Wood Laying Out Opponents With Speed And Finishing Touches Might Be A Sign That The Devils Can Finally Return To Playoff Contention
Ruff Continues To Push Right Buttons
Taylor Hall rightly received credit for virtually carrying the Devils on his back to their only playoff appearance in the last decade, winning the Hart Trophy back in 2017.18.
A bit lost in the excitement of that campaign was the coming-out party of left wing Miles Wood, who, in only his second full season, contributed 19 goals and 13 assists playing mostly bottom-six minutes. His exceptional straight-line speed at his size (6-foot 2, 195 pounds) caught many an opponent off guard and he buried many of his one-on-one chances.
How ironic that the Devils, who have matched the torrid 9-3 start from that Hall of a year after sweeping a three-game Western Canada road swing for the first time since 1996, are again seeing Wood laying opponents out with his speed and finishing touches in a supposedly subordinate role. Wood notched three goals and three assists on the trip, including a huge marker in the third period to ignite New Jersey’s rally from down 3-1 to a thrilling 4-3 victory in Edmonton on Thursday. He then added another goal and assist in the Devils’ 4-3 overtime win in Calgary on Saturday,
While I’m sure many in the Devils organization will say this was expected all along, Wood hadn’t really come close to matching that modest 32-point number in his last four seasons, even as his ice time increased. He became known as a guy who would be the first to the puck but guaranteed to give it right back. Never all that diligent in the defensive zone, the Devils had expected goals for percentage below water in each of those seasons.
Always a streaky player, Wood showed signs of life at the tail end of the 2020-21 campaign when he potted seven goals and added four assists over a 16-game stretch to finish the season off with a respectable 17 goals. Unfortunately, a right hip injury in the ensuing preseason derailed further progress. Following surgery, he attempted a return to the ice in late March but was shut down after three ineffective games.
Now that he is healthy again, it can’t be understated how important a productive Wood is to the Devils’ cause. Along with linemate Nathan Bastian, Wood is really the only other forward on the team who has the size to play with imposing physicality (Michael McLeod, the center on the “BMW line”, doesn’t always play like he’s 6-foot 2).
Wood plays with jam, constantly churning and banging bodies in the cycle game and going hard to the net. When a smaller teammate is targeted unnecessarily, you can count on Wood to step in, although his entanglement with Vancouver defenseman Luke Schenn on Tuesday was only his second fight in nearly two years after engaging in numerous bouts in his early days.
American born and homegrown by New Jersey (he was selected No. 100 overall in the fourth round of the 2013 NHL Draft), Wood is only topped by defenseman Damon Severson by a year for the honor of longest-tenured Devil. He’s as much a part of the team’s feel-good start to the season as anyone else.
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For fans of the recently-cancelled HBO series “Westworld”, you know why I’m starting to think that someone must have cloned the old comatose version of Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff—because his facsimile behind the bench is pushing all the right buttons now as if he had already played out infinite scenarios in his head in advance.
Seriously, the embattled Ruff put the Devils in the best position for another rousing victory on Saturday night when he slotted rookie right wing Fabian Zetterlund at the off-hand faceoff circle (the “Ovi-zoid”, after Washington icon Alex Ovechkin) for the latter half of New Jersey’s four-on-three power play in overtime.
Sure enough, Zetterlund, who hadn’t touched the ice on any of New Jersey’s power plays this season, received a perfect pass from the point by defenseman Dougie Hamilton and blistered a one-timer past Calgary goalie Jacob Markstrom with 2:22 remaining in the extra session.
Talking to the media after the game, Ruff mentioned how he wanted his second PP unit to have more shooting ability, which is why he sent out Zetterlund and wing Yegor Sharangovich. Funny, his old power play groups typically included four forwards with basically the same skillset of thriving from the perimeter.
Around the same time that Ruff returned Zetterlund to the active lineup after four inexplicable healthy scratches in the team’s first five games --and assigned him to the first line with captain Nico Hischier and wing Tomas Tatar--he also sent Bastian out with the first power play group to create havoc around the net front.
The Devils haven’t lost since, with their six-game winning streak the team’s longest since the 2011-12 season. I like the upgraded version of Ruff.