The New Jersey Devils got great news on Thursday morning, when Will Butcher was out on the ice and confirmed to play. It would near impossible to replace him if he was out of the lineup.
It was a glorious sight when the New Jersey Devils took the ice for practice. Number eight took the ice, despite taking a nasty looking hit during the game against the Dallas Stars.
Even from here it’s good to see Will Butcher taking the morning skate! pic.twitter.com/sVPKqFchvi
— Matt Loughlin (@MattLoug) October 18, 2018
We talked about how important Butcher is to this lineup right after he was injured. Him and Sami Vatanen are head and shoulders above the rest of the group as far as importance. Butcher brings something to the group that most other teams just don’t have.
Butcher’s very important to keeping Ben Lovejoy looking like a competent defenseman. We saw two years ago that is not always an easy task. He is the quarterback of the team’s power play. He allows the Devils to keep the puck in the zone, and control it. He’s very good on offense, and gets better and better on his defensive game.
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When he took that scary hit against the Stars on Tuesday, he left the game for good. The fact that he never returned after he went shoulder first into the boards with 240 pounds of Roman Polak on his back worried most of the fans. They were thinking the worst. It was either going to be a dislocated shoulder or broken clavicle. Either way, we weren’t going to see Butcher for a long time.
Somehow, some way, the Devils got lucky. Butcher won’t even miss a game. He will play tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, the team that drafted him out of Denver University. No matter what he does tonight, this is the best news possible for Devils fans. Butcher is still in the lineup, and the defense that’s playing surprisingly well to start the season stays intact.