Day: December 7, 2018

In this season of giving, organizations large and small give to many different charities. The Devils, in collaboration with Goya – “the largest Hispanic food company owned in the United States” according to the team’s press release on their website, helped gather over 70,000 pounds of food. Some of the food was collected during the Devils’ annual food drive held during a run of home games during November.

The food, which amounted to over 2,000 meals according to the press release, will benefit a local organization called Transfernation which will help “community organizations around Newark and northern New Jersey.”

The food drive was held in partnership with Goya, who “agreed to match up to 40,000 pounds of food collected by the Devils’ drives” – the Devils also had a food drive held by their employees and employees of Prudential Center – “which has been donated to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.”

Transfernation is “a food rescue service that collects cooked and unserved food, that is then distributed to organizations that serve homeless, low-income individuals and others in need, making Prudential Center the first arena to partner with the organization.” The press release says that the Devils and Prudential Center have donated over 1,881 pounds of food to this cause.

The release mentions that this year’s numbers exceeded the numbers from last season and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, it said is “the largest anti-hunger and anti-poverty organization in New Jersey that began more than 40 years ago in downtown Newark.” Devils employees, the Devils players, Goya employees, Prudential Center employees and Devils Alumni will later volunteer time “to sort and pack a portion of the 40,000-pound donation at the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. The bagged meals will then be distributed to Newark families in need.”

The 1,881 pounds of food will equal about 1,568 meals. That food comes from unused food at Devils home games throughout October and November. That food will be donated in partnership with Transfernation. According to the release “Transfernation’s idea began in a New York University dorm room between two college juniors, Hannah Dehradunwala and Samir Goel, who were stunned by the amount of excess food being discarded after campus events.” The movement begun at NYU “has expanded to 20 contractors and 16 community organizations throughout the tri-state area.”

Transfernation started to collect “cooked and unserved food from all New Jersey Devils home games on Oct. 11. Legends, Prudential Center’s official hospitality partner, prepares and executes the donation to Transfernation which then gets distributed among the various beneficiaries.”

The beneficiaries for 2018-19 “include Integrity House, Catholic Charities of the Archdioceses of Newark, St. John’s Soup Kitchen and Goodwill Rescue Mission/The Bowery Mission.”

The press release then mentioned that Transfernation has “enhanced New Jersey Devils and Prudential Center’s relationships with the selected beneficiaries” because they give more options for the company to work with for their Give 82 initiative.

The release says that on the first Friday of each month, the Devils players and Prudential Center employees help give back by serving lunch at St. John’s Soup Kitchen and prepare/serve meals each month at Goodwill Rescue Mission/The Bowery Mission and the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

California has not been kind to the Devils over the last few years. They are 1-5-0 against the state’s three NHL clubs in the last two years on the road. The only team they have beaten in that span was the Los Angeles Kings. That continued tonight as the Devils defeated LA, 6-3 at Staples Center.

Firstly, I would like to get some house cleaning out of the way. Some news I did not mention here on the blog in the last few days saw Chuck Fletcher, who was serving as a special assistant to Ray Shero since this past summer, has left the team. He is the new general manager of the Philadelphia Flyers, moving down the Turnpike to take over the job last held by Ron Hextall who was abruptly fired last week.

Now to the topic at hand. The Devils were looking forward to this California trip as a change of scenery. They had not won a road game since November 15 and needed this trip to regroup. The Kings have been on a downward trend this year, currently standing in last overall in the NHL. They fired coach John Stevens last month and are trying to move forward. The Devils let them hang in there, but were able to put them away when they needed to and won the game.

For the Devils, roster-wise, Mirco Mueller was out as a healthy scratch on defense while Egor Yakovlev got to play another game (he scored his first career NHL goal against Tampa in the last game). Steven Santini and Drew Stafford were the other scratches. LA was missing our old friend Ilya Kovalchuk, out on injured reserve with ankle surgery.

In goal, it was right back to Keith Kinkaid for the Devils following a rough outing against the Lightning. He made 29 saves on 32 Kings shots. Keith was good tonight, stopping Tyler Toffoli on a breakaway late in the second period, shutting the door when Toffoli tried to go five hole. Facing him was Jonathan Quick, who made 29 saves on 34 shots against. The Devils also had an empty net goal and thus finished with 35 shots total.

