New Jersey trailed twice in the game, with Myles Wood scoring on a breakaway in the third period to tie the game at one and after Boston regained the lead at two to one, rookie defenseman Ty Smith scored his first NHL goal to force the shootout.
Jack Hughes assisted on both goals for the Devils, who did earn one point in the loss.
Mackenzie Blackwood was stellar in net with 35 saves for New Jersey, who will host the Bruins in a Saturday 1;00 matinee' after taking a day off.
Hell Raisers
1) Give almost all the credit for the one point that the Devils earned to Mackenzie Blackwood.
Blackwood literally willed the team to their hard-earned point with several spectacular saves with stops against about every offensive situation that you could think of and without a lot of help from the Devils defense.
2) Myles Wood's goal was a beautiful sight as he broke into open ice and beat Tuukka Rask for the Devil first goal of the season.
Wood can be such an exciting player with his free-wheeling aggressiveness and willingness to crash the net.
3) Myles Wood also showed the need to control some of that aggressiveness and how it can affect the team with two goaltender interference calls.
It's such a fine line between aggressiveness and recklessness and Wood doesn't always walk that line.
Until he does that better, Wood might not become the player that he is capable of becoming.
4) The pleasant surprise was Yegor Sharangovich, who seemed to be all over ice and spent time playing on the top two lines.
Some of this may have been due to the missing Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, but his play was very strong for the 22 year old from Belarus.
It's only one game, but I was impressed by his play.
5) Ty Smith scored his first NHL goal but his pairing with Matt Tennyson is going to be very weak, at least for a while.
Tennyson is playing because the recently re-acquired Sami Vatonen hasn't been able to get into the country due to signing late in camp and the Covid-19 crisis, so that pairing will not last long for that reason only.
Still, they were not good for most of the evening.
6) I've said before for all of my dislike for many of the gimmicks in sports, the best recent change in the game has been the NHL's installation of 3 on 3 overtime.
I love it- it creates scoring opportunities and excitement and it's much more like real hockey than the shootout.
I only wish the NHL would expand it to ten minutes so even more games would be decided and never make it to the shootout.
7) Due to a recent personal change (with work/Covid-19), I'm not sure how much I'll have time to write for the next 2-4 weeks.
It's very possible that I could be posting more content and just as likely that I may be writing less.
At this stage, I just don't know.
I am hoping to sometime next week do a Devils preview.
With all the hubbub right now, I just ran out of time...
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