‘Play with a bit of a chip on my shoulder’

“So I don’t think vindicated is the word I’d choose. I’m happy for the season I’m having personally and I’m happy for my team’s season. That’s a good feeling to have after the years that I’ve been through.”

The Devils currently hold the first wild-card spot, but still have a battle ahead of them to keep it.

In other words, Hall will need to continue his magic for the rest of March and possibly the first two weeks of April. But if he does, a player with more than 500 regular season games under his belt will finally get his first taste of the playoffs.

“I don’t really feel all that much pressure individually,” he said of his recent point streak. “More so as a team, we feel pressure to make the playoffs, to get in there and get some wins down the stretch. That’s where my attention is now. I’ll trade a zero-point night at this point for a win. That’s where we’re at in the season right now.

“If I’m going to go pointless in a night, I hope it’s a night where I have seven or eight shots and the line I’m on generates a lot of chances and we’re able to generate a lot of offence and it just doesn’t go in. You don’t want to eventually go pointless where you don’t factor in to much offensively.”

With the top-20 scorers all producing at a point-pergame pace, this has been a good year for individual star talent. But it’s also been the year of the comeback.

Vegas’ William Karlsson, who has 59 points and is tied for fourth in the NHL with 35 goals, has already scored more than he did in his previous two seasons combined in Columbus. Alex Ovechkin is back leading the Rocket Richard Trophy race after finishing outside the top-10 in 2016-17, while Eric Staal is on pace for his best season in more than 10 years. And Marc-Andre Fleury and Roberto Luongo are among the leaders in save percentage.

Of course, it’s Hall who’s made the loudest noise.

“I’ve tried to play with a bit of a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “It’s been a year-and-ahalf since I‘ve been traded, New Jersey Devils forward Taylor Hall is on pace to have his best-ever season in the NHL. so a bit of that has worn off. It’s more about how can I help my team here, how can we get into a better spot, how can we get into the playoffs? That’s been my motivation more so this year than last.”