Devils 3, Sharks 1: Smooth sailing

The New Jersey Devils picked up their 7th consecutive win against the San Jose Sharks on Friday night.

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By JP Gambatese (@JP_Gambatese)

The New Jersey Devils extended their win streak to seven straight games, taking down the San Jose Sharks by a score of 3-1.

Let’s jump into some takeaways from the victory:

Second period resilience

Yet again, the Devils came out to a sleepy start – they have done so in each game outside of their victories over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Minnesota Wild. After getting outplayed in the first frame, though, the Devils came back with a vengeance.

As a team, the Devils controlled a whopping 98.07% of the expected goals in the second period, according to NaturalStatTrick.

They out-attempted San Jose 40-11 in the frame, outshooting them 13-0, outchancing them 22-2, and winning the high-danger-chance battle 9-0. Talk about dominant.

The majority of that – 2.03 of their 2.90 xG in the period – came on the man advantage, where seemingly now-permanent PP1 quarterback Dougie Hamilton scored twice.

The power play was humming all night, with flawless pass execution and puck management headlining the period. The Sharks simply couldn’t get it out of their zone, and the ever-opportunistic Devils’ man advantage smelled blood in the water from the get go.

Even at even strength, New Jersey dominated, controlling nearly 93% of the xG. It’s continually encouraging to see the team bounce back from their sloppy beginnings on a nightly basis, even if, in theory, it would be nice if they didn’t have to do so in the first place.

The resilience of this squad, and the vibes that this resilience is giving them, are immaculate.

A tale of two bottom-6 lines