3 takeaways from Devils beat Wild for sixth straight win – Hockey Writer – New Jersey Devils

admin October 23, 2025

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3 takeaways from Devils beat Wild for sixth straight win – Hockey Writer – New Jersey Devils

The New Jersey Devils enter Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild with a high that they haven’t experienced in a long time: their first five-game stretch in more than 1,000 days. The task was daunting, but they soldiered on, winning 4-1 in a near-perfect 60 minutes to make it their sixth straight win.

Relevant: Devils beat Wild 4-1 for sixth straight win

Arseny Gritsyuk’s first NHL goal

If you’ve watched the past few Devils games, you would have guessed that based on Arseni Grichyuk’s performance, his first NHL goal would be coming soon. He fired a quick shot past Filip Gustafsson just three seconds into the Devils’ third-period power play. Luke Hughes made sure to catch the puck so Gritsyuk will have this keepsake for life. When the Prudential Center announced the fan favorite’s goal, they went crazy for him.

Arseny Gritsyuk scores his first NHL goal on the power play! 💪 pic.twitter.com/b4cyE60L4Y

— NHL (@NHL) October 23, 2025

“He’s going to get a lot more opportunities,” forward Dawson Mercer said. “I play [with] Black tape, and then I saw he had black tape, so I was happy when that tape went in,” he added with a laugh.

“Just a well-rounded hockey player,” Keefe said. “He defends well, works hard, is strong, handles the ball well, is smart, reads very well. He’s a very good and useful player for us on a day like today.” [with Cody Glass out]you can promote him. He brings a lot to our lower line and it’s great to see him get rewarded and score goals. “

New Jersey Devils right wing Arseny Grichuk celebrates with teammates after scoring against the Minnesota Wild (John Jones-Imagn Images)

Progress through back-to-back struggles

Over the past two seasons, the Devils have struggled in the second half of back-to-backs — with a record of 6-19-3. They often admit it is a mental disorder.

According to a 2024 ESPN article, the league-wide scoring rate in the second half of back-to-back games is still 0.507%. It shouldn’t be as big a difference as the Devils have had in recent seasons (0.268%). So the Devils got off to a great start right off the bat, which is huge especially against a tough Wild team.

“It’s back-to-back. [Minnesota] Knowing that, they probably thought it would be easy to get here,” forward Paul Cote said. “I think we were a little more prepared than they thought we were. You know, when we keep playing like that, it’s hard to beat us. “

In 2022-23, the Devils are a lot of 9-3-0 is better down the stretch in these games. That’s a big ask, but if they can come close to replicating that, they should be in contention for first place in the metro.

Nico Dawes shines

The Devils are going to have to rely heavily on Jake Allen in the near future. In the meantime, the team is hoping Nico Daws can take some of the load off their veteran netminder until Markstrom returns from injury.

Tonight, in Dawes’ first start of the season, he has scored 29 of 30 (.967%) and is +2.03 goals-against expected (via MoneyPuck ), bringing his total to +1.30 goals-per-60 in 322 minutes since last season.

Obviously, this is a small sample size, but no regular goaltender in the league had a rating higher than +0.78 per 60 last season (15+ games) (Anthony Stolarz, Toronto). Last season was special: Dawes was much better in the NHL than in the American Hockey League (AHL). The Devils certainly won’t complain if this happens again.

“I don’t know enough about what it’s like at the AHL level, but he’s done a great job here,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I thought our guys did a good job of simplifying the game (…) and that probably suited him and was a little more structured. The guys guarded him well, but from tonight to last season, I remember a lot of times where we had breakdowns and he had to make big saves in big moments, and he did that. So I’m obviously most concerned about what’s going to happen with him here and in our net, and he’s done a great job.”

Truck status?

Their victory tonight marks the first time the team has played six warm-up games since the miraculous 13-game stretch from October 25 to November 25, 2022. 21…1,066 days ago. Maybe it’s time to say this officially solidifies the Devils’ status… but even if you don’t want to go that far, it puts them in a better position for long-term success in 2025-26.