Schwei's Devils Notes: Staying In It, But Struggling To Put It All Together

By John Schweibacher
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The New Jersey Devils went 1-1-1 this past week and are 4-2-3 over their last nine games.

Ex-Devil Marek Zidlicky scored a pair of goals in the Islanders' 4-0 win over New Jersey Sunday night at Barclays Center. Zidlicky, who had four two-goal games in his four seasons with the Devils, is only the second former New Jersey defenseman to score two goals in one game against the Devils.

The first was Lyle Odelein, who scored twice for the Panthers in a 4-3 overtime win by New Jersey at Florida on March 23, 2004.

Thomas Greiss made 27 saves for his first shutout of the season for the Islanders. It was the 10th all-time shutout for the Isles vs. the Devils:

•       12/13/15:  NJD 0 at NYI 4 --  Thomas Greiss, 27 saves
•       3/21/15:    NYI 3 at NJD 0 --  Jaroslav Halak, 26 saves
•       3/4/12:    NJD 0 at NYI 1 -- Anders Nilsson, 24 saves
•       11/26/10:  NJD 0 at NYI 2 --  Rick DiPietro, 29 saves
•       1/18/10:  NJD 0 at NYI 4 -- Rick DiPietro, 20 saves
•       2/21/09:  NJD 0 at NYI 4 --  Yann Danis, 40 saves
•       11/16/07:  NYI 1 at NJD 0 -- Rick DiPietro, 26 saves
•       12/01/00:  NYI 0 at NJD 0 -- John Vanbiesbrouck, 26 saves
•       4/15/92:  NJD 0 at NYI 4 --  Glenn Healy, 22 saves
•       2/22/87:  NYI 7 at NJD 0 --  Billy Smith,  21 saves

The Devils rallied to beat the Red Wings, 3-2, in the shootout Friday night at Prudential Center. New Jersey is now 5-1 in games decided in overtime this season.

Best Records In Overtime Decisions (through games of 12/13):

•       Calgary           7-1
•       New Jersey     5-1
•       Los Angeles    5-1
•       Arizona           3-1
•       Dallas             3-1
•       Pittsburgh       3-1

It was just the second overtime win for the Devils over the Red Wings in club history. New Jersey is now 2-3 with seven ties in their 12 overtime games -- excluding shootouts -- against Detroit:

Here are the five games that have been won or lost in overtime between the Devils and Red Wings:

•       12/11/15:  Detroit 2 at New Jersey 3 -- Kyle Palmieri
•       11/27/02:  New Jersey 2 at Detroit 3 -- Kris Draper
•       11/20/93:  Detroit 4 at New Jersey 3 -- Slava Kozlov
•       1/21/88:    Detroit 3 at New Jersey 2 -- Brent Ashton
•       1/15/86:   New Jersey 4 at Detroit 3 -- Tim Higgins

Kyle Palmieri won Friday night's game with his fourth career overtime goal. Three have come at Prudential Center, two with the Devils and one with Anaheim:

Palmieri's Overtime Goals:

•       12/11/15:  Detroit 2 at  NJD 3 (vs. Jimmy Howard)
•       11/8/15:    Vancouver 3 at NJD 4   (vs. Ryan Miller)
•       12/7/14:    Anaheim 4 at Winnipeg 3 (vs. Ondrej Pavelec)
•       12/20/13:  Anaheim 3 at NJD 2  (vs. Cory Schneider)

Lee Stempniak had the assist on Palmieri's overtime winning goal. Stempniak has now either scored or assisted on four of the Devils' five OT goals this season (1G, 3A).

Here is the list of Devils who have had at least five overtime points in a single season:

•       Zach Parise        (3g, 3a) 6pts: 2007-08
•       Patrik Elias        (4g, 1a) 5pts:  2003-04
•       Travis Zajac       (0g, 5a) 5pts: 2008-09
•       Ilya Kovalchuk  (4g, 1a) 5pts: 2010-11
•       Jaromir Jagr       (1g, 4a) 5pts: 2013-14

The Devils lost to the Maple Leafs, 3-2, in the shootout last Tuesday night in Toronto in their first game against the Leafs since Lou Lamoriello left New Jersey to become Toronto's general manager.

The loss dropped the Devils' all-time record against the Maple Leafs in shootouts to 2-8, and 0-5 on the road in Toronto in the tiebreaker.

Here are the Devils' worst records against opponents they have faced in at least six shootouts:

Overall    Road

•       Toronto                     2-8           0-6
•       NY Islanders            3-7            1-4
•       Buffalo                       5-7            1-5
•       NY Rangers               5-5           2-2
•       Wpg/Atl                     3-3           0-1

Garret Sparks, who posted a shutout against Edmonton in his NHL debut on November 30, recorded his third win in four games for Toronto with the victory.

Here are the goalies with the most career wins for the Maple Leafs against the Devils:

•       Ed Belfour:     7
•       Curtis Joseph:  6
•       James Reimer: 4
•       Allan Bester:       3
•       Ken Wregget:     3
•       Felix Potvin:       3
•       Jonas Gustavsson: 3

Plus/Minus:

Plus: Comeback Trail -- The Devils' win over the Red Wings Friday night was their second this season when trailing after two periods (2-9-2). New Jersey had just two such wins in 2014-15 (2-27-4).

Minus: One and Done -- The Devils have not won consecutive games in over a month, a span of 13 games since their back-to-back wins over Chicago and Pittsburgh on November 12 and 14.