Cody Glass injured in the most frustrating way possible in New Jersey Devils' playoff loss

The New Jersey Devils won't have much to be proud of from their performance on Sunday against the Carolina Hurricanes. It was Game 1 of the first-round series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and one team clearly came ready to go. The Hurricanes absolutely blitzed the Devils in the first and second periods, putting up close to 20 shots in each period. Even as the Devils played better in the third, it wasn't nearly enough and the Canes won the game 4-1.

To make matters worse, the Devils suffered injuries throughout the game, with some looking worse than others. Brenden Dillon went down with what looks like a lower-body injury and never returned. Luke Hughes also hurt his shoulder, but he was able to tough it out and come back.

The injury that ends up being the most frustrating is the one to Cody Glass. This is an important series for him professionally as he's playing for a new contract, and he's been the Devils' most important trade deadline acquisition. He is key to the Devils getting goals from their bottom six, but it looks like that won't be possible moving forward.

Glass left the third period after a strange sequence in front of the net. Luke Hughes was actually also hurt on the same play, going head first into the net. However, as Glass was skating between Andrei Svechnikov and Jacob Markstrom, the Devils' goalie made an unnecessary play.

Who knows what possessed Markstrom to do such a thing. It was reckless and unnecessary. Goalies have slashed opponents before, but this had too much aggression and we don't even want to think about the intent. Svechnikov wasn't close enough to Markstrom to excuse the slash, and it put his teammate in harm's way.

And now Glass is out. He missed the rest of Game 1, and we'd be floored if that was the only time he missed in the series. He luckily didn't get hit in the knee or fall awkwardly, but that's a visceral reaction that says something is wrong.

Cody Glass deserves better than what he got after Game 1 injury

It's sad that this will be the Markstrom narrative coming out of Game 1. He played his heart out, and the decision to swing his stick was clearly out of frustration. He did his best to keep the Devils alive in the game, but the decision he made at the end might be more costly than any goal against.

The Devils have a lot of soul searching to do before Tuesday's Game 2. They need to come out with the fire they had in the third period, but it's likely when the puck drops, Glass will be watching from afar. And that might be a loss they can't recover from with the other injuries already piled up.