{"id":419961,"date":"2026-01-21T15:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/419961\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T15:38:14","slug":"allen-wows-glass-revenge-welcomed-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/419961\/","title":{"rendered":"Allen WOWS; Glass’ Revenge; Welcomed Change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Who are THESE New Jersey Devils<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Leon Draisaitl-less or not, the Devils rolled into Rodgers Place last night to take on the Edmonton Oilers in the second leg of a back-to-back and EARNED two points, collecting four in consecutive days.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time this season the Devils have won back-to-back games, only doing it one other time amid their eight-game win streak earlier this season.<\/p>\n

Except this time, they\u2019re not scoring like they were. They\u2019re keeping these games close.<\/p>\n

Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald<\/a> said they\u2019re going to have to get used to winning the close games. At least until he gets them some scoring help.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re starting to figure out how to do that. It\u2019s a welcomed change, for sure.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to some observations from the 2-1 regulation win against the Oilers.<\/p>\n

Observations<\/p>\n

I had a feeling it was going to be a good night when Johnathan Kovacevic stepped up against<\/a> Connor McDavid and delivered a CLEAN hit to negate a scoring chance. I want to emphasize it was a clean hit, despite some claiming it looked high. Kovacevic\u2019s gloves met McDavid\u2019s shoulders. And it wasn\u2019t even the biggest hit. It was just enough to push him off the puck. That\u2019s the kind of defense the Devils missed from Kovacevic in his absence. And answering the bell when Vasily Podkolzin made a beeline for him was the cherry on top. Something tells me, if Dougie Hamilton<\/a> sticks around, the Devils\u2019 blue line will be able to manage losing Luke Hughes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the trends that continues to persist is on the Devils\u2019 power play. It\u2019s a bit of a maddening trend, too. There is far too much skill on New Jersey\u2019s power play for them to continue to be as passive as they are. In the first period, particularly after Podkolzin took an instigator minor, Jack Hughes<\/a> had a prime scoring opportunity in the hashes and below the dots while on the man advantage. Instead of shooting, he opted to force a pass to Nico Hischier in the slot. Except, it was intercepted, and the Devils\u2019 power play was promptly killed. MORE SHOTS ON GOAL.<\/p>\n

The Devils found something with the Arseny Gritsyuk<\/a>, Cody Glass, and Lenni H\u00e4meenaho line. It was another solid showing for H\u00e4meenaho, but the show stopped with Glass and Gritsyuk. Each had a goal and an assist. And the nerd numbers prove that line is dominating the opposition. Last night, they combined for a 3-0 scoring chance differential, bringing their total to 11-0 over the last two games. THAT\u2019S depth scoring. <\/p>\n

Glass perhaps had my favorite moment of the night. It\u2019s particularly funnier with the context that he\u2019s probably the nicest person in the entire NHL. When Darnell Nurse had Glass pinned on the half wall, the Oilers defenseman\u2014for whatever reason\u2014became frustrated with Glass as if he was holding him illegally. Nurse gave Glass a good shove, which drew a confused reaction. Yet, Glass quickly recognized the improper change by Nurse, saw Gritsyuk leading a rush, and just seconds later, sniped the game-winning goal by Tristan Jarry on a perfect feed. And Glass\u2019 celly was COLD, arms raised high, staring down the Oilers faithful. You have to love a solid revenge moment.<\/p>\n

And, of course, Jake Allen. At this point, he\u2019s far and away the Devils\u2019 most reliable goaltender. I understand Jacob Markstrom<\/a> has begun to turn things around. However, the larger sample proves Allen is the one showing up in the big moments. The Oilers came out in the third period desperate. McDavid probably played 15 of the final 20 minutes, and it still didn\u2019t matter. He stopped Podkolzin point-blank and Hyman backdoor in two high-pressure moments. In the second period, he made another sliding stop on Jake Walman on the Devils\u2019 penalty kill. Allen was nails all night, making 2.22 saves above expected. He\u2019s not a backup goaltender. He should be the Devils\u2019 1A.<\/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":"Who are THESE New Jersey Devils? Leon Draisaitl-less or not, the Devils rolled into Rodgers Place last night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[1774,201,3723,146,5,3724,576,151,5185,5184,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-419961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-cody-glass","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-edmonton-oilers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-jake-allen","14":"tag-new-jersey","15":"tag-new-jersey-devils","16":"tag-newjersey","17":"tag-newjerseydevils","18":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115933840188847652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419961","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=419961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}