DETROIT _ The way Taylor Hall sees it, the Devils' job this month is to make general manager Ray Shero's job very difficult leading to the March 1 trade deadline.
A strong February for the Devils, still on the fringes of the playoff hunt, will give Shero an interesting decision to make: Sell, buy or stand pat at the deadline.
"That's the whole idea," said Hall, the Devils' lone All-Star this season. "To make sure we put Ray in a tough spot. To do that, we have to win some games. We have a very favorable schedule. For us to put together a streak and take advantage is going to be huge."
One game does not make a streak but the Devils came out of the All-Star break and ended January with a 4-3 win over the Red Wings as Kyle Palmieri scored twice, including one of his squad's two short-handed goals, and Cory Schneider made 27 saves on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena.
The Devils withstood a frenzied Red Wings rally as they scored twice in the final 8:11 and then had a six-on-four with Palmieri off for interference at 17:44 and Jared Coreau (20 saves) off for an extra skater.
Still, the Devils (21-21-9), no longer in a tie with the Red Wings (20-21-9) for the fewest points in the Eastern Conference, are now 7-0-1 on the road since Dec. 29 and have won five straight road games.
But it's at home that will make or break the Devils heading into the trade deadline.
The Devils play nine of their 11 games in February at Prudential Center and one of their two road games in the month is against the Islanders in New York. But the Devils are 1-7-1 at home since Dec. 27 and have lost six straight at The Rock.
The Red Wings are in an 0-2-3 skid and are in danger of having their 25-season streak of reaching the playoffs snapped in their final season at Joe Louis Arena.
The Devils certainly backed up Hynes' pregame belief that they would be more than amped up to resume their season after the break.
They applied pressure from the opening draw in the first period _ Palmieri hit the shortside post from below the left circle on the first shift _ and took a 1-0 lead at 1:28 as waiver pickup Stefan Noesen scored his second goal in two games with the Devils after being claimed from the Ducks.
It became 2-0 at 6:21 as Palmieri notched his first career short-handed goal, taking the puck at his own blue line, navigating the neutral zone and skating around veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall to get to the crease and beat Coreau over his left pad.
However, after taking nine of the game's first 11 shots, the Devils went nine minutes, 13 seconds without one until Devante Smith-Pelly got one on net at 18:42.
And the Red Wings continued to carry the play deep into the second period, though they were unable to put a shot on net during a five-on-three power play that lasted one minute, 16 seconds after Kyle Quincey crosschecked Darren Helm at 9:01 with Vern Fiddler already in the box for holding Henrik Zetterberg.
But it was Zetterberg who ended Schneider's shutout bid at 18:03, getting to the crease to knock in Gustav Nyquist's feed.
Palmieri's second goal, a wrist shot from just inside the right circle off Hall's feed, regained the two-goal lead for the Devils with 33.1 seconds left in the second period.
Adam Henrique added a second short-handed goal at 10:30 of the third period to make it 4-1 _ his 13th career short-handed goal _ though the Red Wings scored on the power play as Tomas Tatar cut the lead back to 4-2 at 11:49.
