Thursday night’s matchup between the Florida Panthers and the New Jersey Devils may have been a preview of the NHL’s 2025 Eastern Conference final.
In what was a back-and-forth affair through the first half of the game, the Devils took a 3-2 lead courtesy of Dawson Mercer in the second and never looked back en route to a 6-2 victory.
Jesper Bratt recorded his second career hat trick, Jack Hughes recorded his 30th career three-point game with three assists, and backup netminder Jake Allen made 25 saves on 27 shots.
With the win, the Devils, which have now won four of their last five games, leapfrogged the Panthers to sit atop the Eastern Conference with 26 points.
The two have only played one game against each other this season, and Florida has three games in hand, but as friend and NHL Network analyst Mike Rupp said, the Devils’ stock is certainly rising.
Looking at the recent past, the Panthers and Devils have had very different results.
Florida is coming off its first-ever Stanley Cup victory, knocking off the Edmonton Oilers in seven games after falling in five games to the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2023 Stanley Cup final.
The Devils failed to make the playoffs in 2024 after losing in the second round back in 2023.
However, after the moves New Jersey’s GM Tom Fitzgerald made this summer, the two teams are closer than ever.
The big acquisition for the Devils was Brett Pesce, one of the NHL’s premier defensive defensemen. Of equal importance was improving their goaltending, which Fitzgerald did when he acquired Jacob Markstrom from the Calgary Flames.
The Devils also had a coaching vacancy, filling the position with former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe.
With the Panthers losing a key player in Brandon Montour, who signed in Seattle and the Devils bringing aboard strong goaltending, they balanced the playing field.
Nico Hischier has similar attributes to Aleksander Barkov. Hughes may not have the gritty game that Matthew Tkachuk has, but he has the skill. The toughness is also there with players such as Stefan Noesen, Kurtis MacDermid, and Brenden Dillon.
Markstrom may not be the superstar goaltender that Bobrovsky has been, but so far this season, he’s been the better netminder. Markstrom has a 2.54 goals-against average and .908 save percentage compared to Bobrovsky’s 3.14 GAA and .889 SP.
With the way the Metropolitan Division is shaping up and the fact that the Devils have yet to play their best brand of hockey, there’s no question they should be at the top of the division when the season comes to a close.
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