The New Jersey Devils received a long-awaited extended break this week, and they spent it watching the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals surge past them in the Metropolitan Division standings.
The Devils will look to regain a share of the division lead and cool off the Hurricanes on Thursday night when the teams clash in Newark, N.J.
The Devils have been idle since Saturday when they dropped a 4-0 decision to the host Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Hurricanes, in turn, will be completing a back-to-back road set after scoring three third-period goals Wednesday in a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers.
The first quarter of the season has been a successful one for New Jersey, which is 12-7-2 under first-year head coach Sheldon Keefe. But the busy schedule has the Devils already trying to make up ground against the Hurricanes and Capitals, each of whom have three games in hand.
The Capitals leapfrogged the Devils on Monday by recording a 6-2 victory over the Utah Hockey Club. Carolina seized sole possession of first place on Wednesday.
Keefe said he’s hopeful the break will refresh the Devils, who are one point ahead of the fourth-place New York Rangers. The Rangers, however, have four games in hand.
“The demands of the schedule being what it has been in the first 20 games of the season — it’s been a lot for us and the pace that’s been more demanding than the rest of the league, quite frankly,” Keefe said following practice Tuesday. “Chance now to sort of take a breath.”
The Hurricanes haven’t allowed opponents much room to breathe during a three-game winning streak in which they’ve outscored the Flyers, Ottawa Senators and St. Louis Blues by a combined 12-2 margin.
Carolina got off to a quick start Wednesday, when Jalen Chatfield scored on the team’s second shot of the game just 30 seconds after the opening faceoff. But the Hurricanes didn’t score again until Sebastian Aho collected the game-winner 1:03 into the third period.
“(The key is) restarting every night. Even (Thursday), we’ve got to take what we can learn from this game, the good and the bad, and get right back at it (on Thursday),” Chatfield said. “We can’t be focusing on the past, ever, and we know we’ve got an experienced group, we’ve got a lot of good leaders and we try to bring it every night. Some nights it doesn’t start the best, but we always find our game and once we do that, we’re fine.”
Following Aho’s goal, Jordan Staal and Jack Roslovic scored within a 55-second span for the Hurricanes, who outshot the Flyers 20-15 in the first two periods before enjoying a 17-4 advantage in the third.
“I liked how we answered in the third — I thought the game was there and now we’ve got to make a statement because I don’t love the first two periods, that’s for sure,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said after his team defeated the Flyers. “But again, you’ve got the other team and they’re doing their thing. But I thought it was a good collective effort in the third.”
Carolina has scored 72 goals this season, tied for second in the Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes have put up at least four goals in 12 of the past 13 games (11-2-0).
