The New Jersey Devils snapped their three-game losing streak thanks to a gutsy 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night. It was a much-needed victory after the team really started to lose the plot since Jack Hughes went down with his injury. Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, Cody Glass, and Connor Brown were the goal scorers, while Jacob Markstrom played his first excellent game in weeks.
There is a lot to unpack from tonight’s contest. Let’s start with the fact that New Jersey finally got a top notch goaltending performance from their presumed 1A. It’s no secret that Markstrom has been struggling mightily to begin the 2025-26 season. He’s spent a little time on the IR, and when he was healthy enough to play, he’s posted some truly abysmal numbers. His masterpiece in Los Angeles on November 1 was really the only notable game on his resume this season, but now he can add tonight’s performance to that list. After a first period in which the Devils dominated, New Jersey got pretty thoroughly outplayed over the last 40 minutes of the game. According to Natural Stat Trick, Markstrom saved almost two whole Goals Above Expected (1.89 to be exact). He ended up saving 32 of 35 shots, good for a .914 Save percentage. Many of those expected goals and shots came toward the very end of the game, with Detroit pressing with their net empty, desperate for the equalizer. Markstrom answered every challenge, diving and lunging and blocking and two-pad stacking (yes, really) to keep the Red Wings from getting that tying goal. New Jersey let Detroit dominate possession through the last two periods, and especially in that final flurry. But while the defense faltered, Markstrom was there to bail them out. Credit where credit is due: Markstrom was the key reason the Devils escaped with two points tonight.
By the way, tonight’s contest was New Jersey’s first regulation win since that November 1 game in Los Angeles. Yes, incredibly, the Devils have gone almost a full month between 60-minute wins. Thankfully there have been plenty of overtime and shootout victories sprinkled in, but it was still nice to see a win that only took regulation again. I was starting to forget what that looked like.
Since I touched on the performance of the Devils skaters a little bit already, let’s go there next. As mentioned, New Jersey really controlled play in the first period. The shot totals might not indicate that (only 8-7 in the Devils’ favor), but New Jersey got many more of the dangerous opportunities. At 5-on-5 in the opening frame, the Devils out-attempted the Wings 23-9, won the Scoring Chances battle 15-6, and won the High Danger Corsi battle 8-2. Add it all up, and the Devils more than doubled the Red Wings’ Expected Goal output, 1.43-0.69. And New Jersey had a 3-1 lead to show for it. All was going quite well.
But for as good as the first period was, it’s almost as if the Devils forgot how to play hockey during the first intermission. Ok maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, as New Jersey still got some quality looks after the opening frame. But it’s undeniable that Detroit was the better team over the last two-thirds this evening. From the second period on, the Wings outshot the Devils 28-11. At 5-on-5, Expected Goals For were 2.28-0.55 in Detroit’s favor. And that doesn’t even include the Expected Goals the Red Wings racked up with their net empty, or on their power plays (one of which they converted on). The Devils have been plagued by poor starts this season, only to find their game later on. Tonight was the opposite; they came out of the gate about as well as possible, but faded in a hurry after that. A win is a win, but the Devils need to figure out how to put together a full 60-minute effort.
Now let’s talk about why I called it a “gutsy” win. I’m sorry, but the Detroit Red Wings are the sneakiest dirty team in the NHL. It feels like every time I watch them play, their captain Dylan Larkin is doing something to try and seriously hurt another player. And while he didn’t do anything particularly egregious tonight, he started more than his fair share of totally avoidable fights because he just needed to try and hurt someone I guess.
Meanwhile, some of his teammates DID do particularly egregious things this evening. It started with J.T. Compher delivering a seriously dangerous hit to Hischier along the boards early in the first. Hischier went head-first into the side wall and left for the trainer’s room for a little bit before thankfully returning to the game. Compher was extremely lucky he didn’t get tagged with a five-minute major. Then later on during a post-whistle scrum, Ben Chariot delivered the most egregious moment of the night:
I mean, it doesn’t get much more clear-cut than that. An intentional butt-end right to Simon Nemec’s midsection, which caused Nemec to leave for the trainer’s room himself for a bit before returning. I would like to say Chariot should expect to hear from the Department of Player Safety, but I have no faith in them to actually do the right thing.
