Devils 4, Islanders 1: Back to .500

Led by the stars up front, New Jersey dominated from start to finish en route to a convincing victory. Let's comb through it.

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A few observations from New Jersey’s dominant win over the New York Islanders:

The Devils showed up for 60 minutes

It’s not an exaggeration to say that was one of the best performances, start to finish, the Devils have put together in recent memory.

They came out like everyone on the roster had chugged three red bulls before hitting the ice. The Devils were clean with their breakouts and flying through the neutral zone with possession. They cycled well, the passing was crisp, and the Islanders could barely touch the puck.

Whenever the Isles were able to regain possession, they were either too gassed to do anything with it or completely smothered by Devils before they even had the chance.

At one point shots on goal were 15-0 and the expected goals were something along the lines of 1.25 for NJ to 0.04 for NYI. It was an absolute beat down.

Although the Devils were unable to convert that into an early advantage on the scoreboard they did not get discouraged, which was refreshing to see. They came out with the same sort of intensity in the 2nd period and continued to push and push until they were rewarded.

The 2nd and 3rd periods weren’t as one-sided in that the Islanders actually generated some shots but make no mistake; the Devils were still the far superior team.

New Jersey recorded 20 high-danger chances and created at least four more than New York in all three periods. If not for Ilya Sorokin, it could’ve been a whole lot worse.

Bratt is earning Ruff’s trust