There’s always a lesson to be learned. Sometimes, you just have to look for it.

Tuesday night at Prudential Center, the Devils hosted the Penguins in a game that didn’t appear to have many lessons on the surface. But if you dig a bit deeper, you’ll find that both teams can learn something from each other. Tuesday night’s 5-2 Devils’ victory, further underscored the point that there’s always a lesson to learn.

But first, before we break down the lessons these two teams should pay attention to, let’s delve into the action that occurred on the ice.

The Devils got off to a fast start when Timo Meier managed to win a puck battle in the corner; seconds into the first period. Meier sent the puck cross-ice to Nico Hischier, who rang it off the pipe in as close a near-miss as you can have. New Jersey kept the pressure on Pittsburgh and eventually broke through 5:35 into the game. Dawson Mercer split two Penguins defenders – including former Devils teammate Ryan Graves – and dangled the puck before sliding the rubber biscuit through Tristan Jarry’s legs to give the Devils a 1-0 lead. (Graves may have inadvertently knocked the puck through Jarry’s legs after it came off Mercer’s stick).  

Both teams had issues holding onto the puck in the early-going, but there were no other goals scored during the opening period of play. That’s not for lack of trying though as Jake Allen – making his first start in Newark as a Devil – made two incredible sprawling saves to rob Sidney Crosby of a sure-fire goal 18:40 into the first period. 

Simon Nemec followed Nico Hischier’s lead from the first period when he wired a shot off the post seconds into the middle period. From there, it was the Jake Allen Show. Evoking images and memories of years gone by, Allen made save after save, some in spectacular fashion, as he had Devils fans wondering what might have been had the team acquired him earlier in the season. Of course, those dreams briefly went away with 12:44 left in the second period as Marcus Pettersson rifled a shot from the point through traffic to tie the game 1-1. 

Timo Meier brought those dreams back when he scored a power-play goal with 5:40 to go in the middle period to give the home team a 2-1 lead. Oh, and for those who missed it, Allen robbed Crosby, again and again in spectacular fashion. 

The third period couldn’t quite maintain the same break-neck pace that was established through the first 40 minutes of play but it was the period with the most goals scored. Alexander Holtz, Mercer (his second of the game), and Timo Meier (his second power-play goal of the game) all scored in a span of less than eight minutes to balloon New Jersey’s 2-1 advantage into a commanding 5-1 lead. They did give one back with under three minutes to go when Bryan Rust scored to make it 5-2, but that was as far as Pittsburgh got on the comeback trail. The Devils earned a solid win over a talented team and kept their faint playoff hopes alive – for at least one more game.

Now, for those lessons, I mentioned earlier…

First off, even though the Devils and Penguins appear to be headed in opposite directions, New Jersey is just beginning its upswing, while Pittsburgh is on its downturn, they actually have a lot in common.

Both teams have a Batman-Robin duo, or, in New Jersey’s case, a peanut butter-jelly duo. Although, now that I think about it, Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier are more similar to Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin than Hughes and Jesper Bratt are. So, maybe we have a little Justice League thing going on. Perhaps Hughes can be Superman while Hischier and Bratt can be Batman-Robin? Or maybe we stick with the sandwich analogy and make the trio a BLT. 

Either way, both franchises have the benefit of employing two – or more – supremely talented forwards who can be counted on to lead the team’s offense.  

One thing New Jersey has to watch out for is to not let loyalty get in the way of its decision-making process. Pittsburgh gave Malkin and Kris Letang multi-year contract extensions that will ultimately hinder the team’s ability to improve. In the case of Malkin, it’s already happening. 

The Devils are not yet guilty of this, but you can imagine a future in which some tough decisions have to be made and GM Tom Fitzgerald and his staff have to decide who to keep and who to let go. 

Another lesson is to not think of your goalie, or goalies, as a luxury. There’s word out of Pittsburgh that Tristan Jarry could potentially be on the move this offseason. Now, he’s not exactly a Vezina caliber netminder, but he’s a solid Number One. With the Penguins heading for a re-tool, if not a full on rebuild, they might feel that having a goalie locked in with a cap hit of $5.375M through the 2027-28 season is not the best allocation of funds. A luxury even. 

But if you ask the Devils, they’d sign up for that in a heartbeat since they haven’t received steady goaltending since the days of Cory Schneider manning the pipes. (Specifically, when Schneider was healthy). Had New Jersey either developed or acquired a steady Number One, they might have been able to accelerate their rebuild and perhaps they’d be further along in their competitive curve. 

Pittsburgh has won three Cups during the Crosby/Malkin Era. Clearly, they’ve done things right. But that’s in the past. However, the way the Penguins went about supporting their superstars is a lesson the Devils need to learn.

No matter how talented or skilled a player or players are, you need more in order to win when it counts. New Jersey doesn’t currently have any “character” guys on its roster. There’s not much grit or size. The defense is skilled, but not overly physical. The Penguins learned these lessons years ago and brought in players who had those attributes. They didn’t win The Cup every year, but three times is a pretty nice feat. It would behoove the Devils to take a good hard look at their roster and make the necessary changes.

On the flip side of this, Pittsburgh should look at how the Devils went about collecting good young talent and how they gave those players a chance to mature at the NHL level. They say the NHL isn’t a developmental league and while that’s true to an extent, very rarely does a player enter The League as a finished product, so, clearly, some development does take place at the NHL level.

All in all, this is an example of how sports are like a Boom and Bust economy. One team is on top, while the other is on the bottom. Over time, the one on top will falter and the one on the bottom will rise. Then they’ll switch places and the cycle starts over.

For the Penguins and the Devils, they need to learn from each other in order to better themselves. And that’s a lesson that’s always worth learning.