When the Devils traded top young defenseman Adam Larsson for No.1 overall pick Taylor Hall in 2010 most people thought of it as a steal for the Devils. The way that Hall has produced, in no disrespect to Adam Larsson, has made this an absolute travesty. Hall has made every single player on the Devils better across all aspects of the game especially Travis Zajac who has majorly struggled over the past of couple years to do anything that actually involves offense. The fact that the Devils are nicely sitting in the first wild card spot with an 8-3-3 record is a testament to Hall and the way he's brought this team together.
Devils becoming accountable
Getting a chance to see what Hall does every night really makes me wonder what the hell the Edmonton Oilers were doing for six years. Hall has made every single forward for the Devils better because playing with better players pushes everyone to be better themselves. For the past couple years most of the Devils were on the same level, which didn't compare to most other teams in the league. They didn't have that go-to guy anymore and on some nights looked like a minor league offense. They scored like it too by finishing in the bottom-five in scoring over past couple years.
Everything's different with Hall here because the Devils have the goaltending set with Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid.
The defense has done a great job with Ben Lovejoy coming in an playing a great shutdown role and Damon Severson having a great bounce-back year so far. The offense isn't there yet, but they're winning the games this year that they lost the past couple seasons and that's great to see if you're a Devils fan.
Skill trumps all
The Devils have a great coaching staff with John Hynes leading the way and he got maximum production last year out of a group that shouldn't have been where they were.
This year is proving that you need skill to win games, and yeah, that goes for any sport, but especially with the way the NHL is going with all these great young players coming in. The Devils simply didn't have that skill the past couple years, but this year they're out shooting teams, they're making great plays across the ice, and making the important plays when they matter.
I can't remember the last time that one skilled player has made this much of a difference when moving to one team to another. Hall isn't single handedly winning games every night, but he's pushing everyone else to be at their best to keep up with what he can do. It's not something that he's telling everyone, but when the other players see what Hall can do it's a subconscious thing to what to play up to his level. This is a great start though for the Devils and isn't not about whether or not Hall can keep doing what he's doing, but if the team in general can keep up with him.
