Big-Time Offense | 10 TAKEAWAYS

There's one less player in the Devils infirmary, which has seen it's fair share of members this season, and the anticipation had been brewing for quite some time. Dougie Hamilton is back playing for the first time since Jan. 2 in Washington, and the excitment was palpable when he hit the ice for the first time at Prudential Center. The cheers, the applause, the sense of relief, Dougie is back.
And on top of his return, the club has become an offensive juggernaut of sorts, padding the stats of players up and down the lineup, all things covered in this weeks edition of 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster.
Enjoy!

2.

When Jack Hughes opened the scoring against the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the Devils taking the 1-0 lead just 54 seconds into the game. It was the fifth time this season that the Devils have opened the scoring within the first minute of the game, marking a league-high this year.
Who had the first? Oh, just Dougie Hamilton, 17 seconds into the season.

3.

All opening minute goals were scored by different players.
Damon Severson opened the scoring against the Ottawa Senators on Dec. 6, 2021, 35 seconds into the game.
Tomas Tatar scored at the 51 second mark on Jan. 6 against Columbus.
And Pavel Zacha had the opening goal 47 seconds into the Devils contest against the Leafs on Jan. 31.

4.

Every night I get to watch Jack Hughes grow into the player he's becoming I feel so privileged. Sometimes it feels like a slow build, but something about Hughes' season this year feels like he shot himself out of a cannon, because the Jack we see this year, is beyond any flashes we saw of his talent in years past. When he has the puck, you can feel yourself rise out of your seat, having no idea what he's going to do next, but you know it's going to be something impressive.
Something I've noticed recently, when Jack has the puck, it feels like all the attention of the opposition is drawn to him and a crowd of four players try to defend against him.
I asked Lindy Ruff about it this week, and he had a great description about what it is that Jack does to his opponents.
"He's illusive," the Devils head coach shared, "his small ice game and his edges are so good that he can separate himself, you know, what I call 'forward escaping', just escape a defenseman and that usually takes another player to help him out."

5.

The offensive explosion these last few weeks has been record-setting. When the team put a seven-spot on the Canucks, it marked the fifth time this season the club has scored seven or more goals, and the eighth time in franchise history the team hit that mark in at least five games. The last time was the 2000-01 season when they hit seven-plus goals six times.
That was also the year Jack Hughes was born.

6.

Let's talk about some career-highs, because several players hit their marks this past week, and it's not insignificant that the players who did, are part of the young core that have been growing together and highlighting a bright future ahead.
Yegor Sharangovich hit a new career-high in assists, with 15 in 48 games. He had 14 in 54 games last season.
Jesper Boqvist reached a career-high with five goals on the year, surpassing his four in each of his previous two seasons.
Jesper Bratt is inching closer to his first 20-goal season, he has 19 in 49 games, surpassing his previous high of 16 from the 2019-20 NHL season.
And of course Hughes is blowing past his previous highs, contributing points at a more than a point-per-game pace, with 17 goals and 22 assists in his first 34 games of the year.

7.

You know what may be the strangest winning streak for the Devils? Their record against the Canucks dating back to 2015. After the 7-2 victory against Vancouver on Feb. 28, New Jersey's win streak against the Western Conference club stretched to 12 games. It's the longest win-streak the Devils franchise has had over any other opponent in the club's history.
Only one other team in leaguehistory who had a longer win streak against a single opponent is Boston against Arizona, who won 17 straight against the Coyotes.
The Devils will have a chance to extend that streak coming up on Mar. 15 when the club heads West to play the Canucks as part of a Western Canada road swing.

8.

It felt like the chemistry happened instantaneously between Yegor Sharangovich, Jack Hughes and Dawson Mercer when the three were put togehter on a line in Tampa Bay.

9.

Did you know the last time the Devils conceded a power-play goal to the opposition on home ice was over two months ago?
The last opponent to score a power play goal at Prudential Center was the Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 16th, 2021.

10.

I feel like I update this every week.
Jack Hughes still hasn't been called for a penalty this season.
Nuts.