Red Hot | 10 TAKEAWAYS

It's that time of the week to jump into 10 Takeaways, presented by Ticketmaster!

And truly there's only one place to start: The Devils power play. It's on fire. It's a joy to watch and it is lethal. 

The Devils are now taking their show on the road for the first real road trip of the year, taking their red-hot power play on tour. 

We've got lots to cover in this week's edition, so lets get to it!

1.

Last year the Edmonton Oilers set the NHL record for power play efficiency. They finished at 32.4 percent, which is an extraordinary number. That of course, was over an 82-game span.

Right now, eight games into the Devils season, the power play is firing away at a rate of 42.4 percent. It is unlikely, just given the law of averages, that it power play will stay that dialed in, at that percent over 82 games. But I did go back and check out the final eight games of the Oilers 2022-23 regular season, to see how they finished the year with their record-setting power play. Just to compare for a fun exercise.

So, the Oilers, with their top power play last season, finished the year 8-for-21 in their final eight games. Good for a 38.09 percent efficiency.

2.

Only once this season has the power play been shut out and that was against the Washington Capitals when they had just a single opportunity. Otherwise, in five of the eight games played so far, New Jersey has at least two power-play goals in a game. 

Last season, the team had just four games where they scored two, or more, power-play goals in a game. 

It's kind of mind-boggling.

Eight games in, they've already surpassed their 82-game total from last season.

3.

Before players head onto the ice for warmups, I'm usually down by the player tunnel, along with the lucky fans who get to be a part of the fist-bump line. One of the cutest things happened this last week.

Here is the rough order players come out to get ready: John Marino, always first, followed by some combination of Kevin Bahl (usually second), Michael McLeod, Alexander Holtz, and Nathan Bastian. They come out a few minutes before warmup starts, so they stand together in the hallway with fans screaming with excitement.

This past week, there was a little boy who was so excited to be there and the cutest thing happened.

This little boy, standing near to Kevin Bahl, calls Kevin's name and the first thing out of his mouth was "Kevin! Can you teach me how to be tall like you?!"

It truly was the most innocent, sweet thing, and Bahl got a wholesome laugh out of it.

4.

Sometimes there are little idioms that catch your ear when you're interviewing a player.

That happened on Monday when I was talking to Tyler Toffoli about the power play and the work that associate coach Travis Green has been doing. Out of his mouth, comes the phrase:

"He gives us the Coles Notes on their penalty kill."

Only the Canadian ear picks up what he's saying.

Coles Notes is basically a book summarizing a book. It's what we used as students when our teachers would say we had a test on Shakespeare's The Tempest tomorrow and you know you haven't read a single page. That's when you turn to the Coles Notes. It's a summary of every single Act, chapter, or whatever the original book entails. It's saved a lot of students over the years!

I think in the US it's called Spark Notes or Cliff Notes. But before everything it was Coles Notes.

But I guess kids these days now just have the internet!

5.

When Jack Hughes sent a wrist shot past Ilya Sorokin at 2:19 of overtime on Oct. 20, it completed a 4-point game for Hughes.

It also secured Jack as the NHL points leader with 10.

Except for a stretch of three days without a game (Oct 21-23) Hughes has held on to the top spot in the NHL, right through to today.

During that three-day stretch where the Devils didn’t have a game, Detroit’s Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin pushed Hughes down to No. 3. DeBrincat had the top spot with 12 points, Larkin, second with 11 and Jack (tied with Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson) had 10.

But once the Devils schedule picked up again on Oct. 24 in Montreal, Hughes overtook DeBrincat and was tied with Larkin in points with 14, although Larkin had played two more games than Hughes.

Since then, Jack hasn't looked back and has remained in the NHL's top spot.

6.

I think it's worth reading these comments when Lindy Ruff was asked about defenseman Brendan Smith this week. 

“You only remember the ones that go in the net,” Ruff started. “He got on the wrong side of his player (against Minnesota) and ended up getting scored against. There’s probably 15 other chances inside the game that if we want to point to chances or the third goal of the game that they got, I can give you two or three individuals that need to be better on that play.

"Every one of those opportunities, the ones that don’t go in, nobody usually brings up. The one that does go in, you go ‘hmm, I don’t know what did you think of so-and-so on that play?’ Yeah, he didn’t play it very well. We’d love to have that play back. However, I thought his energy and intensity in the game, and some of his killing was real good. The play on that goal, it wasn’t good enough.”

7.

John Marino played a whopping 07:03 on the penalty kill on Sunday against the Wild.

Kevin Bahl was right behind him at 06:59.

For Marino, there was a second-period stretch of 02:16 on the penalty kill, played in a single shift. Bahl, again right behind, with a shift of 2:14 on that same penalty kill.

Those are some pretty wild numbers.

8.

I had Sam Kasan help me with the math - because I am terrible at hockey math.

In between each of Marino's three consecutive minute-plus shifts here's how much time he had to catch his breath (not counting some whistles, because that type of math is way too much):

It breaks down to: 49 seconds between the first and second shifts and 41 seconds between the second and third.

Had to get those calculations because of what Marino joked about after the game:

9.

It feels like Jesper Bratt is just quietly going about his business. Sure those of us who see him every game, every day, know just how talented and important he has been to this group, but he's tied for third in points in the league. 

I was listening to a recent episode of the Got Yer Back podcast and Bratt was the guest. I loved the story that he shared about how he approaches the mental side of the game. 

He keeps a journal. 

"I write in it before every game," he told podcast hosts Ryan Rishaug and Pierre LeBrun. "It can be very simple. Most games you go into the same mindset, the same routines the same mentalities to most games. But also you have to understand what made you successful at that game. Was there something that needed to be changed, or was it continue doing this on a daily basis? 

"Just because it worked on the first day, maybe you slacked on (the next), it doesn't mean you have to change too much," he continued, "Maybe there was something in that preparation that needed to be slightly tweaked. And usually writing it down for me, makes me remember it and putting a pen to paper makes me actually want to do it more. Taking a brief moment, to write it down has helped me a lot."

Bratt, it should be noted, as a sixth-round draft pick, is seventh in points for players drafted in the 2016 Draft.

10.

The ping-pong table continues to live in the Devils locker room on practice days and after morning skates. There were a few years where it was noticeably absent, but over the last year and a half, it has made a resurgence. And the competition amongst the players in intense and there is just so much chirping going on at all times. 

On that same podcast, Bratt gave a little insight into those ping-pong battles when asked to compare the different personalities between Jack and Luke Hughes.

"They are both very similar when it comes to their confidence at least," he started, "Luke is coming into the locker room the first couple of days and he takes over the ping-pong table, he spends two hours a day at that table. It's basically his. Myself as a rookie, I didn't come in and steal all the ping-pong time from the older guys."