The New Jersey Devils lost a game they really shouldn’t have on Sunday afternoon. They faced a Seattle Kraken team that hasn’t been a world beater in a while. There are talks of selling, with even former fourth-overall pick Shane Wright being available. Things in Seattle aren’t exactly going swimmingly.
Yet, the Devils came into their barn, and they lost. The Devils might have played well at times, but they lost. Process doesn’t matter anymore. They’ve lost too many games already, and most of their losses are regulation losses. On Sunday, they added another regulation loss to the tally, and the joy from winning five of the last six games went away.
The Devils went into the third period tied 1-1, but they quickly went down 3-1. The two goals came 18 second apart with about 12 minutes left in the game. Out of nowhere, the Kraken punched the Devils squarely in the face.
There’s a lot of blame to go around. Jacob Markstrom wasn’t good again. That extension continues to look bad. Simon Nemec made another defensive mistake, but he also made a few good plays.
The positive of the situation is that the Devils didn’t turtle. In fact, Jack Hughes, a player who hasn’t scored a goal since scoring in his return game in December, put one in the net. It wasn’t the best goal in the world, but it was one Hughes sorely needed.
Suddenly, this was a game again. Jack Hughes did what he needed to do, putting the Devils back in an enviable position. They were only down one with more than 10 minutes to play in the game. This was not a lost cause.
It became a lost cause when Dougie Hamilton misplayed a puck along the wall, leading to an empty-net goal against with just over a minute left.
The New Jersey Devils need the best of Jack Hughes right now
While that stunk, getting a Jack Hughes goal was important. The Devils aren’t going anywhere without the best version of Hughes.
He hasn’t been that since returning from his hand injury. We all know he’s still playing with a cast after suffering the pinky injury in November. We also see what he looks like on the ice.
We don’t have to get into the statistics. It’s clear that Hughes’s shot isn’t where it needs to be. There’s a weakness there, and we’d imagine if he was 100%, he probably has at least five more goals.
Hughes is getting into high-danger areas. He has 18 individual high-danger chances at 5v5 according to Natural Stat Trick. He also has 34 shots. At all strengths, he has 52 shots. The only person with more on the Devils since his return is Timo Meier, and they both have just two goals. Of the players with at least 50 shots since December 21st (20 players), only Meier and Hughes have a shooting percentage under 5%. Both their shooting percentages are half of what the third-worst on the list is, and most players are hovering around 12%.
If Hughes were at a 12% shooting percentage, he’d have six goals instead of just two. Four goals isn’t changing the world, but the Devils have lost five games since Hughes’s return by one goal (when not including empty netters). So, one has to assume that adding four goals to Hughes’s tally would add at least two points to their standings.
If the Devils had two more points in the standings, they would jump three teams (Flyers, Maple Leafs, and Capitals), and they would be just one point behind the New York Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division. One point out of a playoff spot! There’s a pretty good argument that if Hughes had four more goals since returning, the Devils would be in a playoff spot.
Instead, they are back in a position that feels impossible. There are too many teams ahead of them, and everyone is desperately fighting for points.
Either way, if they get the Hughes they need, anything is possible. They can make it back, and one could argue they should make it back. When will that happen? That’s not something we will know. Hopefully, he gets the cast off soon, since we’re already past the original eight-week timeline.