Here are some observations from the game:
• What a masterful pass by Jesper Bratt to set up Jack Hughes’ first-period goal. Bratt had the puck near the far blue line and was facing away from the goal. He lifted a backhanded pass into the air and all the way to the bottom of the near circle and right on the tape of Hughes, who quickly swiped the puck into the goal.
• Hughes’ first-period goal was the 300th NHL point of his career. He became the fastest player in franchise history (Colorado/New Jersey) to reach 300 points in 325 games, besting Kirk Muller (332).
Hughes also became just the fifth U.S.-born player to reach 300 points before his 24th birthday, joining Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk).
• Meier picked up his seventh goal of the season late in the second period with a nasty shot from between the circles. He was on a breakaway but Florida defenseman Nate Schmidt was closing in. So, he just took the puck and ripped it far side into the net. Simple sniper shot. Nothing fancy, but ever so affective.
• Jonas Siegenthaler picked up a secondary assist on Meier’s second-period goal and it was a critical assist. The Panthers were skating through the neutral zone when Tkachuk tried to bank a pass off the boards to Evan Rodrigues, which would have created a 2-on-1 for Florida. But Siegenthaler swatted the puck out of the air and eventually Dawson Mercer found Meier for his breakaway goal.
• Ondrej Palat made a game-saving backcheck late in the third period as Eetu Luostarinen was pulling the puck around Markstrom and had an open net. Palat reached from behind to tie up Luostarinen’s stick and he didn’t even get off a shot.
• The Devils penalty kill unit had successfully killed 18 straight penalties coming into the game. And the unit was really tested late in the first period. Stefan Noesen took a slashing penalty. But 55 seconds later, Brenden Dillon was given a roughing penalty for removing Matthew Tkachuk’s helmet. That put the Devils down two men for 65 seconds in the closing minutes of the period.
The Devils managed to kill off both penalties to stretch their streak to 20 for 20. And they owe a big thank you to their goaltender. Jacob Markstrom made a point-blank save on Carter Verhaeghe, then he denied a shot from the high slot by Tkachuk by getting part of his stick on the shot.
Unfortunately, the streak would end there as Reinhart tipped in a shot on the man-advantage the following period.
• The game also featured one of the best fights you’ll see all season between Dillon and Florida’s Jonah Gadjovich. The two men threw blow-after-blow nonstop for 25 seconds straight.
"We have a lot of respect for him for doing that," Cotter said.
