Let The Kraken Burn: Devils Hold On To Beat Seattle 3-1
NEWARK, NJ- After a fun weekend of All-Star festivities the Devils returned to start the second half of the season with another home game at The Rock as they hosted the visiting Seattle Kraken. Earlier this week on Tuesday, the Devils won 5-4 in old fashion overtime against the Vancouver Canucks from none other than this year's All-Star Jack Hughes to secure the game winning goal.
Seattle entered the second half of this season with a 29-16-5 record and second in the Pacific division. The Kraken are a danger playing away with an eye-catching record of 16-6-2.
BY THE NUMBERS
In the past game, Jack Hughes ripped for two goals, one of them being the overtime game winner on Tuesday night.
New Jersey is 33-13-4 overall and is in second place in the Metropolitan Division. One improvement this second half of the season was winning at The Rock. They improved slightly at home before the All-star Break with a 14-10-2 record at home. The Devils have scored 175 total goals (3.5 per game) to rank seventh in league play.
Vitek Vanecek records his 22nd win of the season as well from Tuesday night.
Nico Hischier played his 350th NHL Game tonight.
Dougie Hamilton had 13 goals and 37 assists for the Devils. Jack Hughes had nine goals and nine assists over the last ten games.
Kraken placed leading scorer Andre Burakovsky on injured reserve with a lower body injury.
Burakovsky appeared in 49 of 50 games in his first season with Seattle since signing during free agency. This season alone he leads the Kraken with 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists).
All eyes were on the 20-year-old and former first round pick from 2021 of the Kraken Matty Beniers, with 36 points, 17 goals, and 19 Assists.
Six skaters in Seattle have over 30 points this season.
HUGHES PROBLEM?
With no Jack Hughes in the lineup and being week to week with an upper body injury, New Jersey had to find a way to open the offense for other guys to step up.
The lines changed as well with the absence of Hughes. Haula moved to center, Sharangovich, and Zetterlund. Mercer moved to center; Holtz drew in and Kevin Bahl went on for the defensive man with Smith out.
Right out the gate, not having Hughes on the ice showed with the offensive game looking sluggish early on. Seattle, on the other hand, poured seven shots all on target on Blackwood.
If there’s one thing that can be said about this period, Mackenzie Blackwood was an MVP; he made some brilliant acrobatic saves to keep the game 0-0.
Credit must be given to Seattle for applying pressure early and making Blackwood work early.
The first power play of the game went to the Kraken, Dougie Hamilton went to the box for 2 minutes holding. The penalty kill unit did a great job, especially Kevin Bahl, he was effective on that line.
The Devils closed off the first period with seven shots on goal; both teams finished at a Deadlock.
A DRAW OF AGES
The second period began in Newark, and New Jersey got pinned in their zone right out of the gate from a barrage of Kraken shots. Again, Blackwood seemed focused on playing great netting.
Throughout the second period, both teams were taking shots back and forth ramping up the offensive zone. However, it was Seattle who reached out and cracked open the first goal of the game by Adam Larsson for his 5th of the season.
Just 24 seconds later, Kraken were called for a penalty and the Devils were on the power play for the first time all game.
Tatar won the faceoff passes to Palat, who slid it over to Dougie on top of the blue line and ripped an absolute one-timer that went high post right in the net to tie the game at one.
That was Dougie’s 15th goal of the season, his 6th on the power play, and 50th point of the season, which tied his career high from his 2016-17 season. There are still 31 plus games left to play this season. Since Dec 21, Hamilton has 26 points.
The second period came to an end tied 1-1.
TEACH ME HOW TO DOUGIE
Dougie Hamilton hit his career high with 51 points after scoring another goal on the power play set up by Bratt and Palat.
Dougie scored his 15th goal of the season and his 7th power play goal in the season. There was no telling how dominant Hamilton had been on both ends of the zone and being one of the best pickups by New Jersey.
The Devils took the lead 2-1, which looked like all the momentum was swinging towards New Jersey.
New Jersey had taken key mistakes by Seattle by scoring on the power play. New Jersey had proven that even with their premier goal scorer out, they could find a way to turn on the offense.
Both teams started to become more physical with each other as they headed toward the 3-minute mark.
Seattle pulled Phillipps with a minute left, but Devils won the faceoff and Marino scored on the empty netter to seal the game. Marino, his 4th of the season, made it a 3-1 lead.
The Rock was electric after the win and the teamwork by the Devils. Great adjustments were made in the later periods and that was the key to winning the game.
Lindy Ruff, head coach of the Devils, emphasized that guys are going to have to step up to win games and produce in the offensive zone with Jack Hughes out for the time being.
The Devils went on to play the Minnesota Wild on February 11th and lost in a shootout 3-2 but still obtained one point.