It’s been a rough week in what’s been a rough season for the New Jersey Devils. After a terrible calendar 2025, the fanbase is on edge and upset with the direction of the team. The Quinn Hughes trade to the Minnesota Wild really put this fanbase in a bad place in terms of support. The rumors coming out after the trade are that the Devils were given a chance to make the deal work, but Tom Fitzgerald couldn’t make it happen. That didn’t help things.
Still, booing the team’s players relentlessly is not a good look. The conversation around the Devils right now is not good, and it has everyone looking at the Wild as the future destination for Jack and Luke Hughes. Let’s just say that’s an insane proposition, as the brothers have five and seven years left on their contracts.
However, the Devils have learned better than anyone how to get the noise to stop. When Jack Hughes got hurt at a restaurant during a team dinner, the noise stopped when they won a few games. The noise returned when they started losing, again.
A win on Tuesday night against the New York Islanders will bring stories of “resiliency” and “grit.” They will give Luke Hughes his flowers for taking the chatter around him with professionalism, and if he’s able to score or put a great pass together for a primary assist, even better.
A win would be huge to end the Luke Hughes narrative
The Devils are playing the Islanders with a lot of injuries. Rookie phenom Matthew Schaefer might even miss the game with an illness. The Devils need to dominate this game from start to finish as they did on Saturday against the Utah Mammoth.
That’s the best way to change the conversation. The Devils had a real chance to get back into the playoff picture on Sunday, but a loss is a loss. However, the booing has sparked rampant speculation and led the fanbase to collapse in on itself. There’s fighting across social media within the fanbase, even amongst those who cover the squad.
This narrative just needs to end. It’s not helpful and makes the fanbase look terrible. It only brings a bad look and, honestly, hurts the Devils' brand. We don’t want to care about that, but it does impact how our team is covered moving forward. Let’s hope the Devils go crazy on this four-game road trip, and we can cheer our heads off when they return to the Prudential Center.