Devils' 4-1 Win vs. the Blues: Timo Time Is Back

Timo Meier's hat trick helped power the New Jersey Devils to a much-needed 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues.

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The New Jersey Devils needed that one last night. After a tough stretch of games, they came away with a relatively comfortable 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues, led by Timo Meier's hat trick. Given the circumstances and the trade deadline less than 24 hours away, that's as well as the Devils could have played. Here are three takeaways from the win. 

Devils New Line Top Dominated

With Tyler Toffoli sitting out last night for precautionary reasons (trade-related), interim head coach Travis Green had to make some adjustments to his lineup. After missing Tuesday's game with a lower-body injury, Ondřej Palát returned and moved to the top line with Nico Hischier and Timo Meier. 

Coming into last night's contest, the line of Palát, Hischier and Meier had played a couple of games together and put up impressive results, posting a 67.49 expected goals share (xG%) in a small sample size of 25 minutes. There were signs that they could dominate, and it came to fruition last night. 

Obviously, the highlight was Meier's hat trick. It started in the first period when he scored on the power play to give the Devils a 1-0 lead, but that was just the start for him. Later in the first, John Marino fired a soft wrist shot from the point that took a fortunate bounce off a Blues skater. Palát corraled the puck and made a great slap pass to Meier in the slot, who made it 2-0 Devils. 

The Devils dominated in the first period, owning a 25-7 shot attempt advantage and an 87.44 xG%. A big part of that was the Palát, Hischier and Meier line, but they continued it throughout the game. 

Facing some pushback from the Blues in the second period after they cut the deficit to 2-1, the top line cashed in again. Nico Hischier corraled a high flip at the Blues' blue line from Alex Holtz. The puck took a fortunate bounce to Palát after Hischier had his stick lifted, but he made a great pass to an oncoming Meier, who completed the hat trick to give the Devils some breathing room again. 

Meier was flying from the opening shift last night. Some will chalk it up to him playing on the right side again. Maybe that made a difference, but I'm not buying it. Emily Kaplan said during the first intermission that Meier only started feeling fully healthy about ten days ago. He looked like vintage Meier last night because he's healthy and not because he was playing right wing.