Devils Rookie Henrique Settling In Between Two Stars NEWARK - Adam Henrique, a 21-year-old center playing in only his 35th N.H.L. game, hopped over the boards with two other Devils forwards 45 seconds into Saturday's game, and the three quickly pushed the puck into the Pittsburgh Penguins" zone. This is not exactly an unusual development. Henrique's line has been together for nearly two months, and it has generated a host of scoring chances. After the line helped the Devils beat the Penguins, 3-1, Peter DeBoer, the team's first-year coach, did not sound as if he planned to tinker with it anytime soon. Henrique was sent to the minor leagues late in October, and he is a rookie playing between what DeBoer on Saturday called two of the top forwards in the world - Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk. But sometimes, lines just click. "He's unflappable," DeBoer said of Henrique before the Devils" win, their ninth victory in 12 games. It doesn't seem to bother him. I think that's probably his best characteristic. Henrique, a third-round draft choice in 2008 from Brantford, Ontario, entered the season with no fanfare. He says his favorite thing to do away from the rink is to relax, as in watching television. He adds that Parise, the captain, and Kovalchuk, the $100 million wing, have made his job easier. He seemed just as stunned as anyone else when DeBoer first put him on a line with Parise and Kovalchuk during a morning skate before a game in November. As much as Henrique just tries to play his game, he says, "it does kind of hit you" when he looks at his linemates. "My goal was just to make the team," Henrique said. There were no set goals; I was just excited to be here. This is much better than I thought. Parise says he likes playing next to Henrique because the two are similar players: grinders who like to cycle the puck with crisp passes. Kovalchuk said he and his linemates had improved the longer they had played with one another, and that they could become even more productive. "He can play with anybody," Kovalchuk said of Henrique. He sees the ice really well. He's always in the right position. The coaches have given him a lot of opportunities to show what he can do, and he's done a really good job. Henrique is fourth on the team in scoring, with 10 goals and 18 assists. Henrique, Parise and Kovalchuk combined for 19 goals and 27 assists in 14 games in December. The Devils (21-15-1), 10th in the Eastern Conference on Nov. 30, entered Saturday in sixth. Henrique scored 111 goals in four seasons of junior hockey with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, then scored 25 goals last year for Albany, the Devils" top farm team. He made his N.H.L. debut in the Devils" final game last season. "The people in the organization who knew him had confidence that he'd be able to contribute for us, but I don't know if anybody could have predicted that he'd do what he's doing for us right now," DeBoer said. Henrique played in the Devils" first two regular-season games, but did not score a point and then was a healthy scratch for a third game before he was sent back to Albany. He said he was not sure when he would return to the N.H.L. Henrique was back in eight days and said Saturday: "You can't take it personally. I didn't make any big adjustments when I went down there. I just kept working hard. DeBoer has said Henrique will remain as the top-line center indefinitely, even though there is a perception among Devils fans that assignments will change when center Travis Zajac, Parise's old linemate, returns from an Achilles" tendon injury. Saturday's game was another success. Kovalchuk scored his 12th goal on a first-period penalty shot, and Parise added an empty-net goal to seal the victory. And a fan stood in the seats and showed off his new Henrique jersey. "He's got a lot of confidence off the ice and on the ice," Parise said. It's hard. I remember when I was 21, coming in to the league. You get intimidated. Sometimes, you try to please your linemates too much. You overpass. But he just makes the smart play. That's tough to do as a young kid. Parise, who is only 27, laughed, then said, "I'm calling him a young kid, and I'm five years older than he is. He's a young player.