Devils Locker Room: Marky ‘Saved Our A**,’ Not Our Best Night, Saturday’s Expectations

NEWARK—The New Jersey Devils needed to skate the eggnog out of their system when the puck dropped for the first period on Friday night. It was their first taste of game action in three days, after a layoff for the NHL holiday break. Against their division rival, the Devils overcame their slow start, and took two points for their third straight win.

READ MORE: 3 Thoughts: No Power Play? No Problem, Marquee Marky, Devils Upend Division Rival

It’s the mark of a good team when you don’t have your best night and still come away with a victory.

That’s what happened on Friday against their division rival, the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Canes posted 31 shots as opposed to the Devils’ 23. According to MoneyPuck, Carolina was expected to score 5.99 goals, as opposed to New Jersey’s 3.76.

The Devils locker room had a bit to say about that.

On Jacob Markstrom

The Devils goaltender had one of his better nights in a Devils jersey.

Rather than the 12 shots he saw in each of his previous two starts, the Swedish netminder had to actually work for his win, and certainly earned it.

Markstrom made 3.99 saves above expected, stopping 29 of 31 shots from the Hurricanes.

The Devils captain explained it quite simply.

“Marky saved our ass a bit tonight,” Nico Hischier explained. “We have to clean that up tomorrow.”

Fixing Their Issue at Home

The Devils have turned it around on home ice. After starting the season playing better on the road, the Devils were home a lot more than they weren’t in the month of December. Now, they’re going on a long road trip and won’t play again on home ice until January 11th.

In their last eight games at home, the Devils have won six of them and collected points in seven.

The consecutive wins have propelled the Devils to the top of their division, and the Eastern Conference. It’s been an area of focus in the locker room.

“Obviously, it’s something that we wanted to focus on,” Dawson Mercer explained. “Be a good team when teams are coming in here trying to take a win out of us on home, ice. We really want to stand our ground. I think we’ve been doing a good job of it here, lately. We’ll keep on pushing for that.”

Luke Hughes explained he’s happy to reward those who are in the seats.

“Yeah, that was a big focus for us, you know, winning at home,” Luke Hughes explained. “It’s been a really good streak for us. It’s really easy to play here with our fans being loud like that, and we need to keep doing that.”

See Ya Soon

The Devils are right back at it with the Hurricanes on Saturday in a home-and-home situation.

Despite taking two points, the Devils locker room knows that Hurricanes maybe deserved more than they got on Friday. On the road, the Devils will have to be better in their barn, as Carolina owns a 13-4-0 record at the Lenovo Center.

“They’re a really good home team. They’re probably gonna be better tomorrow,” Luke Hughes explained. “And you know, we got to do the same. I think we got to shape up a little bit in our D-zone. We gave him a lot of chances. Marky, was big for us tonight. We need to get more O-zone time. And when we were in there, we were making plays. We just got to get in more.”

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