Devils Showing Signs of Winning Formula

Through much of the first part of the season, the New Jersey Devils were one of the best teams in the league.

They were getting goals up and down the lineup, they were winning a lot of hockey games, and were getting good enough goaltending to keep them in a playoff spot. Basically put, all was good in New Jersey. Things changed when franchise superstar Jack Hughes suffered a freak injury at a team dinner.

With Jack Hughes out of the lineup, the Devils went into a tailspin and not only fell off in every area of their game, but also out of a playoff spot in what is an extremely competitive Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference. Due to the team sliding out of a playoff spot, Devils' President and General Manager Tom Fitzgerald spoke with reporters on Wednesday, January 14, to take the blame for his team's poor play.

Fitzgerald spoke about how he needed to find solutions to get the team back on track and how his team needed to band together and steer the ship together. Well, it can be said that as of this writing (Wednesday, January 21), the Devils are looking like a much more responsible and winning hockey club.

The team has won four out of their last five games and they took care of business in Alberta by beating both the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers by identical scores of 2-1 on back-to-back nights on Monday, January 19, and Tuesday, January 20. The way the Devils played in Alberta is the way they need to play moving forward if they want to compete for playoff spot.

For starters, the team got good goaltending out of both starting goaltender Jacob Markstrom and backup goaltender Jake Allen. In his team's 2-1 win over the Flames on Monday, January 19, Markstrom, 35, stopped 21 of 22 shots, as he kept his game simple by controlling his rebounds, not allowing a soft goal, making the big save when his team needed one, and not getting himself out of position.

One night later Allen, 35, was splendid against the high-flying Oilers. He stopped 22 of 23 shots, made a lot of big saves, and continued his strong season as he is currently 12-11-0-1 with a 2.61 goals-against average, a .909 save percentage, and one shutout.

The Devils were also able to beat both the Flames and Oilers, respectively, by playing smart defensively. They allowed just 45 shots combined in the two games and did a good job of backchecking, creating turnovers, breaking up plays, and not getting out of position in their own zone.

When this team plays this kind of defensive hockey, they are hard to beat. When the Devils play this way, they are patient, capitalize on mistakes made by the other team, and play a suffocating style of hockey.

This was especially the case last night in Edmonton. The Devils allowed just 10 shots through two periods against the second best offensive team in the NHL.

Lastly, the Devils stuck with it and did what they had to do to win two important games. Last night's game in Edmonton could have been a disaster, but they were able to essentially shut down the Oilers' offense in a big way two periods, and then they found a way to survive the third period and come away with another crucial two points.

This is the kind of hockey that the Devils need to continue to play if they want to insert themselves back into playoff contention. While it is easier said than done, this team has shown that they are capable of doing it and that when they play this way, they can win a lot of hockey games, something that they need to do from here on out.