You’re not a “team” just because you play together. There’s so much more that goes into being a “true team.” Players spend so much time on the road that they see each other more than their actual families. Sure, you’re not always going to like every person you play with, but you need to have a certain camaraderie between teammates if the group is to truly gel and function as one.

Friday afternoon (it was Nevada Day), at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the New Jersey Devils visited the Vegas Golden Knights to end their three-game/four-night road trip. The final score, a 5-2 Devils victory, meant the Garden Staters finished the trip 2-1-0. The outcome was fueled by two-goal performances from Arseny Gritsyuk and Jack Hughes, along with a goal from Luke Hughes and a 19-save showing from Connor Hellebuyck, who started for the second time on the trip. 

Opposite Hellebuyck, in Vegas’ net, was Adin Hill, who stopped 27 of the 31 shots he faced.

Considering how badly things went for the Devils in the second and third periods of their game in Colorado, it was important for New Jersey to turn the page and show what type of team it truly is against Vegas, which is no easy task. 

“It’s been a tough road trip in terms of competition,” Devils Head Coach Sheldon Keefe said before the game. “The travel, great distances, three different time zones, all that kind of stuff…But I think we’ve had ample opportunity to both get some rest and push past the Colorado game.”

This week saw the Devils go to Dallas, Colorado and Vegas for their first multi-city trip of the season. It was also the first time for the team to get in some quality bonding time, which is something the players talked about quite a bit before the trek began.

“That’s the most encouraging sign,” Keefe explained. “It’s another reason, probably the biggest reason, why you just push past the game the other night; you just believe in the group and the work that they’ve been doing, how they’ve been coming together as a team. Time spent together on this road trip, I think, just goes a long way to really cement that. 

“We’ll see what it brings on the ice here today. But regardless of that, I think not just the road trip, but even the homestand before coming out here, puts our team in a greater place than it’s been. And that’s what’s exciting when you think about the fact that this is a long season and we gotta keep building, which I believe we absolutely have done.”

On the ice, New Jersey started strong. After Jesper Boqvist won a three-on-one puck battle in the corner, Anthony Mantha teed up Luke Hughes, who blasted the puck past Hill to give the Devils a 1-0 lead at 5:38 of the first period. 

The visitors briefly faltered late in the opening period. It started when Luke Evangelista was called for tripping Mitch Marner at 16:21 of the first period. Six seconds into New Jersey’s first penalty-kill of the game, Marner’s shot from the point was deflected by Mark Stone and the game was tied 1-1. 1:30 later, Marner set up Ivan Barbashev on the backdoor for the easy tap-in goal, giving the Golden Knights a 2-1 lead.

“I thought the penalty kill; we win a face-off and all of a sudden, five seconds later, it’s in our net,” Keefe said. “Not great there on the penalty-kill. And then we had a couple not great plays that led to them getting their second one.”

Part of truly being a team is picking each other up and responding when the situation calls for it. With the momentum having shifted squarely in Vegas’ favor, Arseny Gritsyuk waited out Hill and sniped the puck into the net to tie the game 2-2 at 18:51 of the first period. 

“Game-changing play,” Keefe said after the game. “Speaks to the mindset of our team.”

Gritsyuk’s goal restored order for the Devils and allowed them to go into the first intermission even, rather than down. 

“So important,” Gritsyuk said. “Because we lose goal before our shift and Sheldon tell us we need hard shift and we do this shift with just one minute and go to scoring goal. It happened and we go to, after first period, 2-2. It’s new game.”

“We have a belief in ourselves,” Luke Hughes added. “Even when it’s 2-2, we’re in here and we’re talking and we’re talking about the game and we’re having fun. So it’s a big part of our group and we just gotta keep having fun.”

Feeding off that momentum, Jack Hughes undressed Mark Stone to score a wicked goal 3:49 into the second period. Jesper Bratt fed Hughes, who passed the puck through Stone’s legs to himself and then fired a wrist shot past Hill to give the Devils a 3-2 lead. 

“Just kind of caught them gapping up,” Jack Hughes said. “Obviously, a good play and good goal.”

New Jersey continued to build off that as they held the Golden Knights shotless for a long stretch of the period. And then, with 1:44 left in the middle period, Gritsyuk fired a shot on net, got his own rebound and backhanded the puck past Hill for his second goal of the game, giving the Devils a 4-2 lead going into the third period. 

The visitors clamped down from there and held the Golden Knights to just six shots on goal in the third period. Jack Hughes’ empty-netter with 2:51 left in the third salted the game away.

“We have a lot of fun together,” Luke Hughes said about the Devils players. “We got a lot of vocal guys in the locker room and it’s a cool group of guys. I think every team you’re on, there’s a bond. This team’s done a really good job of just having fun.”