{"id":405152,"date":"2026-01-13T12:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/405152\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T12:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:09:16","slug":"hamiltons-revenge-hischier-carries-vs-wild","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/405152\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamilton’s Revenge; Hischier Carries vs. Wild"},"content":{"rendered":"

See what happens when Quinn Hughes<\/a> is in the building? The New Jersey Devils<\/a> play great hockey.<\/p>\n

Now, if only he was doing that in red and black.<\/p>\n

However, that shouldn\u2019t take away from the Devils\u2019 body of work on Monday night. New Jersey snapped a four-game skid in the most unlikely of games on their four-game road trip.<\/p>\n

It was some of the best hockey we\u2019ve seen the Devils play in months and was reminiscent of the team we saw win eight straight games.<\/p>\n

Now, by no means should anyone say, \u201cWe\u2019re so back.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, a sign of life is certainly a welcome one, just four points out of the Wild Card.<\/p>\n

The last time the Devils won a big game, we said it would be one they could point to and say it kickstarted the comeback. We won\u2019t be fools and make that same assumption twice, but winning the first Hughes Bowl located in Minnesota has to mean something, right?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to some observations.<\/p>\n

Observations<\/p>\n

Head coach Sheldon Keefe<\/a> opted to bench Simon Nemec to put Dougie Hamilton<\/a> in the lineup, and it certainly paid off. The Devils star defenseman is in an awkward position right now as he sits in the center of trade rumors. He would rather not leave, but now he\u2019s seemingly being pushed out the door. So, what\u2019s he to do? Up his trade value. And he certainly did that on Monday by playing to his strengths. He was sound in the defensive and neutral zones but was super active in the offensive end of the ice. Hamilton moved his feet, moved the puck with authority, imposed his booming shot, and dished two primary assists. The only thing missing from a signature Dougie game was a booming clapper scored on the power play. Dougie got his revenge on the Devils tonight.<\/p>\n

Staying on the blue line, Johnathan Kovacevic is the man the Devils opted for when they scratched Hamilton last game. His first shift was tough to watch, and I immediately thought, \u201cUh-oh, the Devils are going to fall behind early here.\u201d Matthew Boldy flew by Kovacevic with the puck on his stick and created an odd-man rush with<\/a> Ryan Hartman. Hartman couldn\u2019t handle the pass, so the scoring chance was negated. However, for Kovacevic, it\u2019s clear his timing is off. He pinched a bit too high too late and lost his coverage, which put Jonas Siegenthaler in a tough 2-on-1 situation. It\u2019s just his second game, and in a back-to-back situation. We\u2019ll cut him some slack here. The timing and positional awareness should come with more reps.<\/p>\n

Nico Hischier<\/a> carried the Devils today. He was a factor in four out of their five goals. He specifically won two puck battles along the wall on the Devils\u2019 first goal, scored by Dawson Mercer<\/a>, and then their second, scored by Ondrej Palat. Then, when Jesper Bratt<\/a> widened the gap, Hischier didn\u2019t factor in on the scoresheet, but he\u2014wait for it\u2014won yet another puck battle below the goal line, which sent Jack Hughes<\/a> up the ice, which allowed Bratt the opportunity to score. This very well could have been Hischier\u2019s best game of the season.<\/p>\n

By the way. Two goals for Palat? After he played sub seven minutes on Sunday? Sure, why not? It broke a 20-game goal drought. He needed it. And if he\u2019s not going to be asked to waive his no-trade clause, then he has to start producing. Perhaps he\u2019ll chip in a bit more.<\/p>\n

In their last five games entering Monday, the Wild registered 34, 28, 35, 34, and 36 shots, respectively. Yet, the Devils contained the Wild to just 22 shots on goal on Monday. The Devils were able to suppress shots in two ways. One, they got back to their roots as a heavy puck-possession team. And two, they clogged the slot and limited the Wild to low-danger chances all night. And that certainly plays to New Jersey\u2019s strengths. <\/p>\n

Credit where it\u2019s due, Jacob Markstrom<\/a> had a solid outing in Minnesota. He fought off some early Wild pressure and helped settle the Devils\u2019 game until they took over possession of the puck and ultimately the lead. For the rest of the game, he wasn\u2019t called on nearly as often. However, when he was, he came up in a few key moments. This is the kind of game the Devils have to play in front of him, however. Limit the activity, and you limit the blunders. 20 saves on 22 shots is on brand for Markstrom, who made 0.88 saves above expected in his 11th win of the season.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is the New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the PHWAs New … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"See what happens when Quinn Hughes is in the building? The New Jersey Devils play great hockey. Now,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,3723,1294,5,1272,1769,38,576,151,5185,5184,4,1496],"class_list":{"0":"post-405152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-devils-news","10":"tag-dougie-hamilton","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jack-hughes","13":"tag-luke-hughes","14":"tag-minnesota-wild","15":"tag-new-jersey","16":"tag-new-jersey-devils","17":"tag-newjersey","18":"tag-newjerseydevils","19":"tag-nhl","20":"tag-quinn-hughes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115887719411458015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}