Lazar Saves Devils To Help Exorcise Nashville Demons
Nashville has pretty much always been a veritable House of Horrors for the Devils. Going into Tuesday’s contest, New Jersey hadn’t won a game in regulation at Bridgestone Arena in their last 14 tries.
So when Predators forward Cody Glass had the puck come to him in front with an open net staring at him with about 90 seconds remaining after the Devils had taken a 3-2 lead four minutes earlier, the ghosts were banging on the door.
Only Devils forward Curtis Lazar wasn’t ready to concede anything. He slid into Glass’ shot and sent the puck harmlessly away. New Jersey then got an empty net goal from captain Nico Hischier, his second of the night, to secure a crucial 4-2 victory and exorcise the demon.
When the Devils traded for Lazar nearly a year ago, surrendering a 2024 fourth-round Draft pick to Vancouver, few took much notice. He was a depth piece, a grinder on a rising team that played at a high speed. Injuries limited him to four regular season games and he was a healthy scratch for several playoff encounters.
Fast forward to February 2024 and now Lazar is one of the most pivotal of Devils players as the team is embarking on an arduous quest to qualify for the Stanley Cup tournament.
Michael McLeod’s leave last month due to his impending arrest on sexual assault charges left a gaping hole that one normally wouldn’t attribute to a bottom-six center. McLeod not only was the NHL’s top faceoff man at an outrageous 65%, he was also starting to find his groove as an offensive force. His ten goals this season were a career high.
Now that the Devils have their forward group at full strength after an injury glut, Head Coach Lindy Ruff has been able to settle on line combinations, with Lazar moving in from the wing into that McLeod role. He’ll never be that adept at draws—he lost 5-of-15 on Tuesday night to drop to 52.5% on the season—but he’s going to put his body on the line over all 200 feet for whatever ice time he garners, which has seen an increase of over a minute per game this month.
Lazar leads all Devils forwards in blocked shots and is two hits behind Nathan Bastian for the team lead in that category. He’s also one of New Jersey’s top penalty killers—Ryan O’Reilly’s first period tally for Nashville was the first time Lazar had been on the ice for a goal against while shorthanded since McLeod departed on January 24.
Ruff’s recent tweaks to his system have burdened centers with more defensive responsibility, and Lazar is certainly up to that task. However, Lazar is now needed to contribute some offensively as well. He’s at his best as a hard-charging net driver, which is another way of saying he has limited skill.
But there’s no shame in dirty goals, and the Devils’ game-winner on Tuesday arose in just that manner. As they had been doing all game, New Jersey was pumping shots at Nashville goalie Juuse Saros when one by defenseman Simon Nemec from the right wall bounced into the front of the net. Lazar got a whack at the puck and it went back towards the blue paint to Timo Meier, who put it past Saros with 5:16 remaining.
The Lazar-Meier-Dawson Mercer line had been buzzing all game, owning a 90% expected goals for percentage at five-on-five, per NaturalStatTrick.com. Pretty good for any night, but extraordinary for this team on the second half of a back-to-back, a situation where the Devils previously had won just once all season in nine games.
For the Devils (27-21-4, two points behind Detroit for the final Wild Card slot) to move into a playoff position, it’s going to take contributions from others outside of the Hischier and Jack Hughes lines. Assuming he can stay upright, Lazar is going to be smack in the center of these developments.
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When the Devils announced on Tuesday afternoon that they were sending defenseman Santeri Hatakka back to AHL Utica so they can make room for much-maligned veteran defenseman Brendan Smith’s return to the lineup from a sprained knee, my reaction was to do my best John McEnroe impression: You cannot be serious!
Sure enough, Smith was on the ice for both of Nashville’s goals and, in a game where the Devils nearly doubled their scoring chances over the Predators, barely eclipsed 50% in the five-on-five Corsi metrics, per NST. That’s hard to do.
It must be nice for Ruff that he rarely gets put on the spot with follow-ups from independent journalists to explain decisions like this one. He says he likes Smith on the penalty kill? Well, was he aware that the Devils hadn’t been scored against in the 14:16 Hatakka was on the ice while shorthanded over his seven games?
I wrote about Hatakka in a prior post ( Message Delivered From Captain Leads Devils To Win Over Avs (substack.com)), and he had been just as steady since. He stabilized a third pair that had been troublesome for much of the season.
I get that Hatakka was deemed the odd man out because he is waivers exempt, but at this stage of the season, are we really making player personnel decisions on areas other than merit? Who cares if Nick DiSimone was claimed? He hasn’t suited up in a game since he was picked up by the Devils off waivers on January 25.
And as for Smith, mark my words: He’s going to cost the Devils an important game at some point during the stretch run.