{"id":525867,"date":"2026-03-27T14:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/525867\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T14:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:58:11","slug":"new-jersey-devils-4-2-win-vs-predators-all-around-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/525867\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils’ 4-2 Win vs. Predators: All-Around Contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Follow us on Twitter: @AlexC_NJD<\/a>, @NJD_OnTheRush<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me on Bluesky<\/a><\/p>\n

The New Jersey Devils are one of the hottest teams in the NHL at the moment.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it probably won\u2019t matter in the standings. There\u2019s just too much ground to make up and too little time to do it. But they\u2019re playing arguably the best hockey that they have in Sheldon Keefe\u2019s two seasons as head coach.<\/p>\n

With last night\u2019s 4-2 win over the Nashville Predators<\/a>, the Devils have won nine of their last 12 games. They\u2019ve also scored three or more goals in ten of their last 12 games. Their star players led the way in extending that streak in Nashville, but almost everyone contributed positively. <\/p>\n

The Predators are far from the best team in the NHL, but they\u2019ve been playing good hockey for a while now. They came into last night\u2019s game on a five-game winning streak<\/a> and in the second wild-card position in the West.<\/p>\n

That game meant much more to the Predators than it did to the Devils in the standings, but the Devils came to play. It started with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt, who teamed up to give the team a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

At first, it looked like Hughes beat Justus Annunen clean with a one-timer. But replay showed that Bratt redirected the puck past Annunen.<\/p>\n

Later, in the second period, Bratt fired what looked like a shot that beat Annunen clean from a sharp angle. But replay also showed that Nico Hischier redirected it in and past Annunen.<\/p>\n

The Devils got leaky in the second period after going up 2-0, allowing the Predators to score two unanswered goals to tie the game at 2-2. But their star players took over in the third and put the game away.<\/p>\n

Third periods have been a problem for the Devils this season, but they\u2019ve been much better over their last 12 games. They were the aggressor over the final 20 minutes, controlling 73.91 percent of the expected goals (xG%).<\/p>\n

The result was Hischier scoring his second of the night when he redirected a Jack Hughes wicked wrister past Annunen.<\/p>\n

When all was said and done, Hischier finished with two goals, Hughes with two assists, and Bratt with a goal and two assists. What could have been had they played like this from the start of the season, but health and the change in style of play<\/a> have certainly helped them get going. At least it\u2019s something to build on heading into the offseason.<\/p>\n

One of the most noticeable differences in the Devils since the Olympics is how active their defensemen have been in the offensive zone.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, it\u2019s hurt them the other way. Take Reid Schaefer\u2019s breakaway goal that made it a 2-1 game last night. Jonas Siegenthaler got caught below the dots, and Dougie Hamilton pinched too aggressively.<\/p>\n

That left Lenni H\u00e4meenaho and Nick Bjugstad, the latter of whom was coming off the bench, to try and prevent the breakaway. But on the flip side, it\u2019s helping the Devils create more goals.<\/p>\n

Siegenthaler had a strong game in the 6-4 win over the Dallas Stars<\/a> 48 hours previously, totaling two assists. He followed that up with another two-assist performance against the Predators yesterday.<\/p>\n

Siegenthaler\u2019s first apple came on Bratt\u2019s goal. He made a great shot fake, then fed Hughes for the one-timer that Bratt redirected. His second was collecting the secondary helper on Timo Meier\u2019s empty-net goal, but it came on a good high flip out of the defensive zone.<\/p>\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n

No one will mistake Siegenthaler for an offensive dynamo, but I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever seen him this active offensively during the Keefe era. Perhaps he was a bit like this when Lindy Ruff was head coach, because that\u2019s how they played under Ruff, but it\u2019s been a long time since then.<\/p>\n

Siegenthaler finished the game with the best game score among Devils defensemen, and he had a strong overall game, not just offensively. He finished with an xG% of 75.16 percent and was not on the ice for a single high-danger chance against.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been a great season for Siegenthaler (or many Devils), but he has been playing much better since the Olympics.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t love the second goal Jacob Markstr\u00f6m gave up. But he also made some key stops, like when he made a glove save on a Luke Evangelista breakaway before the Predators got on the board.<\/p>\n

There was another sequence in the second where the Predators had an odd-man rush, but Markstr\u00f6m made a sliding pad save on Erik Haula, who didn\u2019t get all of the shot.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the Devils played a solid game in front of Markstr\u00f6m, so he didn\u2019t face a ton of quality looks. They allowed just 18 shots on goal, and the Predators had just eight high-danger chances at all strengths.<\/p>\n

In total, Markstr\u00f6m allowed two goals on 1.73 expected goals, so he essentially stopped what he needed to. As I said after the 6-4 win over the Stars, your goalies don\u2019t need to be perfect when the goal support is there, and Markstr\u00f6m got the support he needed.<\/p>\n

Luke Hughes continues to play some good hockey since returning to the lineup<\/a> from an injury on Feb. 28. He finished with an xG% of 54.77 percent and had arguably the save of the game when he blocked a Steven Stamkos shot that would have surely given the Predators the lead. Hughes was solid defensively and was only on the ice for one high-danger against. He\u2019s continuing to trend in the right direction to close the season.<\/p>\n

H\u00e4meenaho hasn\u2019t scored much since he was called up to the NHL, but he does not look out of place. He had a couple of chances to score in the first period, but couldn\u2019t find the back of the net. The process is there, though. He finished with an xG% of 64.82 percent and has been one of the Devils\u2019 best five-on-five players since getting called up. There should be some more opportunities for him with Arseny Gritsyuk out<\/a> with an injury for at least the next few games.<\/p>\n

Advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Twitter: @AlexC_NJD, @NJD_OnTheRush Follow me on Bluesky The New Jersey Devils are one of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5119],"tags":[5,2409,231,5281,4,2410],"class_list":{"0":"post-525867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nashville-predators","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nashville","10":"tag-nashville-predators","11":"tag-nashvillepredators","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-predators"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116301732453927692","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525867","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=525867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}