Drive to the Net: Penguins having devil of a time with Jersey's kids, Hall taken at PPG Paints Arena (Penguins)

Blake Coleman pushes a one-handed shot past Matt Murray. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

It says it right there on Taylor Hall's t-shirt: "New Jersey Devils Against the World."

That has become the unofficial motto of sorts for Hall's Devils, a team which few people -- if anyone --  gave much chance at this season's start. And it's a team which just beat the two-time Stanley Cup champions at their own game Friday night at PPG Paints Arena. Again.

If you missed it, that makes it three times in three meetings that the Devils have beaten the Penguins this season.

By losing 4-3 on Hall's breakaway goal just :27 into overtime, the Penguins didn't so much miss out on an opportunity to improve their own playoff stock as they missed a chance to sink a dagger into the Devils' hearts and playoff hopes.

TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO

The Devils were playing the last of a six-game road trip after losing their previous two. They entered the night with just a narrow one-point lead over the Panthers for the eighth and final spot in the Eastern Conference. And that was with Florida having two games in hand.

Despite all that, the young Devils won, just as they have all season. As Hall, a potential Hart Trophy finalist, was telling me, the Devils aren't afraid of the Penguins or anyone:

 

Now, the Devils are hardly great, aren't a finished product and certainly have defensive deficiencies, though goalie Keith Kinkaid, who appears to have bumped off Cory Schneider as the starter, was brilliant on Friday. Kinkaid made 40 saves, 16 of them in the third period, to hold off the Penguins.

But mostly, these Devils are fast, they are aggressive and in your face on the forecheck. And they bear absolutely no resemblance to their fore-bears of Jacques Lemaire and the neutral zone trap and the Dead Puck Era. Dare I say it, these Devils are entertaining.

If Friday night's game was a precursor to a potential playoff matchup -- as a hockey fan -- I'd be all in. Game No. 1,147 on the NHL docket was an instant classic. It had wild momentum swings, it had scoring, it had physicality. It reminded us why we all love the game in the first place.

As if Blake Coleman's one-handed goal in the second period wasn't enough:

 

Then there was this crazy sequence with just under seven minutes remaining in regulation in what had been a tied game. It may have been the loudest the big building on Centre Avenue has been all season, at least when Vegas wasn't in town, and I'm not sure it was all for the home team either. After the Penguins peppered Kinkaid in the Devils end, Michael Grabner got a breakaway chance and fired wide of the net:

 

Can you see Bobby Holik and Randy McKay doing this? Me neither.

But these Devils are still young and learning as Hall, one of the club's elder statesmen at 26, was saying.

"That’s something that we’re still kind of learning to do," he said. "You saw the surges that they had in the third period. They won back-to-back Stanley Cups. They've got skill on all four lines and they’re hard to play against, especially at home. You have to learn how to handle those momentum changes, playing in your own end, playing when there’s a lot of chaos going on and, at the end of the day, Keith had our back and that’s the reason why we were able to stave off that fourth goal and get it into overtime."

Man, Penguins v. Devils would be fun. Just not so sure that the Penguins would want that matchup.

In many ways, the Devils are a mirror image of the Penguins, which makes sense given that the general manager (Ray Shero), assistant GM (Tom Fitzgerald), head coach (John Hynes) and assistant coach (Alain Nasreddine) have strong Pittsburgh connections.

"I think they’re an extremely hard-working team," Conor Sheary told me after Friday's morning skate. "I’m familiar with their coaching staff. I know they’re extremely detailed in their video and how they scout other teams."

"They’re a relentless, hungry team," Jamie Oleksiak was saying.

Want to talk about relentless and hungry, did you see Hall's game-winner? This is only the tail end:

It was all set up by Nico Hischier. The 19-year-old and No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft simply outmuscled Phil Kessel down at his own end to spring Hall on the breakaway. Hall said he cheated a little, counting on Hischier to win that battle.

"You know how much skill they have out there and know that they’re offensive guys and how they’re going to think," he said. "I had a chance to take off a little bit and get behind them and I was hoping that Nico was going to win his battle and sure enough he did. It says a lot about Nico. It’s his rookie year. He's 19. He probably doesn't have as much energy as he’d like, but he came out and had a great game."

Hall, Hischier and Co. will get another crack at the champs next week in Newark when the Devils go for their first season series sweep of Pittsburgh since 2009-10. Could the Devils -- the team up "against the world" -- be in the Penguins' heads?

"I don’t know," Coleman was telling me. "They kind of bring out the best in us. We play a skating game. I don’t know if it's a matchup thing, but we feel good against a lot of the best teams. We beat a lot of good teams in tough buildings, it’s not just Pittsburgh. We kind of rise to the challenge of whoever we’re playing."

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY

Penguins vs. Devils, PPG Paints Arena, March 23, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

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