To be fair, Jonas Siegenthaler got away with a cheap shot of his own on Lucas Raymond. It’s understandable why he decided to do it, as he witnessed the officials let everything under the sun go up to that point. So I suppose he figured since the Red Wings were being allowed to take cheap shots at the Devils at will, he would get in on the fun. I still don’t condone it though, and would much rather see that and every dirty hit the Red Wings delivered tonight get called.
Please understand, I don’t bring all this up to just pointlessly cry about the Red Wings and their various temper tantrums. I bring this all up because, unless you’ve been living under the world’s most impenetrable rock, you know that the Devils have been devasted by injuries this season. They’re getting healthier now, but they are still far from 100%. I don’t know about you, but I would’ve been highly agitated if Hischier or Nemec or anyone else got seriously hurt tonight as a result of the Red Wings’ antics. I want the officials and the DOPS to actually protect the players. That includes the opposition too, as Detroit certainly has a case that Siegenthaler got away with one tonight as well. Either way, while the scrums and the big hits might be entertaining to some degree, I would much rather watch a hockey game without worrying all that much that the other team is taking runs at the Devils with impunity. To all the NHL officials out there, please get these teams under control.
In any case, the Devils survived both the Red Wings’ dirty play and their actually hockey play, escaping with a 4-3 win. It was their first win in four games, and it reset the vibes around this team, at least for one night. Markstrom was magnificent, the offense was opportunistic, and The Rock remains an imposing place to play. The ship has been righted for now.
The Game Stats: The NHL.com Game Summary | The NHL.com Event Summary | The NHL.com Play by Play Log | The NHL.com Shot Summary | The Natural Stat Trick Game Stats
The Game Highlights: Courtesy of NHL.com
Welcome To The Rock
When I say The Rock has become an imposing place to play, I mean it. With tonight’s win, New Jersey is now 8-0-1 at the Prudential Center this season. That’s such a breath of fresh air considering the Devils’ struggles on home ice the past few seasons. Obviously they won’t play to that pace at home all year, but becoming a strong home team could make this a special season.
Taking Stock Of The Injuries
As has become a tradition with the New Jersey Devils, let’s go over some of the injury information.
Like I mentioned before, it appears Hischier and Nemec avoided injury after taking dirty hits from Compher and Chariot respectively. That’s great news, as those two are some of the more indispensable Devils at the moment.
Elsewhere, Arseny Gritsyuk, who was seen limping and walking around with ice around his ankle after last game, appeared no worse for wear tonight. It’s refreshing to see a player appear compromised after a game but not actually have to miss time.
Finally, Cody Glass returned from a brief injury absence, which is great news. Even better news is that he scored in his return, redirecting a Luke Hughes shot home in the first period.
Becoming A Habit
Speaking of Glass, he scored in the season opener. He also scored in his first game back from his first injury. And now he scored in his first game back after his second injury.
I’m not saying we have to keep injuring Glass on and off for the rest of the year…but I’m not NOT saying it either.
Oh, Ondrej
This feels like beating a dead horse, but I just have to bring it up. Ondrej Palat was set up with not one, but two one-on-one’s with Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot tonight. The first was off a turnover in the offensive zone where Palat scooped up a lose puck to Talbot’s right and darted toward the net all alone. The second was on a straight up breakaway. He failed to score on either chance.
As I said, I hate beating this dead horse. But it continues to be morbidly amusing to me just how incapable Palat is at producing goals.
Next Time Out
The Devils are back in action on Thanksgiving Eve when they host the St. Louis Blues. Puck drop from Newark is scheduled for 7:00pm.
Your Take
What did you make of tonight’s game? Who on the Devils impressed you the most? Do you agree with my disdain for the Red Wings’ antics? How encouraged were you by Markstrom’s performance tonight? What do you expect next time out against the Blues? As always, thanks for reading!