New Jersey got a much-needed victory on home ice last night, and the offense was buzzing right from the start. Kyle Palmieri just seems to keep scoring, Nico looked great in his first game back and there is nobody happier about that than Taylor Hall. Pavel Zacha has been playing like a man possessed, and it’s wonderful to see. The Devils had a couple of opportunities to falter, but they kept their composure and aggressiveness all game long. Overall a solid victory on home ice and certainly something to build on moving forward.

Takeaways

• Nico and Hall can easily be one of the deadliest combos in the league. They work incredibly well off of each other and it’s easy to see that Hall seems more comfortable with Nico on the ice.

• Zacha being sent down seems to have awoken the beast. With two goals Pavel went from not hitting the back of the net to seemingly never missing when given the chance. His second goal on the power play was a true eye opener to his current confidence level. If New Jersey has unlocked some secret and Zacha can keep scoring on a regular basis that will go an incredibly long way to help this teams depth issues.

• Joey Anderson left early in the first and never returned. No real word on why or his condition but its certainly going to be something to monitor. If it ends up being at all long term don’t be shocked if they call up Quenneville who has been very solid in the minors.
• Face-offs are still an issue. Winning just 40 percent of the draws, Jersey again find themselves constantly having to play defensive right from the puck drop. Yes they can keep the pressure on teams and make that a mute point, but going forward they are going to have to win more draws.