Sunday's hockey game in Buffalo provided Devils coach Lindy Ruff with a chance to see how his young team would respond to playing its first back-to-back in this COVID-shortened season.
"If some guys are low on energy, obviously, there were some players that played bigger minutes [Saturday]," Ruff said in his pregame press conference. "We'll maybe manage the length of shifts, and put it in a situation where we play all four lines on a more regular basis."
The Miles Wood-Michael McLeod-Nathan Bastian line was especially impressive, accounting for four goals in a 5-3 win that helped New Jersey earn a weekend split with the Sabres at KeyBank Center.
The Devils (4-3-2) snapped a three-game skid and have taken at least one point from 6-of-9 games so far in 2021. They will begin February with two games in Pittsburgh before returning home to face the Rangers next Saturday.
Wood took over the team scoring lead with his fourth goal of the season, which came with 0.9 seconds remaining in the second period. The tally gave the Devils a much-needed after Buffalo had erased a 2-0 deficit in a span of 1:12, and the Buffalo native later added an empty-netter for No. 5.
In the third, Wood and Bastian set up McLeod for his second goal of the game at the 10:40 mark. That completed the 22-year-old McLeod's first career multi-goal outing.
Two players made their Devil debuts: Eric Comrie was in net to give Scott Wedgewood a breather after five straight starts, and forward Mikhail Maltsev saw his first NHL action.
Jesper Boqvist centered a line in his return from the taxi squad and notched his first point of the year, assisting on Andreas Johnsson's goal with 16.1 seconds to go in the first.
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Comrie comes up clutch
Comrie stopped 30-of-33 shots while sporting the images of four franchise greats on his mask – Martin Brodeur, Ken Daneyko, Chico Resch and Scott Stevens. His .909 save percentage for the game was 41 points higher than his career number going in (.868).
The 25-year-old, who was born less than two weeks after the Devils won their first Stanley Cup championship, turned aside the first 20 shots he faced. Buffalo's Curtis Lazar broke the shutout with 5:49 to go in the second period.
Comrie played just five games in three NHL seasons with Winnipeg, the franchise that drafted him in 2019, and made his first appearance since Dec. 15, 2019 with the Red Wings.
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Palmieri on COVID list
Although no announcement was made prior to the game, the MSG-Plus broadcast revealed early in the first period that Kyle Palmieri was scratched and placed on the Devils' COVID list. He joined fellow captaincy candidate Travis Zajac – who otherwise would have been playing his 1,000th career game Sunday – as well as Connor Carrick and goalies Mackenzie Blackwood and Aaron Dell on the list.
