VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Brian Boyle, all smiles, made his emotional season's debut for the Devils on Wednesday night at Rogers Arena after being diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia at the start of training camp.
But just as the Devils got one veteran forward back in their lineup, they may have lost another as Marcus Johansson may have suffered a concussion on his first shift of the game. The Devils said he suffered an upper-body injury and was being evaluated.
But the real story for the Devils as they opened up a key, three-game Western Canada swing with a 2-0 win over the Canucks was Cory Schneider.
The improbable win, given how the Canucks carried the play through all three periods and left the Devils chasing the puck, allowed the Devils (9-2-0) to set a franchise record for their best ever start as they remain the only undefeated team in the NHL on the road this season at 5-0-0.
Schneider, the ex-Canuck, who won his third straight start at his former home arena, made 37 saves, including 13 in a frantic third period as the Canucks (6-4-2) continually pressed for the equalizer. The game was not decided until Drew Stafford's empty-netter with 16.0 seconds left in regulation.
This trip, the longest of the season so far and the start of a stretch of seven of the next 10 on the road, did start with the uplifting news that Boyle, who has practiced with the team since Oct. 22, would indeed make his Devils' debut after the 32-year-old signed a two-year, $5.5 million deal to join his fifth NHL team as a free agent.
Boyle logged 15:19 in his first game since the Maple Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs on April 23.
Jacob Markstrom made 24 saves for the Canucks.
The Devils lost Johansson just 57 seconds into the game as he chased Canucks rookie Brock Boeser deep into the offensive zone. At the last second, Boeser veered to his left and Johansson went face first into the backboards.
After being attended to on the ice, Johansson skated slowly under his own power to the Devils' bench and was then led directly to the team's room.
Johansson had been a late scratch from Saturday's 4-3 win over the Coyotes at Prudential Center as he suffered a lower-body injury in warmups, saying later he couldn't generate any power as he skated and was also experiencing pain.
Jimmy Hayes gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 10:09 of the second period, despite the Devils playing without their usual solid structure and the Canucks sustaining pressure in the Devils' zone.
Taylor Hall rushed up the left wing and took a blast that Markstrom stopped with his pad. But Hayes wound up with a long rebound and beat the goalie from the right circle.
The Devils opened the three-game trip after Hall opined before the team departed for Vancouver that the swing "is where a team decides is it a playoff team or just a mediocre team."
The Devils started last season 9-3-3, including a win at Dallas to open a four-game Western swing. But that trip concluded with losses at Anaheim, Los Angeles and San Jose, part of a 3-10-4 slide that was a bad omen for the rest of the season.
"It snowballed a little," captain Andy Greene said. "Obviously you remember it and, obviously, it's a different year, different team. But it's important that we learn from it. It's a good measuring stick for us right now at this point of the season."
