New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald explained on Wednesday morning that he believes in his group amid struggles. The Devils rewarded their GM with an impressive victory over the Seattle Kraken later that night, stringing together consecutive wins against teams in playoff position.
After Fitzgerald took ownership of the Devils’ struggles in 2025-26, he explained he’s not in this alone. He made sure to point at play personnel and the coaching staff as well.
All were fair criticisms.
However, today felt like another step in the right direction. Make no mistake, the Devils are not out of the woods yet. They still have a lot to prove regarding their underwhelming performance over the last two months.
Yet, routing the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 victory and playing an entirely different style tonight were encouraging signs of finding different ways to win.
It’s funny, because we expect to watch a high-flying, skilled offensive juggernaut in the Devils. Or, at least, that’s what we expected coming into the season.
Yet, what we received tonight was the opposite. Low-event hockey, which was a point of emphasis by the Devils GM earlier today.
We’ll get to that in the observations. Let’s dive in.
Observations
Cody Glass is heating up! No, this is not a game of beer pong at your friend’s fraternity house. But, Glass has been impressive of late. He’s scored three goals in his last three games, and it’s because he’s doing the little things the right way. Today, it was about winning a battle at the Kraken net-front, and cashing in on a rebound left on a shot from the blue line. It’s well-documented that the Devils struggle without depth scoring. However, if Glass can find this consistently, now up to 10 goals and on a 23-goal pace in 82 games, the Devils’ scoring woes should get a little easier.
How about Dougie Hamilton, eh? That healthy scratch was just the fire he needed to be lit under his you know what. He created the rebound opportunity for Glass on the Devils’ first goal, finding a shooting lane and unleashing that bomb of a shot. He was super active in the offensive end all night and nearly added another helper and almost netted a goal. Hamilton was the Devils’ best defenseman on the ice, again, accruing a 74.75 xGF% and was on the positive side of a 9-6 scoring chance differential, according to Natural Stat Trick. I don’t know, Fitzy. Maybe hang up the phone for a minute. There’s another player with a big cap hit and the same trade protection you should probably uproot first.
Can we talk about Nico Hischier‘s first goal for a minute? He was planted by Eeli Tolvanen and was clearly frustrated about it. He slammed his stick on the boards when he rose from the ice. However, he quickly read the play with Jack Hughes entering the zone with speed. So what did he do? He put himself in a position to score, and when he got the puck, he rifled it with authority past Phillip Grubauer. Again, no celebration. Hischier’s no-BS persona lately has been noticeable. He barely celebrates after scoring goals. You can see he’s trying to will the Devils back on track. And it’s working. That’s not back-to-back incredible performances from the captain, especially after netting the game-winner.
I really liked the Devils finish to the second period. We keep hearing about “pack mentality” from Sheldon Keefe. Even Fitzgerald mentioned it in his conference on Wednesday. I think the Devils did that well tonight. They hemmed the Kraken in their end on a few instances and swarmed pucks, especially in the middle frame. The result was taking back puck possession after scoring chances were turned aside. What I liked most about it was after they won their battles, it allowed them to cycle the puck to create even more chances. They need to do a lot more of that.
The third period got off to a horrible start. The Kraken quickly outshot the Devils 4-0 in the first five minutes, and New Jersey struggled with their first pass out of the zone and skating pucks away from danger completely. However, they weathered the storm, with a bit of help from Jacob Markstrom, and pushed back to the point where they owned the puck again. It got them to overtime and eventually to victory. It was good to see them not fold and give away the game when the pressure mounted.
I thought one of the Devils saving graces in the third was Jonas Siegenthaler. He had numerous instances where he negated scoring chances. Most notably, he stopped the Kraken on an odd-man, 3-on-1 rush for Seattle. Yet, he broke up the play with a poke check and laying out the body. He did it again later by ensuring to keep the attacking pressure outside the dots and along the walls. He was a defensive stalwart in the final 20 minutes and a big reason why the Devils even got to the extra frame.
And lastly, Fitzgerald mentioned the Devils needed to get comfortable playing in close games. They did that on Wednesday against the Kraken, winning a one-goal tilt in overtime.
“Yeah, the league is good enough. You have to be ready for those close games and be comfortable in that,” Hischier said when asked if keeping games close rather than run-and-gun style is a point of emphasis for the Devils.
On playing close games, Fitzgerald said, “[Other teams] know when they play us, if they get into a track meet, it’s probably not going to look good. So they’re committed to playing on top of the puck and on top of our guys to limit those track meets. Now it’s how we adjust. Are we comfortable in those uncomfortable situations with now grinding it out down low and having to chip pucks in at certain times? That’s development and growth. How does an individual take on something that may be a little bit less comfortable than they’re used to versus… I love watching our team play off the rush, but when it’s not there, how do we win? You’ve got to find a different way.”
James is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols