Post-Game Talk: Devils beat Flyers 5-2!

[Guttersniped]

This hasn't come out of nowhere. Bratt was 3rd on the team in goals in 2020 and 3rd on the team in points in 2021 (even though he played 10 fewer games than Hughes, who beat him for 2nd by 1 point).

Bratt plays well and then either gets hurt or gets inexplicably demoted. His 16 goals in 51 games in 2020 was with him averaging 13:59 a game and only 11:56 at ES - both were about 1 minute less than what Wood got last year in his "breakout" season that everyone was praising him for.

The difference this year is that he's healthy and has consistent linemates. That's really it.

He's been great for the last two seasons, except his finishing went to hell last season. He shot 3.90% 5v5, while shooting a lot and really doing well in terms of shot creation, but man, it was just not going in. He got 2 more goals on power play but he's never particularly shot well on that either, but surprisingly last season's 13.33% was his best since his rookie year (4 PP goals, 18.18%). He doesn't shoot a lot on the PP though.

Everybody likes you more when the pucks start going in. Bratt was going to shoot better this season, I didn't have any doubt there, but I didn't know how well, so his potential goals were hard to gauge. He's super smart about getting shots but he's not a sniper, so it going waiver a little. Lack of power play production will dampen his totals too, unless they shock the world with a functional PP and he shoots more on it.