New Jersey Devils captain Nico Hischier continues to put his team on his back. Despite losing 5-3 to the Detroit Red Wings, Hischier potted another two goals. He is up seven goals in 10 games this season with the Devils including two multi-goal games in his last three games. Hischier put up a two-goal performance against the Washington Capitals back on October 19th.
He is driving the offense for the Devils this season. Not to mention he is thriving in Sheldon Keefe‘s system. We all knew he was a good defensive center, but the has taken his game to new heights and the captain continues to lead by example. Even his coach is taking notice especially when the Devils lost to the Capitals on a Saturday night at Prudential Center.
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“Captain-like, isn’t it?,”Sheldon Keefe said after the Devils 6-5 loss to the Capitals in overtime. “It was impressive. It was unfortunate that we don’t get rewarded more from that and we can’t take off and not look back from there, that was the disappointing part.”
There have been a lot of passengers this season, but Nico Hischier has not been one of them. Without his performance in that game, the Devils wouldn’t even get to overtime and earn that point that could be crucial in the standings later on in the season as they try to make the playoffs.
“The other disappointing part is we get Nico, gets the bad line changing over time that ends up leading to the goal against,” Keefe continued. “But we’re not even close to even being in that position without Nico’s effort here tonight. He was one of the standouts in the game, probably one of the very few.”
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As Keefe noted in the Washington game, Hischier got caught out on a bad line change leading to the game-winning goal. Hischier even takes responsibility for his mistakes during the overtime session against the Capitals when he got caught on a bad line change.
“We could have won that game,” Hischier said back this past Saturday in the overtime loss to Washington. “I like the way we responded in some areas of the game. But at the end of the day, we didn’t deserve it. We didn’t deserve the win. For myself, tough change in overtime and it ended up in the back of the net.”
And Hischier has continued that steller play into the rest of the games after Washington. While the effort was not there against Tampa Bay for the entire team, the Devils captain let his feelings be known about it. The players have responded including Timo Meier who has seven points in his last four games.
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But it can’t be a one-man show. As much as Nico Hischier is keeping his team in games and getting them close to winning two of the last three games, the effort has to be better from others. He liked how his team played against Detroit in the 5-3 loss, but he even knows there are things to clean up. But if they are going to play with that effort and compete level, the Devils will win most nights.
“I think team-wise I’m proud of how we played today,” captain Nico Hischier said following the loss. “Obviously some things that we can be better, two quick goals and probably (penalty kill) as well that cost us the game. But still a lot of good things we did today and I think if we play that way, we’re going to win more games than we lose.”
There is still a lot of hockey left to be played, but the rest of the team will have to follow their captain’s lead. Right now it is a one-man show and that needs to change in New Jersey.
