NEW YORK – Nearly being scratched from the fourth game of the season last week seems to have gotten through to defenseman Matt Dumba.

He has played three strong games in a row, especially Saturday at New Jersey, where he played with an edge. He finished with four shot attempts and five hits.

"I think the fact he was supposed to sit out one game and go back in could be the Wally Pipp syndrome," coach Bruce Boudreau joked Sunday morning. "It might have opened his eyes for him to start playing the way he's capable of playing."

Dumba ended up not being scratched against Toronto on Thursday because Marco Scandella was sick.

"I didn't like it," Dumba said of almost being sat. "I took it in a way that if I got back in the lineup I was never going to let that happen again. That's the kind of motivation that I have. Just pride as a player. I hold myself to a higher standard."

With Jared Spurgeon hurt, Dumba has played the past two games alongside No. 1 defenseman Ryan Suter. He logged 26 minutes, 38 seconds vs. the Devils, 14 seconds from his career high. He assisted on Zach Parise's 300th goal in Sunday's 6-3 loss to the Islanders, logging 26:08. He is glad for the chance but sorry it comes at a cost to Spurgeon.

Dumba

"He's a guy that we love having back there," Dumba said. "He's a great player for us. I've got to be at my best. It's big shoes to fill. We have lots of great defensemen back here, so everyone is pulling their weight."

Niederreiter elevated

Former Islanders winger Nino Niederreiter entered Sunday with no goals and five shots in five games.

"Not enough. Not enough," Boudreau said of the shot total. "Granted he hasn't played a lot of minutes [17th on the team at 12:18 a game]. He's a big, strong guy with a good shot. He's got to get more."

Asked if he needs to increase Niederreiter's ice time, Boudreau said, "I don't think you get anything for free in this league. Hopefully he'll earn them."

Later that night, Boudreau elevated Niederreiter to Eric Staal's line. Niederreiter scored a goal and doubled his season shot total with five.

"I just have to find a way to get my shot off more often and try to crash the net more often," Niederreiter said.

Asked if he feels the short training camp because of the World Cup hurt him, Niederreiter said, "It definitely has something to do with the whole World Cup situation. … I wasn't here for the main part of the training camp, so it would have been a good opportunity to be in different kind of lines and see what I'm capable of, too."

Critiquing the vets

Under Boudreau, there's certainly a new level of accountability.

For instance, he has no qualms critiquing even his vets, like Suter and Mikko Koivu, who made the defensive coverage boo-boo before the Devils' overtime winner. This was unheard of under the previous coaching staff.

"I think they were both thinking different thoughts when we were talking about it [Sunday] morning," Boudreau said. "Because we've had a lack of overtime … maybe they didn't understand what message I was trying to get through. I showed them the clip and again said, 'This is what we do when we're playing against another team in overtime.' So get to it. We can't have ad-libbing."