Last night the New Jersey Devils got back in the win column with a shutout victory over the Ottawa Senators. Here are some notes on the game, and other Devils notes.
- First off, I'd like to congratulate Ilya Kovalchuk for scoring his 400th career goal last night. Not many players get even close to that number, especially by his age (28). It was obviously a big goal for him personally, but it was a big goal for the Devils as well as it turned out to be the game winner.
Here's the goal.
- Speaking of Kovalchuk, how clutch has he been this season? Well, he has five game winning goals and seven shootout winning goals. Add that up and he's accounted for 12 of the Devils 42 wins.
If you're looking for some more stats to prove he's worth the money, here you go: he's 6th in the NHL in points, 3rd in short-handed goals and is 4th in points per game among players with 40+ games. Not bad.
- Last night's win was obviously a massive for the Devils. Having played an emotional game the night before against the New York Rangers in New York I was wondering how much the Devils would have in the tank for last night's game, but apparently they had enough to pull out a win.
- After last night's win, the Devils record on the second game of back-to-back's this season improved to 11-4. Think about that for a second. Pete DeBoer deserves a lot of credit for having his team ready to play night-in night-out.
- Johan Hedberg was the best player on the ice last night, in my opinion. The Devils didn't look very good at the start of the game and Hedberg came up with a few big stops to allow the Devils to get their feet from underneath them. Having registered a 34 save shutout, he was obviously good all throughout the game.
- Is Johan Hedberg among the league's best backup goaltenders? He doesn't get much credit, but I think he is. Hedberg is 16-7-2 with a 2.27 goals against average, .917 save percentage and four shutouts on the season. Those numbers are pretty impressive.
- With Martin Brodeur having said ideally he'd like to play one more year and Hedberg playing so well, a case can certainly be made to have Brodeur and Hedberg as the Devils goaltending tandem next season. I think that would really benefit the Devils as all of their goaltending prospects would have another year to develop and prepare themselves for the NHL.
- Marek Zidlicky has seven points in his last eight games.
- With Patrik Elias' assist yesterday, he's now tied for 11th in scoring with 70 points. Who's he tied with? Henrik Sedin and Jordan Eberle. Not bad company.
- Adam Henrique has looked gassed as of late, and he really looks like he'd benefit from playing a few minutes less each night. Travis Zajac is believed to be extremely close to returning, so his return will certainly take some pressure of Henrique. I still expect Henrique to center the top line, but I imagine DeBoer will be more than happy to use Zajac on the penalty kill and in defensive zone situations. If that's the case, it will help Henrique rest up a little bit and keep fresh for the rest of the season and playoffs; when the Devils will need him the most.
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