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Devils Report Card: Markstrom Brilliant; Rookie’s Gonna Rookie; New Top D-Pair? (+)

The New Jersey Devils secured a victory on the second leg of their road trip over the Ottawa Senators on Thursday evening. The Devils improve to 5-2-0 through seven games thus far, and have yet to really put it all together.
That’s a good thing.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe shuffled his forward lines on Thursday in search for more offense. What he received was a three-goal effort in a mixed bag of on-ice results, but enough to secure two points in regulation.
READ: Devils Sheldon Keefe Makes Big Changes to Lineup
The penalty kill (PK) was once again a difference maker, allowing a late goal but killing two of three penalties. Still, they provided a short-handed goal on the stick of Nathan Bastian. The power play didn’t convert, but created nine scoring chances on just two advantages.
It was an imperfect, yet effective effort that saw the Devils’ goaltending soar again, continued development in what very well might be the Devils’ new top defensive pairing, and expected rookie mistakes on the blue line.
Let’s get to some report card grades.