For one memorable night outdoors at least, the magic from the Devils’ 2022-23 season was back. In what was certainly a must-win game for the Devils’ chances to stay in the hunt for a top three finish in the division (and a critical game in the wild-card hunt), the Devils stayed two steps ahead of the Flyers for most of the night in a 6-3 win. Certainly, our player of the game was a Devil named Nico with European background…which one though? While the captain set the tone with a breakaway goal on the first shift of the game and would go on to add another goal and an assist for a dominant three-point night, Daws was the backbone in goal making 45 saves – including keeping the Devils’ advantage during the second period when the Flyers outshot New Jersey 20-4 in the first eleven minutes and had gotten to within 2-1 after Tyler Toffoli had doubled the Devils’ early lead in the first period.

Daws’ performance was doubly impressive considering it was his fourth game in six nights, thanks in part due to the mysterious lower-body injury suffered by Vitek Vanecek either during or just after the All-Star break. With Akira Schmid’s poor form this season continuing in Utica it was Daws thrust into the spotlight for all four games this week and he sent a message to GM Tom Fitzgerald loud and clear…go trade for something else, I got this.

If anyone last April had suggested that Daws was the true goalie of the future in the organization moments after Schmid dominated the Rangers in the Devils’ first-round playoff series, they would have been committed. Especially with Daws coming off acetabular labrum surgery last offseason that kept him out of anyone’s net until December when he made his return for Utica. Just two months later he completed a four-game stretch with 127 saves of 135 shots (a .941 save percentage) and led the Devils to three wins in their last four games, making a slice of history along the way last night.

It should have been four wins in four games if not for the Devils’ typically mediocre home form coming back to bite them again on Thursday night in a terrible loss to a bad Kings team that had just gotten pumped 7-0 by Buffalo. Daws was one of the few on the team to show up for that game but even he could do nothing about the poor defense that led to the two goals against, or the lack of offense that resulted in one lousy goal. Maybe we should move back to the Meadowlands if we’re gonna continue to be this bad in Newark, hah. The homecoming aspect of playing back at the East Rutherford complex right by the shell of our old arena didn’t even occur to me until yesterday morning.

If I had any thoughts of going to the game last night, they were pretty much dashed by Thursday’s meltdown which ensured the Devils lost at home to all three horrible California teams this year, along with Montreal and Columbus among others. My newly-found – or rather returned – optimism after our mini-unbeaten streak which led me to give them standing applause before the Kings game turned back into angry booing by the end of it. Clearly I made the wrong choice skipping the Seattle game and going Thursday night, as evidently it was the wrong choice to go to the Yankee Stadium outdoor game instead of last night. How was I to know they’d have one ten years later that would be much better on the ice (and off-ice too with the production value of these stadium series games)?

Still, even if I was more inclined to go last night…the ‘8 PM’ (which was more like 8:20 or so) start time and long intermissions due to the performances led to an 11:10 finish. Great if you’re home and can get to bed right after, not so much so if you’re trying to get out of a stadium with 70,000 people and waiting for a NJ Transit train after the game just to get back to Secaucus, then from there getting back to South Orange before driving home the last twenty minutes. Even doing that after a win like last night would have been annoying and likely getting home closer to 1 AM, albeit on a weekend but still it wasn’t something I needed to do after a stressful week at work, heaven forbid last night was just another crappy Devil performance I’d really have been ready to punch things.

Pretty much the only advantage of the Yankee Stadium game ten years ago was it was in the afternoon. At least with this game in New Jersey the team was able to celebrate its New Jersey roots from everything between Jake Clemons of the E Street Band playing the national anthem on saxophone to the Devils’ embracing of the Sopranos theme on their way into the arena (while the Flyers in turn went with the only real choice in Rocky).

At least the Devils earned a slice of redemption for that embarrassing performance at Yankee Stadium ten years ago where they got blitzed in the second period to the tune of five straight goals in a 7-3 loss to the Rangers. While the two Nicoes were certainly the stars, a lot of supporting actors played important roles too. It’s hard to tell what would be more shocking in a vaccum – Nate Bastian having two goals in just over eleven minutes or Brendan Smith having a goal, an assist and a +4 last night but neither one was something you’d put anything more than a five-spot on (at most) in any kind of prop bet or whatever. Luke Hughes also surprisingly led the team in icetime with just over 25 minutes last night, then again we actually had a few power play chances in the game. You wouldn’t know it by our inefficiency on it…ESPN showed a damning stat where we were at like 30% on the PP in early January and first in the league, while since then we’re at 8% and 31st in the league. That’s one thing that’s going to have to improve if the Devils want to continue a playoff push.

And who would have thought we’d get six goals in a game without a peep from Jack (just one assist and five shots in 21:05 last night)? So long as he doesn’t allow himself to get frustrated like he did Thursday night or in other games this year – a la the 5-1 Ducks game where he spent more time complaining to the refs than playing – the goals should come again sooner or later. Ideally sooner cause while last night certainly helped the Devils’ playoff chances, they still sit five points behind the Flyers with two games in hand, and two points behind the Wings for the wild card spot. Not insurmountable by any stretch but the clock’s ticking and the rumors about Fitz making a big deal for Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom only intensified last week, hence my comment in the second paragraph. Sure, a better goalie than Vitek would be nice and a different vet to relieve the burden on Daws but at what cost? I guess that remains to be seen.

Well, at least last night’s game kept one of the two doors to the playoffs open because losing in regulation would have put us nine points back of Philly, which would have been…difficult at best to overcome. Now it’s a matter of finding more consistency – for all our talk about the system change, the last two games were pretty much same old Devils defensively this year, it’s just that Daws stepped up in both games and the offense did so last night. Hopefully last night’s game is finally THE one that the team uses as a springboard. If not now, when? Maybe the secret is to embrace the Jersey in us the way Nico did last night, evidently on and off the ice…