New Jersey Devils notes: On Jack Hughes and consistently poor goaltending

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A few New Jersey Devils notes as we exit the holiday break and get ready for the unofficial start of the 2nd half:

Lightning in a bottle

One thing I’d like to see more of moving forward: Jack Hughes centering Yegor Sharangovich and Janne Kuokkanen. I know the latter two haven’t lived up to expectations this season. Heck, Jack hasn’t either (although not to the same extent).

But this trio was extremely dangerous offensively a season ago. Despite not much going right for the Devils this year, Lindy Ruff has flat-out refused to go back to the well.

Jack has spent only 22 minutes with Sharangovich and Kuokkanen. That’s essentially 1.5 games of 5v5 ice. In that time, the Devils have controlled better than 65% of the expected goals.

Small sample size, sure, but they posted a 56 xGF% across 240 minutes last season. There’s reason to believe the strong underlyings this year are no coincidence.

Considering the team’s overall struggles – and the inability to get anything from Sharangovich and Kuokkanen on other lines – I don’t see any reason not to give this trio another kick at the can.

If they struggle, just break them up. It’s not like the Devils have found a winning recipe and reason to resist changes.