The New Jersey Devils beat the Minnesota Wild 5-2. It feels unreal, but it happened. After losing four games in a row, including one to the lowly Winnipeg Jets, the Devils beat down the Wild and their top line. It’s even more impressive since they played the Jets yesterday afternoon, and the Wild weren’t on a back-to-back while playing at home.
This was the first “Hughes Bowl” since Quinn Hughes was traded to the Minnesota Wild. Hughes looks like an absolute beast in the State of Hockey. The Wild came into the game tied with the Dallas Stars as the second place team in all of hockey (and ironically, their division). Everything is sunshine and fairytales for the eldest Hughes brother, right now.
Then, he took on the Devils. This is a team that is in the dumps. Only the Ottawa Senators can claim to have a more toxic situation, and they have an internet rumor about players' relationships that prompted the team to issue an official statement. The Devils' issues are largely on the ice and in the locker room. We haven't seen proper effort in weeks.
On Monday, the Devils came to play. Was there a lot of luck involved? You betcha, but once the puck started to turn, so did the Devils. The Wild missed at least six open nets in the first half of the game. They were all over the Devils using speed and agility to get around poke checks and schemed screens.
However, we do admit the Wild were having trouble taking shots on net. For all those open nets, the Devils were doing a good job getting sticks in the way and blocking shots, sometimes before they came off the sticks of their opponents. It was a frustrating night for the Wild.
It was the opposite for the Devils. Everything they were putting towards the net was getting past Jesper Wallstedt. Jesper Bratt had two goals. Dawson Mercer got everything started after a really pretty feed from behind the net thanks to Nico Hischier. Dougie Hamilton had two primary assists after he was very publicly benched
At the end of the night, Quinn Hughes watched his brothers celebrate without him.
The Hughes Bowl ended with elation from the Devils, and the Wild were left with questions. They were the team that couldn't finish, while the Devils put five goals in the net. Could this plant a seed into Hughes's head in the future?
We are incredibly far from this game mattering. The Devils have to, at a minimum, make the playoffs for the second-best defenseman in the world to consider putting everything on hold to make a play for the Devils. The Minnesota Wild are still great. This is just one game. Something bad needs to happen to their season, like them losing in the first round to the Stars, for this game to matter.
And the Devils need to fix this locker room. One win doesn’t reverse toxicity. However, one win can snowball into two, which turns into four, and just like that, the Devils are back into the race.
To answer the question, does beating Quinn Hughes on his home ice like this matter? Only if the Devils respond.