Devils 3, Blue Jackets 2: What a grind

It wasn't easy but, thanks to a goal in the dying seconds of regulation, the Devils earned themselves another two points.

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A few notes following New Jersey’s dramatic win over the Columbus Blue Jackets:

Nothing came easy

The Devils were the better team for much of the night but they were far from dominant. Simply put, they had a difficult time turning all of their time of possession into chances and, at times, even shots (the Blue Jackets blocked a ton).

Columbus rarely was caught off guard by stretch passes and they did a great job of taking away the middle of the ice. They allowed the Devils to have a lot of the puck; but they made it awfully difficult on the Devils to do anything with it.

New Jersey attempted 71 shots at 5v5, which was a season high. That translated into 13 high-danger chances and 2.82 expected goals. Solid numbers but nowhere close to the ceilings we’ve seen in either category.

A big reason for that was the Blue Jackets’ ability to turn everything into a grind. Devils skaters had to constantly fight through contact with the puck and it was a struggle to get to the paint.

This led to a lot of instances where the puck carriers simply had to defer to the point for low percentage garbage; exactly what the Blue Jackets wanted.

Hats off to the Devils for working with what they had, and getting the job done, but this kind of game really underlines how badly they need that one extra dynamic weapon up front.