Taylor Hall answering will-to-win question and playing like an MVP

The body of work that encompasses who wins the Hart Trophy stops at the end of the regular season, but there are those moments that bleed into the playoffs that either confirm or confound a submitted ballot.

Through three postseason games, it’s been nothing but MVP confirmation for Taylor Hall.

The Devils forward has been the best player on the ice in what was supposed to be a lopsided first-round matchup with the top-seeded Lightning. That included a superlative performance in the dramatic 5-2 Game 3 victory on Monday night in Newark, when Hall had a goal and two assists and got New Jersey back in the series, now down 2-1 going into Game 4 back at The Rock on Wednesday night.

For the guy that had 93 points in 76 regular-season games — 39 more points than the next-closest on his team, the biggest disparity in the league by a mile — it’s hard to argue that anyone is even close in holding the same value to his club.

Nathan MacKinnion might be by far the best player on the upstart Avalanche, and Pekka Rinne might be the hottest goalie on the best team in the Predators. And veteran defenseman Andy Greene might be the actual captain of the Devils.

But no one is as important to his team as Hall.

“Taylor Hall is Taylor Hall every night, to me,” said 26-year-old Blake Coleman, not far behind Hall in defining the Devils’ competitiveness. “He’s a professional. He’s one of the best players on the ice every single night, day in and day out. So just used to it by now, really.”

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While the rest of the New York-area hockey teams work on their putting strokes, the fans of the sport in this area should be getting used to hearing Hall’s name mentioned in the conversation as one of the league’s best. (And yes, New Jersey, you are part of the New York area, even as much as some residents want to consider themselves a separate entity, and as much as the “Devils vs. Everybody” slogan has caught on.)

The 26-year-old Hall has emerged from his six-year burial in Edmonton after the Oilers took him with the No. 1-overall pick in the 2010 draft. At this point, general manager Ray Shero should be charged with a crime for the one-for-one deal that got Hall for the meek return of Adam Larsson two summers ago. Mind you, Hall still has two more years left on his deal at $6 million per before reaching free agency, and how many teams would sign up for that right now? (Keep going east from Newark and you’d find two of them.)

Nobody ever questioned Hall’s talent, but what is proving truer with each passing day is what Shero and his staff believed from the minute they made the deal — that Hall desperately wants to win, and hated never making the playoffs before this season.

It was impossible to miss him in Game 3, and it’s likely to be that way for a while.

“There were a lot of ups and downs, a lot of momentum swings, and that’s what we have to expect in a playoff game. I’m kind of learning you have to keep an even keel about you,” Hall said. “There’s always a chance to turn the tide.”

The Devils needed to wrest back some momentum in their building, and did it in front of a crowd that rocked on Monday just like a fan base that hasn’t seen postseason hockey since Game 5 of the 2012 Stanley Cup final. But in order to get Hall the time and space he needs, the home-ice advantage is far more important in terms of personnel matchups.

Back in Tampa, Lightning coach Jon Cooper had a much easier time matching against Hall, countering with Brayden Point’s great-skating checking line and Victor Hedman’s top defensive pair. But that’s a lot tougher for Cooper to do in Newark without the last change, and a lot tougher assignment when Devils coach John Hynes is finding every little nook and cranny of ice time for his best player.

“It’s one of those things that when you look at our team, are they just happy to be in the playoffs? This particular group is not,” Hynes said. “That’s powerful, and Taylor is a leader in that.”

Hall is the leader in everything the Devils do. Whether they have a chance to keep pushing the Lightning is largely predicated on him, and it still might not be enough in the end to actually win the series.

But now, at least there is clear confirmation he warrants the league’s most valuable player award.