When the New Jersey Devils visit, fans of their hosts rarely have reason to celebrate. It was the same on Saturday when the New Jersey Devils stole both points with a 5-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings. For the 17th time this season, the Devils left foreign ice as the winners. 17 wins in the first 20 away games of a season (17-2-1) was something that no team had ever achieved in the long history of the NHL.
Devils coach Lindy Ruff explained after the game at the Crypto.com Arena why his team is so busy scoring away.
“I’ll try it once. Every coach knows there are different ways to win a game. You can win games through special teams or by defending well. But we also won games because we scored at the right time We won games in overtime. We managed to find many different ways to leave the ice as winners. In the away games, our game was better in detail, in small details, than at home. We control better the puck than at home. In our home games we sometimes acted too hastily,” said the coach.
At home, the Devils are 11-10-2, averaging 3.04 goals per game. Away they get 4.10 goals per game.
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“Obviously, scoring goals is a bigger problem for us in home games, but we also lost a few games in which we created a number of chances and often shot at the opponent’s goal. The puck just didn’t find its way into the net. It’s hard to explain something like that.”