Devils 3, Flyers 1: Glass provides a spark

Cody Glass and the team's revamped 3rd line played a pivotal role in Sunday's win.

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The New Jersey Devils picked up a 3-1 win in Philadelphia on Sunday. Here are a few observations from the game:

Glass, revamped 3rd line impress

I loved what I saw out of Cody Glass in his debut. Outside of some faceoff struggles, which were mitigated by Erik Haula taking a lot of the draws, he played a complete game and did a lot of good things.

Offensively, he factored into a pair of goals. He scored the opener, finding himself in the right spot at the right time and ripping one past Ivan Fedotov to get the party started.

Although he had his assist taken away on the team’s 2nd goal, Glass drove the middle of the ice and caused some havoc, opening the door for Erik Haula to pounce and score what turned out to be the game-winning goal.

What I loved most were the details in Glass’ game and the off-puck play. He was always back down low to support the defense and give them an easy breakout pass to get out of the zone.

It was the same deal navigating through the neutral zone. He attacked the middle of the ice and made his stick available for passes or deflections to get the Devils into the final 3rd.

It wasn’t groundbreaking stuff. It was just good, smart, connected hockey that helped the team a lot with its exits and play build-up.

With the tape Glass put out on Sunday, it’s easy to see how he led the Penguins with a 57 xGF%. He does a lot of little things right that don’t necessarily show up on the scoreboard.

He wasn’t a one-man show, though. I thought Haula looked good on the wing, getting his nose dirty all over the ice and helping create more offense than usual.

Daniel Sprong did exactly what he was supposed to do: shoot the puck. He had six shot contributions at 5v5 and, to nobody’s surprise, all six were shot attempts.

Sprong’s bread and butter is shooting the puck. If Haula and Glass can take care of the grunt work (board battles, play-driving, etc.) then Sprong will have the freedom to find space and put his shot to use, which is exactly what he did.

I’d give the line as a whole an A grade in its debut.

Jake Allen played his part