LAS VEGAS (AP) The New Jersey Devils are fighting for their playoff lives.And they’re certainly playing like it.Blake Coleman scored twice Womens Jaroslav Halak Jersey , Michael Grabner and Nico Hischier each had a goal and an assist, and New Jersey routed the Vegas Golden Knights 8-3 on Wednesday night.After opening a six-game road trip with a victory over Western Conference-leading Nashville on Saturday, the Devils handed Vegas, the second-best team in the West, its worst home loss of the season.”It’s great for our team. You score eight goals, guys start finding confidence, finding some good touch,” said Taylor Hall, who notched his team-high 31st goal of the season. ”You get to game 60, 70, it’s really the best players on the team have to come out and play their best, and that’s what we’re looking to have. It’s huge for our team, especially on a road trip like this.”Travis Zajac, Stefan Noesen and Kyle Palmieri also scored for the Devils, who improved to 9-6-0 in their last 15 and moved one point ahead of idle Columbus for the top wild card in the Eastern Conference. Keith Kinkaid stopped 39 shots.”We need points here, we need wins,” said Kincaid, who improved to 18-9-2 this season. ”We came out with a purpose. We wanted to get to our game and try to take away their speed. I knew I had to be strong there for the guys and just give them a chance to win.”Erik Haula had two goals and Colin Miller also scored for Vegas, which just completed a 4-1 road trip. The Golden Knights gave up eight goals for just the second time this season. They have dropped three straight games in regulation at home for the first time.Marc-Andre Fleury, who earned his 400th career victory against Philadelphia on Monday, gave up four goals on 11 shots before being pulled early in the second period. Backup goalie Maxime Lagace came on and also allowed four goals on 17 shots.Fleury was making his seventh straight start, and 18th in 19 games. Since returning from a concussion in mid-December, the 14-year veteran has made 31 starts and sat out a mere seven games.But Vegas coach Gerard Gallant deflected any notion Fleury might have been fatigued after a long road trip and his milestone win two days prior.”The team struggled tonight,” Gallant said. ”It was a tough night. It was tough start. We played real well at times, and then we played real bad at times. … I still thought we were going to win the game after two periods, I felt we were playing good, we were playing strong, we had lots of chances to score, hit a bunch of goal posts and it ends up 8-3 and it’s sort of a weird game.”The Devils opened the scoring by taking advantage of a turnover at the blue line by Vegas’ Nate Schmidt, as Coleman swatted at Brian Gibbons’ pass with shot that slipped past Fleury through the five-hole.Less than two minutes later, while streaking down the right side, Hischier’s attempt at centering a pass to the crease deflected off Vegas’ Tomas Tatar and past Fleury to make it 2-0.Two goals 36 seconds apart extended New Jersey’s lead to 4-0 just 2:31 into the second period. First it was Zajac beating Fleury stick side, then it was Noesen slipping behind the defense for a breakaway and shimmying the puck through the five-hole, ending Fleury’s night.Vegas got two back when Haula punched a rebound at the top of the crease in for a power-play goal at 11:08, and Miller fired a wrist shot from the point that sailed through a screen and past Kinkaid with 1:05 left in the middle period.Coleman got his second of the game early in the third, followed by goals from Grabner, Palmieri and Hall to put the game out of reach.Haula’s second goal came with 28 seconds left.”I think it was nice to find the back of the net as much as we did tonight,” Devils coach John Hynes said. ”In the last couple of weeks, we played some really good hockey but didn’t get rewarded in the score sheet or the win column.”There’s a lot of emotion this time of year, so there’s surges. It’s understanding how to handle those situations and not lose yourself but regather yourself and push yourself. I thought we handled it fairly well at times, but there are definitely some things in this game, and the Nashville game we can continue to work on with our guys.”NOTES: The attendance was a season-high 18 John Tavares Jersey ,420 at T Mobile. … Fleury remains one victory away from moving into a tie for 12th all-time amongst goaltenders at 401. … David Perron’s assist on Haula’s second goal set a record for most assists by a player in an expansion team’s inaugural season. … Coleman registered his first multi-goal game of the season.UP NEXTNew Jersey: At Los Angeles on Saturday.Vegas: Hosts Minnesota on Friday night. Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman now has something in common with Boston Bruins counterpart Don Sweeney.They both tapped the New York Rangers before the NHL trade deadline Monday.A day after the Bruins landed power forward Rick Nash from the Rangers, the Lightning followed suit by acquiring New York captain Ryan McDonagh in a multiplayer trade.”We take note and we look around, and we feel the moves made in our conference, those teams are better,” Yzerman said shortly before the NHL-leading Lightning played at Toronto. ”But our moves were not to keep up with the Jones.”Whatever Yzerman’s motive, it didn’t matter to Rangers GM Jeff Gorton as he continued to overhaul an aging roster.New York also sent forward J.T. Miller to Tampa Bay in a deal that netted the Rangers forward Vladimir Namestnikov, two prospects and two draft picks: a first-round selection in 2018 and a conditional first-rounder in 2019.”Just trying to take it all in,” Gorton said. ”We have a lot of new players, a lot of new faces, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity as we go forward.”The rebuilding Rangers now have three first-round picks, including one from the Bruins, in this year’s draft and seven in the first three rounds.The 28-year-old McDonagh joins a Lightning lineup already well-stocked with elite defensemen. Miller is a two-time 20-goal scorer.”You’re always looking at ways to try and improve your team,” Yzerman said. ”Whatever we were going to do was to improve it and not do it at an outlandish price.”The Lightning weren’t the only contender to part with high draft picks among the 18 trades made on Monday.The Winnipeg Jets gave up a first-rounder as part of a trade to acquire forward Paul Stastny, a six-time 20-goal scorer, in a trade with St. Louis.”Incredibly excited when I first caught wind of it being a possibility, and even the possibility was really exciting,” Jets forward Blake Wheeler said of adding Stastny. ”A really, really great addition.”The Nashville Predators gave up a first-round pick as part of a deal to land forward Ryan Hartman from the Chicago Blackhawks.And the expansion Vegas Golden Knights added to their Western Conference-leading team by acquiring three-time 20-goal-scoring forward Tomas Tatar from Detroit. The Red Wings added three draft picks, including a first-round selection.The San Jose Sharks added size and scoring by acquiring Evander Kane from Buffalo for two picks, including a conditional 2019 first-round selection, and a prospect.The four first-round picks swapped – not including the two conditional selections – were the most to move on the final day of NHL trading since at least 2008, according to league figures. And no first-rounders had moved on each of the previous two trade-deadline days.Sharks general manager Doug Wilson attributed the amount of high draft picks swapped to how tight the playoff races are, particularly in the Western Conference. Before games on Monday, six points separated the Sharks, who sit second in the Pacific Division standings, and Colorado, which is 11th in the West.”It’s supply and demand of those players that can make a difference,” Wilson said. ”Some people would say pricey, but it almost always is pricey at this time of year when you have competitive juices flowing.”Not all teams found takers.The Ottawa Senators were unable to move captain Erik Karlsson, a two-time Norris Trophy winner who will be making $7.5 million in the final year of his contract.General manager Pierre Dorion acknowledged he fielded offers on every player over the past few months. When it came to Karlsson, Dorion said there was no ”franchise deal out there” for his franchise player.Even Sabres general manager Jason Botterill acknowledged having difficulty finding a trade partner for Kane, who is completing the final year of his contract.”The bottom line is we had one legitimate offer for Evander and that’s why we worked off of it with San Jose,” he said.The teams who began the day holding the East’s final two playoff spots made deals.Eighth-place Columbus acquired veteran forward Thomas Vanek from Vancouver and veteran defenseman Ian Cole from Ottawa.The seventh-place New Jersey Devils obtained forward Patrick Maroon from Edmonton for a 2019 third-round pick and prospect J.D. Dudek.Three teams added players via waivers.The Philadelphia Flyers claimed Johnny Oduya after the two-time Stanley Cup-winning defenseman was waived by Ottawa. The Flyers, who have won five straight and are 9-0-2 in their past 11 games, lost defenseman Mark Alt, who was claimed on waivers by Colorado. And the Calgary Flames added forward depth by claiming Chris Stewart, who was waived by Minnesota.—AP Hockey Writers Larry Lage and Stephen Whyno, sports writers Josh Dubow, Mitch Stacy and Dan Gelston, and freelance writers Denis P. Gorman, Mark Ludwiczak and Jim Diamond contributed to this report.—
