NEWARK, N.J. _ The trade heard 'round the world is still being heard loud and clear, night after night at the Rock.
From the outside looking in, it might seem as though Taylor Hall is putting the Devils on his back through the last week of the regular season and carrying them into playoffs. Case in point: The highlight-reel goal he scored in the second period that embarrassed the New York Islanders.
However, Hall doesn't need to put the Devils on his back because when he's on the ice, he makes everyone around him better. So, they'll take his lead, feed off his intensity and feed him when he has a shot on net.
That's exactly what they did on Saturday night at Prudential Center in a 4-3 win over the Islanders.
Hall scored twice and Stefan Noesen and Blake Coleman each made the score sheet with a goal and an assist. Kyle Palmieri's assist gave him nine points in 11 games and Keith Kinkaid made 27 saves.
Will Butcher assisted on two goals to set a franchise record for single-season assists by a rookie defenseman. The 23-year-old defenseman now has 39 on the season.
The victory puts the Devils (41-28-9, 91) five points ahead of the Florida Panthers. The Devils have a chance to go up seven points Sunday night in Montreal, as Florida doesn't play again until Monday against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Both of Hall's goals came in the second period and he came oh-so-close to a hat trick in the third.
With the Devils up 2-1, he scored 41 second into the frame when he tried to thread the needle for Palmieri on the power play and the puck was kicked in past Islanders' goalie Thomas Griess by one of his own players. It was the third straight power-play goal in as many games for the Devils.
Hall then scored again at 9:08 in a ridiculous sequence.
Noesen fed him at his own blue line and he took the puck nearly coast-to-coast, dangled through two Islanders through the neutral zone and snapped off a screaming top-shelf wrister from the left circle. It was a highlight-reel goal that put the Devils up 3-1, as MVP chants rang out from a packed barn.
It was a slam dunk and while it was a baffling defensive series by the visitors, it was an MVP-like play from Hall.
Tanner Fritz scored for New York just 1:15 into play, but the goal was enough to kick the Devils into overdrive. They applied immense pressure on the Islanders, keeping the puck deep in their zone for several minutes. They hammered Griess with shots as the men in front of him failed to keep up.
A goal felt inevitable.
Finally, Coleman won a puck battle behind the net and fed Noesen as he crashed the net. Noesen's equalizer came at 7:54.
Anthony Beauvillier got one back for the Islanders with a power play goal at 13:19 in the second period to make it 3-2. But the lead was short-lived, as Coleman netted a short-handed goal with 1:02 left to play.
With 3:39 left in the game, Chris Wagner cut the deficit to one. Hall nearly had a hat trick with just over 90 seconds on the clock but was denied by Griess at the doorstep.
Kinkaid also had to do some denying of his own in a frantic final two minutes of play. He stopped John Tavares and Ryan Puloch with less than 15 seconds left and a big slapshot by Nick Leddy to preserve the final 4-3 victory.
