Pucks and Pitchforks
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New Jersey Devils Injuries Are Getting Ridiculous Now

By Nick Villano

BOSTON, MA - MARCH 2: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins skates with the puck against Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils at the TD Garden on March 2, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - MARCH 2: Brad Marchand #63 of the Boston Bruins skates with the puck against Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils at the TD Garden on March 2, 2019 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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The New Jersey Devils are already icing a mostly AHL lineup thanks to a laundry list of injuries and trade deadlines moves. After Saturday night’s beating, the injury report gets even longer.

Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri, Miles Wood, Stefan Noesen Mirco Mueller, Pavel Zacha and John Quenneville make up the New Jersey Devils injury report going into their game with the Boston Bruins on Saturday night. That report gets even longer after the game.

Nico Hischier did not finish the game after he was injured in the second period. Sami Vatanen took yet another questionable hit from Brad Marchand (what’s wrong with that guy?) that might put him on the shelf as well. That could leave the Devils with a lineup that looks like this:

Drew Stafford – Travis Zajac – Jesper Bratt
Kenny Agostino –  Blake Coleman – Joey Anderson
Blake Pietila – Michael McLeod – Nick Lappin
Egor Yakovlev – Kevin Rooney – Kurtis Gabriel

We expect Vatanen to play in the next game unless something flares up after the game, but if he’s out the Devils could be forced to call up Eric Gryba to play defensive minutes.

Right now, the Devils have 12 players on the active roster that have played AHL minutes this season. That’s not even including if Gryba gets called up or Zacha returns to the lineup. This is an AHL team trying to survive in the NHL.

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Miraculously, thanks to some really good play for the most part from the goaltending position, the Devils are still in these games. In seven of the last nine games, they either won the game or lost by one goal. With the players they have representing them on a nightly basis, this isn’t bad.

Some of these players are coming back soon, but if Nico Hischier is out for a considerable amount of time, that means that 123 goals from last year’s team is on the shelf. That’s not including the goals that came from John Moore, Brian Gibbons or Patrick Maroon who left in the offseason, or Marcus Johansson, Brian Boyle or Ben Lovejoy who left at the trade deadline. They lost 123 goals just to injury.

This is probably better in the long run. Many young players are getting invaluable NHL experience, and they can learn from their mistakes in the offseason. This gives them the chance to learn the speed of the big leagues, and make the necessary adjustments. It will be rough down the stretch, but will likely be worth it in the long run.

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