Devils 7, Canadiens 1: The losing streak is over

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A few thoughts following the New Jersey Devils’ blowout win over the Montreal Canadiens:

Dawson Mercer was fantastic

Mercer started his NHL career in about the best way realistically possible. His creativity, slick puck skills, and takeaway ability allowed him to not only hold his own, but excel, alongside Jesper Bratt and Andreas Johnsson. They feasted on middle-6 competition every night.

Bratt was taken off Mercer’s line to play with Jack Hughes and/or Nico Hischier and, for the most part, Mercer hasn’t looked the same since.

He has made plays in spurts but struggled to put it all together over the course of an entire game. Until last night, that is.

Mercer was one of the more dynamic players on the ice from start to finish. He had the puck on a string in the offensive zone and was seemingly creating chances every time he hopped over the boards.

And that’s not an exaggeration. He was the runaway leader in primary shot contributions at 5v5, doing his best Jack Hughes impersonation and lapping the field.

Yes, this performance came against a horrendous Montreal team. But it’s not as if he was beating up on AHLers. They are healthier than they’ve been in a while and their lineup featured plenty of NHL talent; especially up front.

With the season a lost cause in terms of enjoying any team success, further developing young players like Mercer should be the team’s top priority.

Montreal or not, it was great to see such a puck-dominant two-way effort from Mercer on Tuesday night.