The New Jersey Devils announced that superstar Taylor Hall will not be playing tonight against the Nashville Predators. If the hand injury is that bad, the team should hold him out for this weekend’s All Star Game.
There wasn’t a lot of good news coming out of today’s morning skate from the New Jersey Devils. Amanda Stein reported that Marcus Johansson was out with a concussion, Cory Schneider was out with a groin injury, Brian Boyle was out for personal reasons, and to top it all off Taylor Hall will be out again.
The last one obviously hurts the worst. Losing Hall for a third straight game, especially when trying to stop yet another losing streak, really hurts. It especially hurts when you are facing the reigning Western Conference champs.
This shows Hall’s injury is worse than any of us hoped. When he missed practice on Sunday, it was for “maintenance.” Now, he’s going to miss his third straight game.
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The Devils can’t afford to have anything else happen to their star player. That’s why the Devils need to step in and pull Hall from the All Star game.
This move is two-fold. For one, the Devils can’t afford to lose Hall for an extended amount of time for what constitutes as an exhibition. Hall always plays hard in the 3-on-3 format, just like he did last year. However, this time he’s too important to any chance the Devils have of making his first postseason.
If you take Hall out, it’s almost certain Nico Hischier will replace him. That gives the rookie the chance to hang around the very best players in the league in his first season. It would be a great experience that Hischier can build off of for the second half of the year.
With Hall out tonight, this feels like a no brainer. Why would you allow Hall to play in this game, especially with Brad Marchand on the ice? It’s not worth it.