Devils Hope To Bank On Hughes’ Return To Full Force
With 1:11 remaining in a one-goal game against Montreal on Thursday night at Prudential Center, Devils Head Coach Sheldon Keefe had Jack Hughes hop over the boards.
That would not be at all unusual if it was New Jersey that trailed, but Keefe was entrusting his All-Star center with protecting a 4-3 lead while the Canadiens had the extra attacker from pulling their goalie.
Following two icings, the Canadiens gained possession in the Devils’ zone with about 40 seconds left, with Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson trying to walk the blue line with the puck.
Out of nowhere, Matheson was rebuffed by a hard-charging Hughes with a body blow that knocked him off the puck. With a little help from an uncalled Hughes hook, both players fell to the ice. Meanwhile, Devils wing Jesper Bratt picked up the loose puck and raced the other way to seal the deal with an empty netter.
Since Hughes didn’t touch the puck, he wasn’t credited with an assist on what was a winning play, but he did register a pair of brilliant helpers on the Devils’ first two goals in the opening 20 minutes and then finished off a third period breakaway himself to put his club up, 4-2.
In the Devils’ first game back following a three-game trip to Western Canada, Hughes defied the dead leg syndrome that afflicts so many NHL skaters in these situations by coming out of the tunnel flying up and down the ice. He completely undressed several Montreal defenders in his zone entries to singlehandedly create offense. His passing, which can sometimes be erratic, was on the money.
Hughes is such a dynamic skater that he’s a threat to score on every shift, but it does the Devils no good if his line gives up as much or more than it produces. That’s how it went for New Jersey over its first ten games of the season, as Hughes was on the ice for 7 goals for and against at five-on-five while generating under 50% of the high danger scoring chances, per NaturalStatTrick.com. Hughes was also 23-for-71 (32.4%) in the faceoff circle, which didn’t help his possession metrics.
Whether it was his hard goal to get the Devils going in a 6-2 rout of Anaheim on October 27 or the adrenaline from playing against his brother Quinn in Vancouver in the next contest, Hughes has taken his game to the level that fans at The Rock had grown accustomed to seeing.
New Jersey (9-5-2) has won four of those last five games with Hughes contributing six points (three goals and three assists), all but one at five-on-five. Putting the more defensive-minded veteran wing Ondrej Palat with Hughes and Bratt has unlocked a dominant two-way effort from Hughes, who has posted a healthy 65.7% expected goals for percentage at five-on-five in this span, per NST. Hughes is even winning the majority of his faceoffs (54.7%) on an average of more than 10 draws per game.
It should be noted that Hughes didn’t take a single faceoff last season after January 5, when he suffered a shoulder injury from crashing into the boards during a game against Chicago. Hughes returned in February, but you could tell something was off, even if he remarkably averaged a tad less than a point per game. Before the injury, he was running at a 1.41 points per game pace that ranked eighth in the league. The way he seemed to shy away from contact was also fairly obvious. Never a big hitter, he went from 8 in his first 32 games to just 2 over his last 30 games, per NHL.com.
The shoulder required surgery in the offseason. Though never confirmed, Hughes’ 2023 campaign also ended with a damaged shoulder that he incurred during the Devils’ second-round playoff loss to Carolina. Maybe Hughes just needed a little time at the start of this season to feel like his old self where he could be comfortable cutting loose at his top speed and be more engaged along the walls.
Like everything else with this team, the key to any progress this season will be consistency. Hughes is in his sixth NHL season; he knows the drill and the responsibility he has to the club. When you’re the face of the franchise, you can’t take nights off to play in a careless manner like he often did last season. It’s not enough to score; the Devils were at their best two seasons ago because the Hughes and Nico Hischier lines also limited the oppositions’ chances.
Keefe is trying to get his club to understand the necessity of consistency. It’s a work in progress, as the Devils have had alternating good stretches out of the gate with one where they lost four in a row. The road trip seemed to pull them out of a potentially long tailspin. That they didn’t succumb to the typical first game back doldrums is an even better sign, but they still must build upon it.
Not that it will easy. After this weekend’s back-to-back at the Islanders and home versus San Jose, the Devils face a brutal slate that features two games at Stanley Cup champion Florida, one more Florida affair at Tampa Bay, a home tilt versus their nemesis Carolina, and a road game at pesky Washington on November 23.
The Devils are going to need the full-force Jack Hughes experience to get through it.