The New Jersey Devils aim to win their third straight game on Thursday night when they host Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers in Newark, N.J.
The Devils answered a three-game skid with a 3-1 road victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday and a 5-3 triumph over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.
“Playoff mentality, that’s how we have to approach games,” forward Timo Meier said after scoring a goal versus the Blue Jackets. “This definitely feels good, but now we have to build on this win.”
Jesper Bratt collected a goal and two assists while defenseman Luke Hughes added one of each. Captain Nico Hischier, Timo Maier and Paul Cotter also tallied on Tuesday. Recent trade acquisition Cody Glass notched a pair of helpers in the win, two days after scoring a goal in his Devils debut.
“He’s a really smart player, constantly scanning the ice whether on offense and defense,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said of Glass. “He’s made really good simple reads that are pretty universal in our game that he’s getting right and it shows. I’ve been impressed with him and he’s fit in pretty well from a personality standpoint too.”
Bratt recorded a goal and an assist and Meier also tallied in New Jersey’s latest meeting with the Oilers — a 3-0 victory in Edmonton on Nov. 4. Jake Allen made 31 saves to earn the shutout for the Devils.
Oilers superstar McDavid sat out that game with an ankle injury.
While the three-time Hart Trophy recipient is healthy now, his team doesn’t appear to be. The Oilers limped to their seventh loss in 10 games with a 3-2 setback against the struggling Buffalo Sabres on Monday night.
“I think, as a team, obviously we’re at a point in the year where a lot of things are driven by results but for us, we want to make sure that we maintain a level head and stay the course of our game,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said. “But with that said, we come out (against Buffalo), I think our expectation is to come out most nights and play our game and find a way to win, and we didn’t do enough of that (on Monday).”
Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch was more direct when pointing out what plagued his team on Monday.
“Turnovers,” Knoblauch said. “I think we controlled most of the play, I think we had a lot of time in the offensive zone, I think we had more chances.
“But what we didn’t do is just the kind of mistakes that we made, and you look at the turnovers, turnovers that led to scoring chances off the rush.”
Draisaitl, who leads the NHL with 46 goals, set up a pair of goals to extend his career-high point streak to 15 games (11 goals, 12 assists). McDavid, in turn, notched his club-best 58th assist to push his point streak to eight games (two goals, nine assists). Defenseman Evan Bouchard also has three goals and three assists during his five-game point streak for the Oilers.
–Field Level Media