The Devils got the scoring going at the 13:49 mark of the first period on the power play. Kyle Palmieri scored his first of two on the night en route to being named the game’s second star. It came when Dion Phaneuf was called for high sticking Nico Hischier at 12:01. While on the man advantage, Taylor Hall faked a shot at the top of the far faceoff circle before passing to Palmieri at the near faceoff dot. Palmieri then roofed one over Quick to give the Devils the 1-0 lead. Will Butcher had the secondary assist.

With that power play goal, the Devils had just two goals in 21 power play attempts. On the night they were 1-for-2 with five shots. LA was 0-for-1 with no PP shots but did register a shorthanded shot.

The Kings would not wait long to tie things up. At the 15:41 mark of the first, Brendan Leipsic scored off a shot that he just snapped by Kinkaid. Jake Muzzin and Alec Martinez had the assists on that one. That goal came just moments after a non-call on an Anze Kopitar high stick on Kyle Palmieri. With that, we finished the first period where we began it: tied.

But it would only take the Devils 25 seconds into the second to retake the lead. In what would become a wild second frame, Travis Zajac scored unassisted to make it 2-1. It came when Blake Coleman had a couple of swipes at scoring before the puck trickled to Zajac in the slot. He fired and beat Quick and New Jersey had retaken the lead.

However, that would not last long either. At the 6:59 mark of the second, Drew Doughty, Austin Wagner and Adrian Kempe broke in to the Devils’ zone on an odd man rush. Kempe would tip a Doughty pass by Kinkaid to make it 2-2. Wagner had the secondary assist and we were tied up once again.

Then, at the 10:57 mark, Palmieri notched his second of the night from Hall when, on the rush and with the puck wobbling on his stick, Palmieri used Muzzin as a screen and shot through him to beat Quick and make it 3-2 Devils.

The Devils would double up their lead less than two minutes later at 12:28 when Butcher scored from Miles Wood and Zajac. This was a weird one as Butcher’s shot was actually redirected by a Kings player – Phaneuf – changing direction on Quick and clearly handcuffing him.

The Devils now had a two goal lead and that would seem to be in jeopardy with 6:23 remaining in the period when Muzzin had seemingly scored. He shot from a strange angle along the far part of the goal line and the puck seemed to go under the crossbar and in drop down in. Play continued for a few seconds until the Devils touched the puck and a review was initiated by Toronto. The call on the ice was no goal and replays showed that the puck hit the crossbar without entirely crossing the line, hit the far post and came out. The result was that the call on the ice stood: no goal. It was still 4-2 New Jersey.

However, that would not last much longer after the non goal. At 17:37, Kyle Clifford scored unassisted after Kinkaid made a save, then poked the rebound directly to Clifford, who fired one behind him. Kinkaid was trying to get the puck over to Damon Severson, but some miscommunication led to Clifford scoring. The Kings were back within one at 4-3.

That is where it was heading into the third period, where the Devils would finally break away. At 11:06, Nico Hischier scored from Sami Vatanen and Hall to add an insurance goal and make it 5-3. Nico redirected a Vatanen shot by Quick to score this one. This sort of made up for earlier in the first period when Nico had an empty net to shoot on and Kings defenseman Derek Forbort blocked his shot and made a remarkable save for Quick, who was out of position.

Quick would be pulled with about 1:50 left in the game for the extra attacker and, after a few icings and missed opportunities, Blake Coleman would finally bury a shot from long distance into the empty net to give us our final of 6-3. Andy Greene and Severson had the assists on the empty netter.

In the end, four Devils players had multiple point nights: Palmieri (two goals), Zajac (one goal, one assist), Hall (three assists) and Butcher (one goal and one assist). Hall was named the game’s first star. Los Angeles’ Kempe was the third star.

The Devils had a better night in the faceoff circle, winning 58-percent of the game’s faceoffs, out hit the Kings 23 to 18 and had less giveaways at 12 for LA and eight for the Devils. The Kings had more blocked shots at 17-12.

Sami Vatanen led all skaters in time on ice with 24:39 (1:28 on the power play and 16 seconds of shorthanded time) while Hall led the forwards with 19:34 (2:29 of PP time). Vatanen also led in shots on goal with six while Coleman led in hits with seven. Blocks were led by Greene and Severson who each had two and takeaways were led by Hall with one.

Next up, the Devils continue on in California by traveling to Anaheim. The Ducks have been hot of late, winning five straight. That game is an earlier start at 8 PM Eastern and we will have it for you right here.