Devils 4, Blue Jackets 3: Timo Time

Timo Meier scored a well deserved OT winner after Luke Hughes came to the rescue late in regulation.

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A few observations from New Jersey’s overtime victory over Columbus:

Timo Meier is back

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me Timo f**king Meier. While everyone was listening to holiday music, that was the theme song for the Devils in recent weeks.

Although there were plenty of items on the team’s wish list (staying healthy, getting better goaltending, etc.), the highest paid forward on the team looking anywhere close to that caliber had to be at or near the top.

Just three games ago Meier was producing at a 18-goal, 39-point pace over 82 games and looked like a shell of his usual self. That’s not exactly what the team was hoping for from the star winger in the first year of a $70,400,000 million contract.

To Meier’s credit, though, he has looked better and more assertive in recent games. The effort we saw from him on Wednesday night might’ve been the best of the season.

Meier looked reinvigorated and refreshed following a few days off. I don’t know if the extra time allowed him to heal some bumps and bruises, or provided him with a necessary mental reset, but he was a completely different player against the Blue Jackets.

Meier was very impactful and everything he did flashed the rare combo of power and speed he possesses. He generated good speed through the neutral zone, he drove the net hard, and he consistently worked pucks into that area.

Even his overtime winner stemmed from straight power and brute force. He wasn’t able to put the puck where he wanted and it didn’t matter. There was so much torque on the release that it went right through Elvis Merzlikins, even though he was there to make the save.

It was a well deserved reward for Meier, who was one of the best players on the ice all night. He generated eight shot attempts and four scoring chances despite logging only 55 seconds on the power play.

Almost all of his damage was done at 5v5, where he posted a 74 xGF% and really threatened offensively.

It was a great performance from Meier, who has scored four goals over his past three games. Hopefully a sign of things to come.

Devils ‘depth’ stepped up