Devils 5, Wild 3: Unstoppable

The Devils scored another three power play goals, giving them 17 through just nine games.

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A few observations from New Jersey’s road win over Minnesota:

No words

I noted in the game preview it was an elite matchup for the Devils to make some noise on the power play. One way or the other, I thought special teams would go a long way towards deciding the winner. That sure proved to be the case.

The Devils spent ~5.5 minutes on the man advantage and scored three goals. Three! What’s crazy is they could have scored even faster.

Timo Meier had a couple of Grade A opportunities on the doorstep that he just missed. The Devils were also as focused on killing time as much as scoring on a late 5-on-3.

There is a saying that nothing is ever as good as it seems at its best and nothing is ever as bad as it seems at its worst. The Devils’ power play sure is putting that to the test. It is honestly one of the best I have ever seen.

The top unit features the NHL’s leading scorer in Jack Hughes, the NHL’s third leading scorer in Jesper Bratt, a sniper with seven goals through nine games in Tyler Toffoli, the NHL’s leader scorer among rookie defensemen in Luke Hughes, and a 40-goal guy in Timo Meier – who only jumped up to the top unit because 80-point center Nico Hischier suffered an injury.

Who are you supposed to cheat towards? Can you even cheat with how fast, and effortlessly, the Devils whip the puck around? What is the answer to slowing them in the neutral zone when they have three walking zone entries in the Hughes brothers and Bratt (not to mention, a guy who can power through contact in Meier)?

The Devils power play would honestly give me nightmares. There will no doubt be some dry spells along the way – even if the chances are there, the Devils won’t always convert – but it doesn’t feel like a stretch to say the only way to reliably keep them off the board is to stay out of the box entirely.

They have scored in all but one game this season and that’s largely because they only had one power play opportunity. This power play alone is going to win the Devils a ton of games.

McLeod stepped up