Coyotes Howl in Devils Defeat

  The New Jersey Devils wasted a three-point night from Jesper Bratt and were once bitten by their old nemesis- the shootout as the Devils lost 4-3 to the visiting Arizona Coyotes.

Jesper Bratt scored his first two goals of the season, one of those on the power play. and assisted on the other Devils goal, Dougie Hamilton's second-period power-play goal.

Jack Hughes assisted on all three New Jersey goals with Akira Schmid finishing the game with thirty saves in the defeat.

New Jersey takes the weekend off and will conclude their three-game homestand on Monday against Florida.

Hell Raisers

1) The Shootout continues to be an Achilles Heel for the Devils as they missed all of their attempts in the session and it has traditionally been a problem for the team.

2) Aside from the shootout, I thought the Devils received another strong game from Akira Schmid.

Schmid made some strong saves among his thirty and the defensive sloppiness didn't help Schmid very much.

Schmid will need to continue growth as the season progresses but I like Schmid's chances of earning more and more time as the season moves on.

3) The Jack Hughes/Tyler Toffoli/Jesper Bratt line continued its dominance for the second night in a row with involvement of some type on all three Devils goals, with goals on four and four and two power plays.

4) The Timo Meier/Nico Hischier/Dawson Mercer line cannot say the same, finishing without a point, and struggling with the Coyote's top line of Schmaltz/Hayden/Keller.

I still think that for all of the talents of Timo Meier, he needs linemates that have that intangible that numbers don't really identify and I'm still wondering if there needs to be tinkering over the first month or two to find out just how fits best with him/

Sorry, so short but I'm literally leaving for work in 10 minutes!

Hischier hits Arizona in OT!

   The New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier fired a shot off the wing in overtime past Arizona Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram (27) to give the visiting Devils a 5-4 win over the Coyotes in the NHL's smallest arena.

The Devils led by two goals entering the final period but allowed two goals to Arizona with the game-tying goal with only two minutes remaining in regulation.

Timo Meier scored a goal in his first game as a Devil (32) to lead the New Jersey red-lighters which included two others from Jesper Boqvist (6 & 7) and the other from Damon Severson (5) on the power play.

New Jersey will host Toronto in New Jersey in what will be Timo Meier's home debut.

Hell Raisers

1) Timo Meier played mostly on a line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, on the opposite wing than he played for San Jose.

Meier's goal started the scoring for New Jersey as he slid a backhanded puck off a Dougie Hamilton pass and even more than one goal is the importance of getting that first one so quickly.

2) In every sport, when a big name is acquired and should the player not start quickly, the media and fans start wondering about the player, causing the player stress, and the situation often only worsens.

At least Meier won't have to worry about that!

3) As much as I dislike the shootout, I love four on four overtime hockey!

The ice is wide open, with lots of room to pass, and if I had my way, there would be ten minutes of four-on-four before the shootout kicks in.

If they played ten minutes of four-on-four, there would be fewer shootouts and maybe it would feel a bit more exciting.

4) An example is the game-winner from Nico Hischier, twenty-three seconds into overtime

Hischier is on the wing with a two-on-one with Eric Houla and uses Houla as an option that the Arizona defender cannot afford to allow access to in case of a pass and with the open ice, Hischier can fire an almost uncontested wrister for the game-winner.

5) Dawson Mercer's goal streak ended at eight, which I don't totally mind as it keeps a former Rockie in the team record book and Mercer is added to the record as well,.

Mercer assisted on the Damon Severson power-play goal and had a few good chances for the record breaker but was unable to slam the puck home.

6) I'm not sure how much I like MSG networks not sending their announcers on the road.

Perhaps that was the limitation of the 5,000 seat Mullett Arena for broadcasts and with the different angles of the game that were common, that was the issue.

But if not, it seems that everything is a step behind the action, which isn't the fault of Bill Spaulding and Ken Daneyko, it's only natural for the delay to occur.

7) Writing all of that, I'll never figure out just what the love affair is between Gary Bettman/the league, and Arizona that they receive so many breaks that other cities do not receive.

While Mullett Arena is modern and not rundown, it's still a 5,000-seat arena and you have to wonder if something happened to arenas in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, what Bettman would tolerate from an arena site, if the Flyers asked to play in Hershey for three seasons...

Devils trade Taylor Hall to Coyotes

When you are two months into a disappointing season that fans expected to be so much better, changes are going to be made.

No, it's not the Cleveland Browns that I am writing about, its the New Jersey Devils that have disappointed and with a superstar that is due for free agency at the end of the season that has underperformed as much as his team, the time to make a move has come.

Taylor Hall, who won the Hart Trophy just two seasons ago, but has been disappointing after winning the award, was traded to the Arizona Coyotes this morning along with Blake Speers.
The Devils return for Hall?  Prospects Kevin Bahl, Nick Merkley, Nate Schnarr, the Coyotes first-round selection in the 2020 draft and Arizona's third-round pick in the 2021 draft with conditions.
The 2021 pick will become a second-rounder if Arizona either wins a first-round series in the playoffs or can re-sign Hall after the season.
If both of those stipulations occur, the Devils would receive the Coyotes first-rounder in 2021 to complete the trade.

