Devils 4, Sabres 3: Snapped at six

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The New Jersey Devils snapped a six-game losing skid with a 4-3 win over the Buffalo Sabres. Five observations from the game:

1. Jack Hughes is back

Jack Hughes has been somewhat of a disappointment this season. He hasn’t played poorly, per se. He just hasn’t dominated games – despite an increase in point outputs – as often as we saw a season ago. The good news is that’s starting to change.

Hughes had the puck on a string vs Detroit in the second last game prior to the pause. He did turn it over a couple times, and his off-puck play wasn’t great, but it was one of the first games he created chances seemingly every time he touched the ice.

Hughes recorded 14 shot contributions at 5v5. Tomas Tatar (11) was the only other player who finished with more than 9. Pretty good!

No. 86 took things up a notch against the Sabres last night. They were paper thin on the backend and he took full advantage all night long.

The Devils won the shot attempt battle 24-10 with Hughes on the ice. Shots on goal were 18-4, goals were 3-0, and the Devils controlled nearly 82% of the xG share.

Hughes was a driving force in those numbers. The driving force, in fact. He was as dynamic as ever through the neutral zone and picked the Sabres apart once shop was setup in the OZ.

He (again) recorded a team-high in shot contributions with 15. His linemates, Jesper Bratt and Yegor Sharangovich, both finished with eight.