigues picked off the errant pass and sniped the puck past Garand with 30 seconds to go to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. 

“We knew it’s a big game,” Nico Hischier explained. “I think the Rangers came in here feeling good and we’re still trying to find our game. That one felt good. We came out, executed and did what we wanted to do and played a 60-minute hockey game.”

Then, 18 seconds into the second period, a short Timo Meier pass to Luke Hughes at the point turned into New Jersey’s second goal after Hughes’ shot deflected off a Ranger stick. Less than four minutes later, Meier’s shot went right to Nico Hischier at the left side of New York’s net. New Jersey’s Captain poked it past Garand and the Devils led 3-0.

That goal was a historic one for Hischier, who broke a tie with Travis Zajac and Bobby Holik for third-place on the Devils All-Time goal-scoring list. 

“Makes me a little proud,” Hischier said. “But, for me, I’d rather get a fourth Stanley Cup for this franchise. Obviously, I’ve worked really hard to get to this point, but I’m not done. I still wanna keep working hard and like I said last time, with my 200th goal, I feel (there’s) more to come and I just wanna bring this team somewhere.”

31 seconds after Hischier’s tally, a Jack Hughes shot rebounded out to Gritsyuk, who sniped it home from the bottom of the right face-off circle to give the Devils a 4-0 lead. 

The Devils added a fifth goal when Luke Hughes scored his second of the game at 16:34 of the second period. The youngest Hughes brother skated around the zone, carrying the puck, worked his way down low and came in on Spencer Martin. His shot beat Martin blocker side for a highlight-reel tally, marking the first two-goal game of his NHL career. 

Stefan Noesen scored his first goal of the season 7:01 into the third period to put the Devils up 6-0. Dorofeyev’s power-play goal a minute later broke up Daws’ shutout. Almost seven minutes later, Cody Glass scored a short-handed goal to put the Devils up 7-1 and complete the scoring.

“To see them get rewarded through it, you just hope that that sticks now,” Keefe said about his team’s performance. “That’s on us as coaches to continue to reinforce it and hold them to that standard. Not easy to do through 84 games. Every night’s not gonna always be perfect, but there’s a certain standard of play and structure that’s required to give us a chance to win.”