The very depleted New Jersey Devils headed into Saturday’s matinee contest against the Anaheim Ducks with the odds stacked against them due to a plethora of injuries/absences. In a spirited effort, they caught the Ducks by surprise, throttling them by a score of 4-1.
Related: 4 Different Goal Scorers Earn Devils 4-1 Victory Over Ducks
Back in the W Column at Home
After starting 9-0-1 at ‘The Rock’, the Devils proceeded to drop five straight in regulation. Through many of those largely uncompetitive efforts, fans were regularly booing.
Today, the fans showed that their booing is not personal, but rather a direct response to the effort they’re paying their hard-earned money to see. When the Devils turned up their play, the fans turned up their energy.
“We haven’t played and earned a great response from our fans [recently],” said head coach Sheldon Keefe.
He later continued: “It’s hard to overcome that once your fans start booing you. It’s pretty tough emotionally to overcome that inside a game. But I saw today how quickly fans are able to recognize great effort, sound team play, guys competing, and then you can see the [energy from the fans] coming. Now, they’re a real factor and they give life to the team and the game. And that can’t be understated how important that is at a time when we need everything. We need every little bit that we can get from every player [and] from our fans … I think there was a time in the first period, I could really feel for the first time in a while that we had earned a positive response from the fans … that goes a long way for a team that’s trying to find a little bit more at a time when lots of injuries we’ve been fighting and the schedule’s been very, very difficult.”
Contributions from Irregular Point Producers
It had been 30 NHL games and 1,356 days since Juho Lammikko — who had been playing overseas — recorded an NHL point. In his first 5:28 of ice time, he recorded two assists, including a sweet backhand dish to Stefan Noesen on the first goal.
The sweet feed from Juho Lammikko leads to a tap-in by Stefan Noesen!
📺: #NHLNShowcase on NHL Network https://t.co/B84wvdwGS1 pic.twitter.com/dBLEu0zqNm
— NHL Media (@NHLMedia) December 13, 2025
Lammikko’s speed is above league average, per NHL EDGE, yet his inability to finish chances has found him out of the lineup more often than not. If he can get that luck to turn, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him become a key cog for the Devils in this stretch. Per Natural Stat Trick, his 0.87 expected goals generated per 60 minutes this season (ixG/60) is fourth on the entire team — ahead of guys like Nico Hischier (0.78), Arseny Gritsyuk (0.73), Jesper Bratt (0.65), and Dawson Mercer (0.52).
For Noesen, it was just his second goal of the season (0.08 per game); this time last season, he was scoring 0.41 per game — a ~413% increase. While Noesen’s hot start in 2024-25 may be an outlier, he’s certainly capable of scoring more consistently. If this gets him going, that would be huge for the Devils.
In a similar notion, Paul Cotter went through a span where he scored once in 22 games. Now, he’s found twine in each of his last three. Cody Glass, whose previous career-high is 14 goals, also ripped one in. He’s played to a 23-goal pace this season.
When all was said and done, they dominated the Ducks in scoring chances (27-20) and high danger chances (12-7), something they hadn’t been doing much of, even when healthy. They also finished +0.75 goals above expected — while they’ve previously struggled to capitalize on said chances, they did so today and got rightfully rewarded.
Penalty Kill Bounces Back
Coming into the afternoon, since Brett Pesce went down on Oct. 26, the Devils’ PK% of 66.7% ranked 31st in the NHL, barely ahead of the Seattle Kraken (65.5%). In their previous two games, they were 1-for-6 (16.6%).
Today, they bounced back in a big way, killing off all three minor penalties. They allowed just four total shots during those six minutes. Brenden Dillon and Luke Hughes each played almost four of those.
“Oftentimes when we’re shorthanded, it’s about second and third efforts,” said Keefe. “There’s going to be mistakes and there’s going to be plays made. It’s the recoveries and how you get back. I thought the way that we got back in lanes to get stick on puck, defended the net front, not let them get the real dangerous slot shots, nothing back door — like all of that was really great, and when you do that, your penalty kill’s going to have a good night.”
Honorable Mention: First Goal Allowed
For a sixth straight game, the Devils conceded the first goal. Their win moves them to 7-11-0 when doing so. When they do get the first tally, they’re 11-2-1. It would benefit them from getting off to quicker starts…but that’s essentially the only negative out of a very positive day for them.
Moving Forward
The Devils — now 18-13-1 — will get right back to action tomorrow as they face the new-look Vancouver Canucks at The Rock (12:30 PM EST).
