Devils cruising after offseason changes, visit struggling Blue Jackets

More than a third of the way through the 2024-25 season, the New Jersey Devils are back where they'd hoped to be in a bounce-back campaign.

Winners of three straight and six of their past nine games, the Devils have vaulted to the top of the Metropolitan Division -- one point ahead of the Washington Capitals -- and second in the NHL overall. They'll look to keep that success going when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.

New Jersey, which finished third in the league two seasons ago with 112 points, is on pace to finish within a few points of that mark this season with 45 points through 34 games.

After an 81-point output last season, general manager Tom Fitzgerald hired coach Sheldon Keefe, acquired goalie Jacob Markstrom, and added defensemen Brett Pesce (free agent) and Johnathan Kovacevic (trade).

The Devils are averaging 2.56 goals-against per game this season after a 3.43 average last season.

"We had boxes to check in the summer. We did that," Fitzgerald said Monday. "The ebbs and flows of a season and the ebbs and flows of production from certain players, it comes and goes. We'd like to see more of it coming to take some pressure off some other guys. We're just a one-day-at-a-time team. That's it. We don't get too far ahead of ourselves. ... Just one day at a time."

The Devils are coming off a 4-1 road win against the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday, building up a 3-0 lead in the effort. The triumph came after scoring four times in the third period in a 4-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

"It looked the same way as we've been playing in the last home stretch here, which is good defensive hockey, good penalty kill, good power play coming up clutch for us again," Markstrom said after the game against St. Louis. "We don't get many chances but for us to put up three and one empty-netter, is big for us. We capitalized on our chances."

The Blue Jackets, meanwhile, head into the contest looking to snap out of a funk that has seen them drop five straight and eight of their past nine games (1-6-2). The latest was a 5-3 setback against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. They rallied to pull within one after trailing 4-0 before ultimately falling short.

In a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, Columbus fell behind 2-0 in the first.

"Down 4-0 is kind of embarrassing, especially with what happened in Carolina," forward Adam Fantilli said. "We wanted to come in and have a great game. Obviously, that wasn't it from the start. We tried to win with what we had left in the third. It wasn't enough."

Slow starts have been an issue during Columbus' current 0-3-2 slide. The Blue Jackets have given up the first goal in four of those games, and in three of them have fallen behind by multiple goals. They've trailed first 15 times through 32 games and have only won three in such instances.

"We have a choice like ... just give or step up, so we stepped up, but that's not enough," forward Mikael Pyyhtia said. "We have to play (the) full 60 minutes if we want to win the hockey games."

--Field Level Media