Centers, they’re among the most important people on a hockey team. Sure, it’s important to have stout goaltenders, a steady defense and the ability to roll four lines, but centers are usually the drivers of their lines and it helps when each of your pivots is strong at what they do. Most NHL teams spend years attempting to find a top-line center to lead the way. If that top-line center becomes a franchise cornerstone, it’s a home run for the team. The ultimate reward is when TWO of your centers become franchise cornerstones. That can set a team up for sustained success for a VERY long time.

Saturday night, the New Jersey Devils hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins in an affair that featured not one, but TWO franchise cornerstone centers on EACH team. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin led their Penguins teammates into battle against the Devils’ Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier and Company. The final score was a 3-0 victory for New Jersey. 

In the battle between the Crosby-Malkin and Hughes-Hischier duos, it was the latter who performed best. Nico Hischier factored on all three goals by recording one goal and two assists and he also won 52.2% of his face-offs, with most of those coming against Sidney Crosby. 

“We scout every face-off from the opponent,” Hischier said after the game. “Matching up with Crosby, he’s obviously a great face-off guy and I just tried to beat him in a way that I felt most comfortable. Had a plan and executed it. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t.”

Aside from Hischier’s performance, Stefan Noesen scored the first goal of the game, which doubled as his career-high 15th of the season, Timo Meier had a two-point night (1G, 1A) and Jacob Markstrom made 12 saves to pitch his second shutout of the season. The 12 shots allowed were the fewest the Devils have allowed in a game this year and it also marked their sixth consecutive game allowing 20 or fewer shots on goal; a feat they last accomplished during the 1998-99 season. 

Now, getting back to our franchise centers…

Crosby, whenever he decides to hang up his skates, is going to be forever remembered as one of the greatest to ever play the game of hockey. It almost feels like an understatement to just refer to him as a future Hall of Famer. Of course, that’s not to put down or diminish anyone who’s currently in The Hall or will someday be inducted. Crosby is just that good. There’s no denying he’s a franchise cornerstone for the Penguins and has been for two decades. 

Malkin is a future Hall of Famer. He’s been a franchise cornerstone for Pittsburgh for practically the same amount of time as Crosby. And yet, for as great as Malkin’s been, he’ll always be remembered as second to Crosby. 

Hughes is an electric dynamo for the Devils. He’s put together some truly remarkable stats and accomplishments that have him already being mentioned alongside the greatest players in New Jersey’s history. He’s nowhere close to a future Hall of Famer, yet, but if he stays healthy and continues to produce at the rates he does, he’s going to have a very compelling case one day. 

Hischier is New Jersey’s Captain, just like Crosby is for Pittsburgh. Hischier is the heart of the Devils and wears that responsibility well. He’s not the flashiest player, but he’s developed into an excellent two-way player who can carry a team for stretches. The last two seasons have seen Hischier take his game to another level. Before the 2022-23 season, he may not have been considered a franchise cornerstone for the Devils. But NOW? Now, there’s NO DOUBT. He’s a franchise cornerstone through and through. 

In this era of hockey, having two centers, who are both franchise cornerstones, on the same team, is the dream. 

Pittsburgh has benefitted from having Crosby and Malkin together for 19 seasons. They brought the Penguins back from the brink of disaster and combined to lead Pittsburgh to three Stanley Cup Championships. 

New Jersey has had Hughes and Hischier together for six years and just one playoff appearance so far. With the way the 2024-25 season is going, it looks like they’ll be adding another playoff run to their ledger and should be primed to make many more over the next decade. Theirs is a story still being written. But the Crosby-Malkin blueprint is one Hughes and Hischier can follow to perhaps etch their own names in the lore of hockey history when their time comes. 

Getting back to the rest of the Devils and Penguins in Saturday night’s contest, the first period was a tightly contested 20 minutes, with neither team mustering much in the way of offense. The second period followed the script from the first period, at least until the 17:32 mark. That’s when Hischier flew down to the right-wing corner, did a little spin move and passed the puck over to Noesen in the slot. In one motion, Noesen tapped the puck into the net past Tristan Jarry and it was 1-0 New Jersey. 

The next goal came 7:47 into the third period when Noesen did his best offensive lineman impersonation and took on two net-front defenders. This bought Hischier the time he needed to scoop up the loose puck and bang it home past Jarry to increase the Devils’ lead to 2-0. Meier salted the game away with an empty-net goal with just 1:33 left on the clock. 

“I saw Red,” Noesen panned about his two-on-one battle. I don’t really know what happened. We were just going toe-to-toe there. I actually thought I was about to fight. Whenever the goal went in, I was a little surprised. I don’t know if you saw some choice words outta my mouth, that was directed at one person in particular.”

“I don’t think we played our best game,” Hischier added in. “But I think Markstrom made some huge saves for us to keep us in the game and we just stuck with it.”

Stuck with it they did and now New Jersey looks ahead to a Monday afternoon matinee against their bitter rivals, the New York Rangers. As long as they stay disciplined they should be able to replicate Saturday’s result on Monday.