Cody Glass lined up opposite Teddy Blueger.
The official dropped the puck, and Glass snapped it back to his teammate and New Jersey Devils defenseman, Simon Nemec. The 21-year-old’s shot was blocked by Marcus Pettersson.
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The puck took a bounce off the boards behind Vancouver Canucks goaltender Kevin Lankinen, and Devils rookie Lenni Hämeenaho pounced.
Only 1:41 into the game, New Jersey held a 1-0 lead at Rogers Arena. Glass was the first of Hämeenaho’s teammates to celebrate the winger’s first career NHL goal.
“It was a great feeling,” Hämeenaho told NJD.TV of scoring, “Something you kind of don’t know before it happens, so it was great, a great feeling.”
It was a backhand shot that beat Lankinen, who was born a little over six hours south of Hämeenaho’s hometown of Kajaani, Finland.
It took seven periods of play at the NHL level for Hämeenaho to score. A player who historically has taken time to get comfortable in new situations, whether it was the rookie tournament or the start of the season in the American Hockey League (AHL), has adjusted quickly to the NHL, never looking out of place.
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“We have been kind of building towards this,” head coach Sheldon Keefe told NJD.TV. “Obviously, Lenni’s development in Utica in particular is something that we have been monitoring and waiting and feeling like we would get a look like this when he was ready for it.
“As I spoke about this morning, Glass’s progression, his game in the last month or six weeks, he has been hot in scoring, but his overall game has been very, very solid,” Keefe continued. “Because of that, I think he is now able to help carry a line, and Gritsyuk has helped. Now you get Lenni involved, and you can move (Brown) around, and you can get more from your group that way. That is kind of what we have been waiting for. But Lenni’s development and the patience that we have shown to allow him to find his game and to come up when he is ready has really served us well in the early going.”
His offensive contributions continued in the second period as he picked up his first NHL assist on Glass’ 12th goal of the season at 3:14, giving the Devils a 3-0 lead.
The middle frame was a back-and-forth period with Nico Hischier and Connor Brown additionally scoring. Unfortunately, the Devils surrendered three goals to Canucks’ Linus Karlsson, Teddy Blueger, and Zeev Buium.
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Entering the third period, the Devils held a 4-3 advantage over the Canucks. It was Glass, Hämeenaho’s linemate, that extended New Jersey’s lead to 5-3, securing the team’s third consecutive victory.
“There was a lot of chaos in the game, some that we created ourselves, particularly at the end of the game, but it is a lot better to learn inside the chaos after a win, there is no doubt about that,” Keefe said.
On Saturday night, in his third NHL game, Hämeenaho celebrated the first multi-point game of his career. By comparison, it took him 14 games with the Utica Comets (AHL) for him to have a two-point game.
The Devils will conclude their roadtrip on Sunday afternoon with one final stop at Climate Pledge Arena to face the Seattle Kraken.
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“It’s been a really good road trip for us,” Keefe said. “I think as much as you don’t love some of the things that happened today, giving the game back a little bit in that second period, giving them life and hope at the end of the game, some of that can serve as a nice little jolt on this road trip to keep us focused and keep us improving along the way.”
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