The New Jersey Devils lost their second straight game on home ice to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3. It was a devastating loss where the Devils had a 2-0 lead after five shots. Columbus had an answer for everything, and Jake Allen did not have a good night.
However, what really changed the night was the fight by Brenden Dillon. On the night of his 1,000th game, Dillon was trying to get set for a fight with Dmitri Voronov, but his opponent dropped him face-first into the ice. Dillon didn’t immediately get up, and it was a scary sign around the arena.
Brenden Dillon in his 1,000th career game had to leave the game after pic.twitter.com/5FP4UI3M0V
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 2, 2025
The whole situation felt gross, and the Blue Jackets came out of the fight with simply a fighting penalty, while Dillon was forced to go back to the locker room.
The rest of the game went off the rails. The Devils gave up the tying goal pretty quickly after that. Jonas Siegenthaler was forced into a fight with Adam Fantilli, who was punching him after unhooking his jersey. Somehow, Fantilli didn’t get an instigator penalty, and because of that, Siegenthaler was kicked out of the game.
The Devils were down two left-handed defensemen for the rest of the night. Inexplicably, Dillon returned in the second period, but during the intermission, he was forced to sit again. He didn’t come out of the locker room.
It’s rough to lose another game in such a close Eastern Conference, especially in the division. It’s even worse that they lost this game. The Blue Jackets did what they did. We don’t need to get into it. However, we need the Devils to respond in a way that also gets them the win.
A hard stretch of games is coming for the Devils. They really need to regroup. We will see what the prognosis is for Dillon. If he is going to miss extended time, with Brett Pesce still weeks away and Johnny Kovacevic not coming back for at least another month, the Devils have to figure something out.