Devils ground Jets in shootout win!

Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The New Jersey Devils shuffled the lineup for the shootout and it paid off in spades as the Devils first two shooters scored and were backed up by two Mackenzie Blackwood saves to win a shootout as quickly as you can and defeat the Winnipeg Jets 2-1 in Winnipeg.
Nikita Gusev and Jesper Boqvist each beat Connor Hellebuyck in the shootout and give the Devils a huge two points at the start of their Western Canadian road trip.
Nico Hischier scored the only Devils goal (2) in regulation in the first period and Mackenzie Blackwood finished the night with 32 saves in net.
New Jersey will be in Calgary on Thursday and Edmonton on Friday for back to back games against the Flames and Oilers.
No coverage for those games due to the late start conflicting with work.

Hell Raisers

1) Mackenzie Blackwood was the first star and it was a well-deserved one.
Blackwood made several strong saves and from has been shown from the Devils first thirteen games, it's Blackwood that deserves to have the lion's share of playing time over veteran Cory Schneider.
Blackwood's play is going to force the Devils to make a decision on Schneider and I still believe that the acquisition of Louis Domingue last week was to be ready for an eventual move with Schneider.

2) Give John Hynes credit for changing the shootout order and giving new blood a chance.
Taylor Hall has always struggled and Kyle Palmieri isn't an ace at the shootout either, so changing the lineup around made sense and particularly with the selections of Nikita Gusev and Jesper Boqvist, both of whom are the type of players that you would suspect would have strong skills in the shootout.

3) I also thought the defense played well and that is something that I don't always say.
Andy Greene played well and Sami Vatanen continued his recent run of good play.
If the Devils are going to get back into the race, the defense will have to continue to improve.

4) Winnipeg's Bryan Little took a slap shot from Jets teammate Nikolaj Ethers to the side of the head and went down like a shot.
Little has been dealing with concussion issues over the past few years and while you never want to see someone take a puck in that manner, Little was especially vulnerable to such a hit.

5) The play of Nikita Gusev has been a question among the Devils fan base.
Sure, he's weak on defense and many offensive standouts are, but it's a process and the Devils would be better suited to worry about how to shelter his weaknesses, rather than bench him and take away the offensive talent that's only going to improve with ice time.

Sorry so short, but things to take care of- I'm going to try to return from the road office with a short preview of tomorrow's early morning World Boxing Super Series bantamweight finals from Japan.