He can't. He won't. He doesn't. As much faith as I generally have in just about everything Taylor Hall does, all those doubts crossed my mind within the split second in which he outraced Evgeny Kuznetsov to the puck only to effortlessly chip it past him. Maybe it was the Devils' lack of overtime luck recently that had me feeling cynical, or perhaps it was my vantage point that me questioning whether or not he would pursue the most acute of angles as the math appeared to be just as daunting as the Capitals' backcheck. Whatever the case may be, I learned a valuable lesson that will hopefully benefit my blood pressure for the foreseeable future: The physics of Taylor Hall's skating are not bound by the laws of geometry. You would have thought he was on the ice with beer leaguers as he stopped in at the bar for last call, and he did so in such a casually dominant manner that it could only bear comparison to a Russian that shall remain nameless.
Now, getting a live look at the next episode of the breakout season of The Taylor Hall Show wasn't the only thing to like about the New Jersey Devils win over the only team that sits atop them in a stacked division. The smothering defensive effort that held one of the best offenses in the NHL to all of 6 shots through the halfway point, and a paltry 19 in a game in which they were playing catch up was about as encouraging as a Ray Shero pep talk. The penalty kill - led by the iron shins of Brian Gibbons - was incredible against a unit that tends to make the very best look incredulous. Drew Stafford literally stiff-armed the monkey off his back prior to roofing a backhander. Miles Wood flashed the type of finish that could prove his pesky union with Pavel Zacha and Kyle Palmieri to be a lasting one. Sami Vatanen lent the offense a trifecta of helpers from the defensive end. Keith Kinkaid continued to find a way to keep Cory Schneider's illness-related absence from the net from infecting the rest of the team. Mix in a performance so unrelentingly possessive that it would make a jealous high school girlfriend seem easy going and a disparity in shots that'd make you think the scoreboard operator feel asleep on the control panel, and you get a true team effort that - despite the blown lead - was every bit deserving of two points in the standings. That said, if you left that building with anything other than the main impetus behind last night's optimistic outlook on your mind then you're not the type of person I'd want to grab a beer with. Taylor Hall's superstardom took center stage when his team needed it the most, and I'll be damned if it didn't swing what could have been a deflating defeat into an ending so happy that it make an Asian masseuse reconsider her career path. The Devils played one of their best, most complete games of the season on both sides of the puck, but - when push came to shove - it was Taylor that made sure Ken Daneyko could unload the line he's more than likely had in his back pocket for months. Hall's well that ends well, indeed.
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