The New Jersey Devils returned from the All-Star break with a 6-3 victory over the Penguins in Pittsburgh Monday night
With the victory, the Devils are now 6-0-1 in their last seven meetings with the Penguins over the last two seasons after going 2-6-1 overall vs. Pittsburgh in 2015-16 and 2016-17, when the Penguins won their last two Stanley Cups.
Travis Zajac had a goal and three assists in the win, his fourth career four-point game:
1/28/19 NJD 6 at Pit 3 1g 3a 4pts
1/21/16 Ott 3 at NJD 6 1g 3a 4pts
3/31/14 Fla 3 at NJD 6 3g 1a 4pts
1/29/10 Tor 4 at NJD 5 3g 1a 4pts
The last Devils player to have at least one goal and three assists in a road game against the Penguins was Kirk Muller, who had two goals and three assists vs. Pittsburgh back on December 31st, 1988 at the Civic Arena. Mario Lemieux, however, was the star that night, scoring five goals and adding three assists in an 8-6 Pittsburgh win.
Kyle Palmieri, the Devils’ lone All-Star representative, had a goal and an assist in the two games for the Metropolitan Division team, which won the 3-on-3 style tournament with a 10-5 victory over the Central Division in the championship round of the NHL All-Star game Saturday night in San Jose.
Here are the Devils All-Stars who had at least one goal and one assist in all-star competition in club history:
2019 at San Jose Kyle Palmieri 1g 1a 2pts
2017 at Los Angeles Taylor Hall 1g 2a 3pts
2011 at Carolina Patrik Elias 1g 1a 2pts
1994 at NY Rangers Scott Stevens 1g 1a 2pts
1990 at Pittsburgh Kirk Muller 2g 1a 3pts
114 at New Jersey Joe Cirella 1g 1a 2pts
According to the player game finder on hockey-reference.com, Palmieri’s 23 goals in New Jersey’s first 49 games this season are tied for the 11th-most by any Devils player through that many games in club history:
Claude Lemieux 1991-92 31
John MacLean 1989-90 29
Zach Parise 2008-09 29
Pat Verbeek 1987-88 28
John MacLean 1988-89 28
John MacLean 1990-91 28
Brian Gionta 2005-06 28
Alexander Mogilny 2000-01 27
Kirk Muller 1987-88 25
Sylvain Turgeon 1989-90 25
Stephane Richer 1994-95 23
Kyle Palmieri 2018-19 23
The Devils reached the All-Star break with a record of 18-23-7 with 43 points, tied with the Ottawa Senators for the fewest in the NHL.
Because of the technicality of playing two fewer games than Ottawa, New Jersey ranked 30th out of the 31 clubs in the overall standings.
Here are the Devils' worst records and rankings at the NHL All-Star break since the club relocated to New Jersey for the 1982-83 season:
1983-84 10-36-5 25 points 21/21
1985-86 15-34-2 32 points 20/21
1982-83 11-33-12 34 points 19/21
2010-11 16-30-3 35 points 30/30
1984-85 17-29-7 41 points 17/21
2014-15 17-22-8 42 points 26/30
2018-19 18-23-7 43 points 30/31
2016-17 20-21-9 49 points 28/30
The only time either of the Devils’ predecessors (Kansas City or Colorado) were last in the NHL at the All-Star break was in 1981-82, when the Rockies were 21st out of 21 clubs in their final season in Denver.
The Devils would need a huge push the rest of the season in order to get back to the playoffs.
Here are New Jersey’s best finishes from games 49 on in club history:
1996-97 21-6-7 49 points
2000-01 22-7-5 49 points
2011-12 22-9-3 47 points
2001-02 21-9-4 46 points
2010-11 22-10-2 46 points
2005-06 21-9-4 46 points
1993-94 20-10-6 46 points
1998-99 20-9-5 45 points
1997-98 18-8-8 44 points
2006-07 20-10-4 44 points
Plus/Minus:
Plus: Pitt Stop. New Jersey has only won six road games so far this season but two of them have come at Pittsburgh, where they have outscored the Penguins 11-4.
Minus: Hall Out. The Devils are still without Taylor Hall, who has now missed 16 of New Jersey's 49 games this season. Hall has not played since December 23rd.