{"id":434657,"date":"2023-11-30T10:06:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=434657"},"modified":"2023-11-30T10:06:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T15:06:19","slug":"new-jersey-devils-stock-up-stock-down-cap-is-back-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/11\/30\/new-jersey-devils-stock-up-stock-down-cap-is-back-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils Stock Up\/Stock Down: Cap Is Back Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thanksgiving was this past Thursday, and there hadn&#8217;t been much to be thankful for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/devils\/\" target=\"_self\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> fans. Fortunately, the tides are beginning to turn, especially with the return of captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hischni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nico Hischier<\/a>. Since <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2023\/11\/23\/new-jersey-devils-stock-up-stock-down-more-of-the-same-edition\/\" target=\"_self\">last week&#8217;s edition of stock up\/stock down<\/a>, the Devils completed a three-game homestand. The bad vibes rolled on in a 2-1 loss to the lowly <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/bluejackets\/\" target=\"_self\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>. However, in Hischier&#8217;s return to the lineup, the Devils trounced the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/sabres\/\" target=\"_self\">Buffalo Sabres<\/a> 7-2, and most recently erased a two-goal third-period deficit to win in the final seconds of regulation against the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/islanders\/\" target=\"_self\">New York Islanders<\/a> 5-4. With the captain&#8217;s return and back-to-back wins, there&#8217;s hope the Devils are turning their season around.<\/p>\n<h2>New Jersey Devils Stock Up\/Stock Down<\/h2>\n<h3>Stock Up<\/h3>\n<h4>Nico Hischier<\/h4>\n<p>It couldn&#8217;t be anyone else. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hugheja03.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jack Hughes&#8217;s<\/a> return from injury gave the Devils their superstar back, but Hischier&#8217;s return signifies the team getting its heart and soul back. Hischier is easily the Devil&#8217;s most reliable player in all three zones, scores goals, takes face-offs, kills penalties, and matches up with the opposing teams&#8217; top players. His start to the season was slow, but his return from the lineup was anything but. Against Buffalo, he registered a goal and an assist, as well as winning 64% of his face-offs. He followed it up with the game-tying goal third-period power-play goal against the Islanders, while again also winning 64% of his face-offs. Hischier looks as though he hasn&#8217;t missed a beat, and it&#8217;s clear that his return has galvanized the team over this two-game stretch.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jack. Cap. We\u2019re back. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/zj2kCiMBXJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/zj2kCiMBXJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NJDevils\/status\/1729686734055591991?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 29, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Stock Down<\/h3>\n<h4>The Penalty Kill<\/h4>\n<p>While the powerplay continues to produce, it&#8217;s the penalty kill that continues to get the Devils into trouble. They&#8217;ve given up three powerplay goals over the last three games and are currently ranked 23rd in the NHL. In recent games, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/ruffli01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lindy Ruff<\/a> has decided to use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/smithbr05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brendan Smith<\/a> as a fourth-line winger, but deploy him as a defenseman on the penalty kill, and it hasn&#8217;t been working like he&#8217;d have hoped. Fortunately, none of the goals given up cost them in the end, but for a unit that was one of the best in the league last year, the amount of goals against on the PK is alarming.<\/p>\n<h3>Stock Up<\/h3>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/holtzal01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexander Holtz<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>Nobody, and we mean nobody, had been under a microscope more than Alexander Holtz this season. While early on it was touch-and-go, he has come on in a big way as of late. He&#8217;s fourth on the team in goals and has two goals and an assist over the last three games. Holtz has been a standout play recently for a few reasons. First, during the team&#8217;s recent slump, he was one of the few who was playing hard and fast. He&#8217;s getting in faster on the forecheck than earlier in the season and isn&#8217;t afraid to finish his check. Second, Holtz would not have sniffed a second of ice time in late-game situations, but with under a minute left against the Islanders, it was his line that was sent out to finish the game and they rewarded Lindy Ruff with the game-winning goal.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/NHL\/status\/1728152169260462202<\/p>\n<h3>Stock Down<\/h3>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/v\/vanecvi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vitek Vanecek<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>Things are still bad in &#8220;goalie world&#8221; for the Devils. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/schmiak01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Akira Schmid<\/a> is beginning to find his game a little more, but Vanecek continues to be a problem. He was given the start against the Sabres and Islanders and let in a combined six goals on 30 shots across both games. Despite getting the win against the Sabres, he let in two goals on just 12 shots, good enough for a .833 SV%. Versus the Islanders, he let in four goals on 18 shots, a .778 SV %, and was pulled from the game. Vanecek only has five games with a SV% above .900, after having a .911 SV% last year. It&#8217;s safe to assume the clock is starting to tick on Vanecek before the front office decides to pull the trigger on another goalie.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main photo by: Ed Mulholland-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thanksgiving was this past Thursday, and there hadn&#8217;t been much to be thankful for New Jersey Devils fans. Fortunately, the tides are beginning to turn, especially with the return of captain Nico Hischier. Since last week&#8217;s edition of stock up\/stock down, the Devils completed a three-game homestand. The bad vibes rolled on in a 2-1 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4647,"featured_media":432354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4547,4548,1],"tags":[4225,37,151,38,922,4302],"class_list":["post-434657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devils","category-hockey","category-nhl","category-uncategorized","tag-alexander-holtz","tag-hockey","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-nico-hischier","tag-vitek-vanecek"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4647"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}