{"id":418214,"date":"2026-01-20T17:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418214\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T17:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:24:16","slug":"3-takeaways-from-the-devils-2-1-ot-win-over-the-flames-the-hockey-writers-new-jersey-devils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/418214\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Takeaways From the Devils&#8217; 2-1 OT Win Over the Flames &#8211; The Hockey Writers &#8211; New Jersey Devils"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, Jan. 19, the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehockeywriters.com\/new-jersey-devils\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> kicked off their West Coast road trip with a stop at Scotiabank Saddledome to take on the Calgary Flames. After losing their last game at home, the Devils were hoping to kick off the road trip on the right foot.<\/p>\n<p>Dawson Mercer kicked off scoring for the two teams, seven minutes into the middle frame. Nazem Kadri evened the score just two minutes later. With no change in score in the third period, this game went into overtime to decide the winner. It was the Devils who came out the victor on the three-on-three, leaving Calgary with a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/gamecenter\/cgy-vs-njd\/2026\/01\/19\/2025020777\/summary\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2-1 overtime win.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hameenaho Had a Brilliant Debut\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Devils called up <a href=\"https:\/\/thehockeywriters.com\/docs\/lenni-hameenaho\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lenni Hameenaho<\/a> on Saturday, Jan. 17, and although they played the Carolina Hurricanes, he was a healthy scratch for this game. Against the Flames, Luke Glendening came out of the lineup, and Hameenaho got to play in his first NHL game. From the jump, he made a huge impact on the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/thehockeywriters.com\/devils-lenni-hameenaho-set-to-make-nhl-debut\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Devils\u2019 Lenni Hameenaho Set to Make NHL Debut <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hameenaho played on the fourth line alongside Cody Glass and fellow rookie Arseni Gritsyuk. He took 18 shifts and spent a total of 12:38 on the ice. He recorded two shots of his own and had one block. Although these three players were on the fourth line, they played more ice time than the third line and had more scoring chances than any other. They had a total of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/g.htm?id=2025020777\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">nine shots on goal<\/a>, the most of any line on the ice. They also had a total of 13 shot attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although it was Dawson Mercer on the second line who scored the only goal in regulation, it was the fourth line that made the strongest impact on the ice in this game. This might have been Hameenaho\u2019s first NHL game, but his impact proved it won\u2019t be his last anytime soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Nemec the OT Hero<\/p>\n<p>Just a minute and change into overtime, Jesper Bratt had the puck tied up at the boards near the net. He tried to find someone to pass it to and spotted Jack Hughes near the faceoff circle. He kicked the puck over to Jack, who sent a backhand pass towards <a href=\"https:\/\/thehockeywriters.com\/docs\/simon-nemec\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Simon Nemec<\/a> in front of the net. He gently tapped the puck into the net to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nhl.com\/video\/njd-cgy-nemec-scores-goal-against-devin-cooley-6387971816112\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">score the game-winning goal<\/a>\u00a0for the Devils.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Simon-Nemec-Devils-3-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"Simon Nemec New Jersey Devils\" class=\"wp-image-1613439\"  \/>New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec (Sergei Belski-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p>Nemec was a healthy scratch against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, Jan. 16. The Devils just got Johnathan Kovacevic back in the lineup, and with seven strong defensemen, the coaching staff needs to decide who to play and who will be a scratch each night. This was nothing personal against Nemec, just a matter of adhering to the roster restrictions. After his performance last night, Nemec has proved that he has something to bring to the lineup each night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Devils Facing Another Injury<\/p>\n<p>After what happened last night, head coach Sheldon Keefe might not have to scratch any players for a while. There is no denying that the Devils have had plenty of issues with injuries this season.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/injuries\/_\/name\/nj\/new-jersey-devils\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Currently, the Devils are without<\/a>\u00a0Zack MacEwen and Stefan Noesen for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Last night, Luke Hughes exited the game early in the second period and did not return to the bench. He took just 13 shifts and spent 9:31 on the ice before leaving in clear physical discomfort. After the game,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/amandacstein\/status\/2013477649641775327?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">Keefe stated<\/a>\u00a0he will miss the remainder of the road trip and will have to be evaluated to see how many games he will miss. The Devils will conclude their road trip on Sunday against the Seattle Kraken.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s hoping for the best for Luke Hughes\u2019 situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Devils Play the Second Half of a Back-to-Back<\/p>\n<p>The Devils will be back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 20, when they take on the Edmonton Oilers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The season series between the Devils and the Flames will conclude on March 12 at the Prudential Center.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thehockeywriters.substack.com\/s\/new-jersey-devils\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"122\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Devils_Banner-1200x122.jpg\" alt=\"SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE TO OUR NEW JERSEY DEVILS SUBSTACK NEWSLETTER\" class=\"wp-image-1567222\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a xlink:href=\"https:\/\/thehockeywriters.com\/anaheim-ducks\/\" target=\"---\" xlink:title=\"Anaheim Ducks\" 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stop&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[895,26,5294,896,5,6030,1769,4,1178],"class_list":{"0":"post-418214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary-flames","8":"tag-calgary","9":"tag-calgary-flames","10":"tag-calgaryflames","11":"tag-flames","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-lenni-hameenaho","14":"tag-luke-hughes","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-simon-nemec"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115928594177862009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418214","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=418214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}