Hughes Finally Gets Some Help As Devils Avoid Another Bad Loss
Through their first six games, the Devils scored 24 goals. Jack Hughes was involved in 17 of them. No matter who Head Coach Lindy Ruff had the 22 year-old center share the ice with, those players produced points by the bundle. Though it’s only a small sample start to a long season, it’s not hyperbole to label Hughes’ efforts to date as a historic individual achievement.
Unfortunately, as spectacular as Hughes’ performances were, the team was matching losses with their wins. The problem was that the rest of the club—the other three forward lines, defensemen, and goalies--weren’t providing sufficient contributions to the cause. At some point this season, there will come a game where Hughes is held off the scoresheet. And then what? Just give up?
That night wasn’t on Friday, for Hughes notched his fifth goal of the season on a Devils power play early in the third period in a 5-4 victory over Buffalo at Prudential Center. However, the game was more notable for how other lines stepped up to prevent New Jersey (4-2-1) from already suffering a third disappointing home defeat (including one in a shootout) to an opponent who failed to qualify for last season’s playoffs.
The game-winner by Erik Haula, who also tallied a short-handed breakaway goal in the second period and had a sure hat trick into a wide open empty net in the final minute spoiled by a broken stick, wasn’t derived by the offensive wizardry initiated by Hughes’ individual brilliance—the third-line center simply got to the front of the net to redirect a point shot from defenseman Kevin Bahl. Similarly, New Jersey’s first goal was the result of wing Alexander Holtz, who was dropped to the fourth line for this match, getting inside position near the goal mouth to put home a rebound of Luke Hughes’ shot.
Neither player had done much of anything at five-on-five in the prior six games, nor have many others whom the Devils were counting on for consistent offensive production. Captain Nico Hischier, who left Friday’s contest prematurely following a hit to the head from Sabres defenseman Connor Clifton, hasn’t exactly gotten his campaign for the Selke Trophy off to a promising start. His lines have been outscored, 3-1, at five-on-five through the seven games, per NaturalStatTrick.com. Dawson Mercer, a 27-goal scorer last season who celebrated his 22nd birthday on Friday, is still pointless on the season.
If you’re a glass half-full kind of fan, you could certainly look at this from another perspective in that these players are talented enough for you to hold a valid belief that they can bounce back from a poor start so early in a season. It was Haula on Friday; why not Mercer on Sunday when Minnesota invades The Rock? Or two-time Stanley Cup champion wing Ondrej Palat?
The Devils also got three points from their defensemen on Friday at five-on-five. They had totaled six over the first six contests. I’d like to say that the d-men, in my opinion, need to increase their activity up the ice to join the fray, but the priority there has to be their core functions in their own end, which, besides continuing to drag down team performance through a parade of gaffes that led to high-danger Buffalo scoring chances, deserves a post of its own.
Especially during the second period, the Sabres often waltzed into the attacking zone without much resistance. If not for Devils goalie Vitek Vanecek, who denied several clean breakaway attempts, this one could have gotten ugly.
Of course, Vanecek gave back a little more than he took away, according to NST’s computation of his goals saved above average on the night. With the Devils nursing one-goal leads, he let a Rasmus Dahlin shot beat him from distance late in the second period and failed to squeeze the post on Dylan Cozens’s bad angle shot from the right side with 7:25 remaining in the game.
The only thing shocking about how the night ended was that Hughes wasn’t on the ice when it was saved.
Photo by Andrew Maclean