Devils 5, Canucks 4: Hughes steals the show

The Devils did not bring their A game to the table. Luckily, Jack Hughes did.

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A few notes following New Jersey’s overtime victory against Vancouver:

5v5 woes continue

The Devils have struggled at 5v5 for quite some time. With a chance to reset over the All-Star break, and John Marino returning to the lineup, Monday night seemed like an ideal time to get the ship righted against an underwhelming Canucks team. That didn’t happen.

Despite the positive end result, head coach Lindy Ruff was very mum on his team’s performance; and rightfully so.

At 5v5 the Devils lost the Grade B scoring chance battle by 12 and took 44% of the high-danger chances.

Perhaps most concerning, they generated only 1.79 expected goals against a team whose most glaring weakness is their backend and team defense. Not ideal.

When we first started seeing a dip in play I thought it was just a bump along the road that is unavoidable over the course of an 82 game season. It’s becoming more than that.

I mean, the Devils have played 14 games this calendar year. They’ve controlled 46.92% of the shot attempts (26th) and 45.75% of the expected goals (26th). That is nearly a third of the season to date; it’s not just a tough week or two.

If the Devils can’t find a way to jumpstart their game at 5v5, they’re not going to be a serious threat come playoff time. They’ll be somewhat of a paper tiger with the profile of a team that is especially prone to an upset.

Jack Hughes masked a lot of problems