Whats crazy, even during the two L’s the Devils dominated those game. Like I said the defense wasn’t perfect but it wasn’t ether in those games. Fast forward to the Islanders game. Blackwood makes the timely saves and the team looks dominate.
This was a tough game for the Devils. Sorokin was on fire and the Islander hit the Devils every chance they had. If Blackwood gives up the early goal, this game could of been closer to games 1 +2. Blackwood stood tall, and Devils never took their foot off the gas.
As wild as it may sound some ppl have the Islander bouncing back this year. Lets not take this win for granted.
I do think it's worthwhile to see it as an early trend: despite the first two losses winding up quite hideous, the underlying metrics did show the Devils driving possession and generating chances, ending up with very high expected goals numbers. They just had horribly times defensive collapses and the goalies didn't step up when needed, and both games ended up terrible.
The next two games they basically did the same thing, but they got their ducks in a row for the most part on defense and Blackwood did what was needed without having to do anything really insane. That's a recipe for success with a group this young and fast.
Palat and Haula are also looking like the right kinds of players they needed to bring in, at least so far; it's been so nice to see them generating more chances closer to the net, and I think those two are playing a key role in that. Of course, Jack/Nico/Jesper have come up huge the last couple games, too, and if *that* keeps up then this team could really go places.
Their defensive collapses were so bad in the first two games that it was getting hard to imagine them ever being good; now they've looked so sharp the last couple that you can start envisioning what this team looks like when things are clicking.
Basically, after two terrible endings to the first two games, I'm back to where I was during most of the offseason: cautiously optimistic.