Devils Report Card: Seamus Casey’s Corner; Honor Roll

NEWARK — Now that’s more like it. The New Jersey Devils’ 3-0 victory over the Utah Hockey Club was much cleaner than their previous game against the Washington Capitals.

New Jersey is now off to a 4-1-0 start, and although that sounds great, it wasn’t as clean as it looks. The Devils didn’t necessarily win in convincing fashion in the Nation’s Capital on Saturday. However, their tilt against Utah was much smoother, hence Jake Allen recording the shutout.

Let’s get to some report card grades.

Jake Allen: A+

That’s what you want from your veteran 1B/backup goaltender. Jake Allen didn’t see a flurry of shots on Monday. However, the shots he did see were all turned aside.

Allen recorded the first loss and shutout in Utah HC history, stopping 20 shots, two on Utah’s penalty kill and another two on their power play. When the Devils needed a save, he provided. He even helped negate a bunch of scoring chances by using an active stick, breaking up passes through the crease or poke checking the puck from Utah attackers.

He’s been historically good against the Arizona Coyotes, and although they’re under the new Utah makeover, he continued to pad his resume against them.

Seamus Casey: A+

Talk about a controversy on the blue line. What are the Devils going to do when both Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce are ready to return?

Seamus Casey potentially had his best game yet in a Devils uniform. He’s showcased in the past a rookie mistake here or there. However, he’s also shown a short memory, quickly moving on and becoming better as the game goes on.

However, on Monday, Casey was excellent from puck drop. The Devils didn’t score in the first period, but Casey quickly opened the scoring in the second. Shortly after, he added a primary assist on the Devils’ second goal, giving New Jersey some insurance. And when he wasn’t scoring, he was helping cycle the puck well, distribute, and transition north to south.

Away from the puck, Casey was poised, won his puck battles, no matter how big the opposition was, and looked like the Devils’ best defenseman all around.

We have some time before any decisions need to be made on his future, but if this keeps up, how do you sit the player?

“He’s picking up the system’s and it’s pieces very well,” Sheldon Keefe said. “He’s not a big guy, but he’s using his body very intelligently to try to protect the net and protect the inside. So it’s been really good.”

Stefan Noesen: A

Thanks to the work of Casey from the blue line, Stefan Noesen was able to collect the rebound left by Karel Vejmelka and slip it under his pad for the Devils’ second goal of the game.

Noesen has been great all around since returning to the Devils. Specifically, on Monday, he provided a little bit of everything. He scored, he checked, he defended, and he made life difficult for the Utah HC.

Noesen is the kind of player that was missing from the Devils’ lineup last season. He’s been just the injection they’ve needed in the middle six.

“His efforts has been tremendous. He’s been getting better and better every game. It was great to see him get rewarded both the other night with some assists and today with a great goal, sort of typical goal for him at the net front,” Keefe said. “He’s bringing lots to our team. He talks non-stop on the bench, lots of great energy. He’s very alert and aware of what’s going on in the game. Yeah. So he’s been a really important guy for us in the early going, as we expected he would be.”

Devils Power Play: A-

It was a quick turn around from Saturday, but whatever the Devils did on Sunday to fix the power play — at least for this moment — worked. Certainly, they weren’t happy with where it was previously.

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The Devils’ power play was much more effective, looking more confident in itself, more than it has all season.

The first unit, especially, was really threatening. They kept the puck in the offensive zone as much as possible, cycled well, created shooting lanes, and kept their feet moving to draw defenders out of lanes.

On six chances, they converted twice on the sticks of Casey and Nico Hischier. And on the remaining four, the Devils were an inch or two away from having converted on one or two more chances.

The dam has started to break on the man advantage. Perhaps, it will burst open this week.

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