Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP

It was a crazy start to Thursday night. The Golden Knights beat the Red Wings 2-1. The Devils and Blues had a crazy game, with New Jersey winning 5-4 in overtime. Bruins beat Pittsburgh 6-2. Rangers beat the Flyers 3-2. Canadiens beat Utah 5-4 in overtime. Hurricanes, Lightning, and Jets all win. The Blue Jackets beat the Stars 2-1 in a shootout. Some Thursday night thoughts from tonight’s game.

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Connor Hellebuyck Exactly What the Devils Needed

The New Jersey Devils picked up their third straight win and their seventh in their last eight games. One of the hottest teams in hockey right now. They’re 11-5-0 this season; the Devils are 5-1-0 since acquiring Connor Hellebuyck from the Winnipeg Jets. The lone loss came against the Colorado Avalanche in a game started by Jake Allen due to it being a back-to-back.

Tonight’s game got a little iffy after St. Louis scored three goals in a little over three minutes. The Devils ultimately won the game in overtime.

The Devils were a team that many had made the playoffs this season in the Metropolitan Division. Now they add in one of the top goalies in the league, Hellebuyck. Tonight, Hellebuyck played in his fourth game with the Devils. He’s 4-0-0 with a surprising 2.43 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. I say surprising because he didn’t have a preseason, and his first time of action was on October 27th. Just wait for him to be more dialed in.

The Devils’ next game will be Saturday night against the Islanders.

Logan Cooley Can’t Stop Scoring

The Mammoth suffered a 5-4 loss to the Canadiens. Utah forward Logan Cooley picked up a hat trick in the win. He finished the game with a point on all four goals for Utah, with three goals and an assist.

Cooley is red hot as of late. In his last five games, he has ten points on eight goals and two assists. In his last ten games, he has 15 points on 11 goals and four assists.

Cooley this season in 17 games has 21 points on 11 goals and ten assists. He’s in the top ten in goals scored. He’s a minus-four with 12 power-play goals on four goals and eight assists.

Cooley is in his fifth season, recording 173 points on 80 goals and 93 assists. He’s a minus-seven with 20 power-play goals and three shorthanded goals.

Utah and Cooley will next face the Ottawa Senators on Saturday as Cooley looks for his third hat trick in the last five games.

St. Louis Blues Don’t Quit

The Blues, despite dropping tonight’s game to the Devils, scored three goals in just over three minutes. Mason McTavish, Philip Broberg, and Dalibor Dvorsky all scored to bring it from 4-1 to 4-4. They came away with a point as they’re 7-7-2.

Tonight marked the second time in the last three games that they’ve had a comeback. On Saturday, they trailed 4-2 in the third and got three goals in just over five minutes. They completed the comeback in that one with a 5-4 win.

Before that, in a game against the Wild back in October, down 5-2, they got two goals late to make it a one-goal game before losing 5-4. They just don’t quit and are never out of any game.

The Blues will next face the Predators on Saturday afternoon with puck drop at 1:00 PM EST.

EBUG in Edmonton

Tonight, the Edmonton Oilers had Tristan Jarry out. Matt Tomkins got the start in a 5-4 loss to the Ducks. Tomkins stopped 16 of the 21 shots he faced.

The story from this game was that, for the first time, an EBUG was dressed on the Oilers bench as Brett Epp was suited up in a backup role. Epp last played in 2024-25, when he appeared in 14 games for Grant MacEwan University. He went 3-9-1 with a 3.90 goals-against average and an .888 save percentage.