Hours before Devils grinder Nate Bastian fired the puck into the Flyers net like a true sniper, he showed up at MetLife Stadium dressed like a hitman from The Sopranos.
Oh, to be clear, all of the Devils were wearing velour tracksuits as part of their pregame costumes, a tradition that is part of what makes the NHL’s Stadium Series great. Bastian, wearing the colors of the Italian flag, pulled off the look better than any of his teammates. He would have fit right in standing behind Christopher Moltisanti at the Bada Bing.
He looked the part. So when he blasted the puck past Flyers goaltender Samuel Errson in the second period, Bastian couldn’t resist celebrating in true Tommy DeVito style with his fingers pinched and pointed at the night sky at MetLife Stadium as the 70,328 fans roared.
This was gabagool meets gabagoal.
“I don’t think guys who score once every 15 games typically plan their celebrations,” Bastian said with a smile, “but I had a good feeling tonight.”
He wasn’t alone. The Devils notched their most important win of the season on what was their biggest stage since they crashed the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals, beating the rival Flyers 6-3 in a win that significantly bolsters their playoff chances. They needed this one, and with two months left in the regular season, must find a way to bottle the effort that earned the two points.
But this was more than just a big win. This was a huge night for a Devils franchise that, for too much of its history, has had its rivals from New York and Philadelphia steal the national spotlight even as it won more championships. The Devils fans turned out in a way that left the players on the ice downright gobsmacked — and, they said, the support gave them a much-needed jolt of energy that carried them through the night.
“What a night,” head coach Lindy Ruff said. “To pull up in your bus and it’s 30 degrees, but there are 40,000 people in the parking lot, I mean what a day. In the end, all our fans that came out and supported us got rewarded with a heck of a game by our club.”
It helped that the Devils captain, Nico Hischier, gave them a rare first goal just 32 seconds into the game on a breakaway and another in the third period. But this was a night when the Devils were finally good from top to bottom again. This was Nico Daws starring in net. This was veteran Brendan Smith notching a goal and an assist.
This was a night stolen from last year’s breakthrough run in a season that, so far, has has too few of those. Will it lead to more of them? For a team two points behind Detroit for the final wild card, that’s the hope.
“That’s a win that brings the group together,” Hischier said. “We’re playing with confidence. You can see it out there.”
Hey, maybe it was the fresh air.
The first installment of the Stadium Series in the Meadowlands is a smashing success, and that’s before another 70,000 or so fans fill MetLife when the Rangers play the Islanders on Sunday afternoon. NHL outdoor games are nothing new — this was the 41st since 2008 — but it still felt special, important, different.
Then again, in the increasingly jaded universe of professional sports, anything that makes millionaire athletes behave like schoolkids is a good thing. The Devils took their Sopranos costumes so seriously that forwards Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt didn’t even carried espresso cups with them, ala Paulie Walnuts, and not just as props. When Meier finished his first shot of the caffeinated brew, Bratt was ready with a refill.
(The Sopranos look narrowly beat out a Bruce Springsteen “Born In The USA” theme in a team-wide vote, and the prospects of that alternative costume — tight denim jeans with the red ball cap in the back pocket — is reason enough not to wait a decade before having the annual outdoor game back at MetLife Stadium.)
The Devils weren’t perfect, and given the current makeup of their defense, are likely to give their opponents far more scoring opportunities than Ruff wants. In this game, at least, they had a goaltender up to the challenge in Daws.
The 23-year-old, who spent most of last season in the AHL after hip surgery, was making just his 35th NHL start. When asked if it occurred to him when the NHL announced that the Stadium Series was coming to New Jersey that he might be the team’s goalie, his reply said it all: “HA!”
“You could have asked me two months ago and I would have said no,” Daws said. He kept the Devils in the lead when the Flyers briefly took control of the game in the second period, and only when the game was over did he truly process the moment. “At the end of the game I just looked up and looked around, and I was just blown away.”
That feeling was common. Everywhere the Devils looked at MetLife Stadium, they saw a fan base that turned this outdoor game a celebration of all things Jersey. The team rewarded them with one of their best games of the season. What a night, indeed.
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Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com.