The Saturday night game between the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders had everything. It had highlight saves, a fight between Luke Hughes and Matthew Schaefer, and a comeback win by the Devils, capped off with a Jack Hughes overtime winner. 

The Devils were down 4-2 after the second period, and they couldn’t cover Ilya Sorokin, who made highlight save after highlight save and proved why he’s one of the best in the game. Yet, the Devils scored three unanswered goals to come back and win it. 

It’s the second game in a row that the Devils have scored five goals. It was another game where the offense showed why it’s dangerous and how it gives this team high upside. 

What stands out about this team compared to the previous ones is their forward unit. The Devils come at teams with four lines that can score. It helps when opponents try to limit Hughes or the Nico Hischier line, only to see Anthony Mantha, Evan Rodrigues, and Jesper Boqvist find the back of the net against them. 

The offense got on the board against the Islanders thanks to the Mantha-Rodrigues-Boqvist line. Mantha found Rodrigues with a stretch pass to set up a breakaway goal. “Mantha does not get nearly enough credit for his ability to pass the puck,” Sheldon Keefe noted after the Oct. 22 win over the Anaheim Ducks. With five goals and five assists on the season, he’s making an impact both as a scorer and a distributor.

To cut the deficit to one goal, the Devils found the back of the net thanks to Luke Evangelista. He’s not a depth skater, but he’s a winger who has helped make the top six tougher to stop. It’s often the small plays he makes that go a long way, from winning puck battles along the boards to scoring a goal by banking the puck off of Sorokin’s back from a rough angle. 

The Devils have a forward unit that is overwhelming teams. It’s not just the top six of the star players who are making an impact offensively. The Devils are getting offense throughout the lineup, and it allows them to come back against teams like the Islanders and beat elite goaltenders like Sorokin. 

Sorokin made 45 saves in the recent game. When a goaltender is seeing the puck well and reading the play in the offensive zone, the offense must pivot and find an added layer at the point. 

That’s what the Devils received. Two of their four goals came from defensemen. Declan Chisholm collected a rebound and fired it to the back of the net from a sharp angle, while Dougie Hamilton tied the game in the third period with his shot from the point. 

This season, the boost from the point is often coming from Luke Hughes, who is emerging as a top-pair number one defenseman to build around. He has six goals and five assists, and he’s also rounded out his game on the defensive end.

“He's controlling the pace, he's controlling the puck, and he wants the puck on his tape, and guys like that, they have a way of really pushing the other team back,” Connor Hellebuyck noted after the Nov. 5 win over the St. Louis Blues when asked about what makes Hughes great on the defensive end. Hughes is a skilled defenseman with speed, and he’s leaning into those strengths to become an elite defenseman. 

But it’s not just Hughes making an impact at the blue line. The Devils have gotten strong play out of Hamilton this season, who sets up the offense with his breakout passes, while Brett Pesce, who is known for his defense, is also chipping in offensively. It’s made the Devils a tough team to stop. 

The game against the Islanders wasn’t the first time the Devils won a game with their offense. It wasn’t the first time this week either. The Devils scored five against the St. Louis Blues and battled the Edmonton Oilers, a team known for their high-octane offense, to a 4-3 shootout victory. 

The Devils average 3.5 goals per game and have proven lately that they are never out of a game. With Hellebuyck, they don’t need to win every game 5-4, but they have the offense to do so. 

It’s another box to check off as the Devils start viewing themselves as Cup contenders. They must prove that they can win in multiple ways, and so far they have. The 12-5 record with four consecutive wins is impressive, but what’s more noteworthy is how they are winning games. It’s allowing them to defeat some of the best teams in the league and gives them optimism that they can beat more teams as the season progresses.