Taylor Hall was struggling a bit on a bad team in his return from knee surgery and it was apparent that neither Hall nor the Devils were exactly thrilled with the current situation with both the player and the team.
Hall scored six goals with nineteen assists in thirty games this season for the Devils and had been scratched from his last two games against Colorado and Arizona with trade talks beginning to peak.
Hall did score goals in two of his final three active games and with his ability, Hall could be just rounding into top form.
Blake Speers played three games for the Devils in 2015-16 and hadn't returned since.
The 22-year-old center has played for the AHL's Binghamton Devils for the last three seasons and in ten games for the B-Devils this season managed one assist.

I've noted before that I'm not as knowledgable about hockey prospects as I am the other three sports, therefore I don't have a lot of opinion on the three newest members of the organization from personal knowledge.

The centerpiece of the trade appears to be nineteen-year-old defenseman, Kevin Bahl.
The 6'7 Bahl was the Coyotes second-round pick in the 2018 draft and is currently playing for the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League.
Bahl has five goals and fifteen assists this season in twenty-eight games for Ottawa, which is an offensive improvement over his past seasons, but this often happens to the older players in junior hockey.
Bahl is a physical defenseman and from what I'm reading, appears to be a player that could be a second pairing steady defensive blueliner.

Nick Merkley was a highly rated player entering his draft year of 2015 and was thought to have a chance to be selected in the upper portion of the first round.
Merkley was a first-rounder, albeit with the final selection of the first round by Arizona.
At 5'11, the twenty-two-year-old Merkley's smaller for a center and is more of a playmaker than a pure scorer and he has spent the last three seasons for the Coyotes AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, where he scored three goals with thirteen assists in twenty-six games.
Merkley was assigned to AHL Binghamton.

Center Nate Schnarr was the Coyotes third-round selection in 2017 and broke out in his final year of junior hockey with the Guelph Storm of the Ontario Hockey League with a 34 goal/68 assist final season.
Schnarr has good size at 6'3 and is reported to be a good skater as well.
Schnarr turns 21 in February and could turn out to be the surprise of the trade.
Schnarr is playing his first pro season and scored one goal with eight assists in twenty-two games at AHL Tucson and like Nick Merkley, was assigned to Binghamton.

The Devils didn't add a top prospect, although they did add three players that will be possible future Devils,  in the trade.
The draft picks will hopefully become players that help them rebuild, but I wouldn't count on the 2021 pick moving into the first round range, although it could become a second-rounder with luck.
I suppose that if Ray Shero wanted a first-round pick involved, the Devils weren't going to receive a top prospect as well and conversely, had Shero desired a prospect of that level the Devils weren't going to add the first-rounder.
That says volumes for what Shero was looking for in return for Taylor Hall and when you consider those wishes, I can't argue with the trade.
It's about what I expected and now we wait to see how these young players and draft picks eventually contribute to the New Jersey Devils future.

Devils trade Scott Wedgewood

Photo Credit: Albany Times-Union

I haven't written about the New Jersey Devils often lately as they had six days off and then when they return on both nights, they are up against football or boxing etc, but I did want to hammer out a few words on a minor trade that the team made a few minutes ago as the Devils traded goaltender Scott Wedgewood to the Phoenix Coyotes in return for a fifth-round draft pick in next year's draft.

The 25 year old Wedgewood was the Devils third-round selection in 2010 and spent most of the last four seasons as the Devils main goaltender at the Devils then-AHL franchise in Albany.
Wedgewood did play twenty games in 2015-16 when Cory Schneider missed time due to injury and Wedgewood backed up Keith Kinkaid, playing four games, winning two and notching a shutout.
Wedgewood had made a recent stop with the parent Devils when Schneider had a minor injury and then left the team with his child on the way, to back up Kinkaid, but did not play.

Arizona had been dealing with some goaltending issues, so Wedgewood might at least get a chance to be the regular goalie for the Coyotes AHL team in nearby Tucson, if not have a chance to backup in Phoenix, so getting Wedgewood for a fifth rounder helps Arizona in a time of need, gets the Devils a moderate return and helps the player receive a fresh start in his career, so this works for me for all parties involved.

What this truly does is cement Mackenzie Blackwood as the Devils "goalie of the future" (these things are often fluid though) in their new AHL home in Binghamton.
Rather than splitting time with Wedgewood, who I would think has a ceiling of NHL backup at highest, Blackwood will now get to play every night and mature as a prospect in the top developmental league.
The 20 year old Blackwood played 36 games last season in Albany with a goals allowed average of 2.55.
At 6'4 and a "butterfly" style goalie, Blackwood has the physical tools to be the Devils future goalie and with Wedgewood being moved on to the desert, the Devils feel so as well.

I'll try to do a Devils report, if I have time, but I will be back later for sure with Ohio State hosting Penn State in the game of the year to date and Anthony Joshua's heavyweight title defense vs Carlos Takam.