Jack Hughes picked the perfect moment to put his stamp on New Jersey’s home opener.
With 1:37 left in overtime Thursday night, Hughes finished off a 3-2 Devils win over the Philadelphia Flyers with a wrist shot set up by Jesper Bratt. It was the kind of close-out touch New Jersey has come to expect from its star center, who had already done plenty of heavy lifting last season and did more of it here when the game got tight.
Hughes led Team USA to the gold medal at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics last winter, then paced the Devils with 77 points a season ago. He also finished second on the club with 27 goals despite missing 21 games because of a hand injury. New Jersey went 8-13-0 without the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft, a reminder of how much he matters to the lineup.
His brother Luke kept the Devils alive late, tying the game 2-2 at 9:44 of the third period with a snapshot off a feed from Luke Evangelista. That set the stage for overtime, where Jack Hughes ended it.
The scoring in regulation belonged to defensemen. Philadelphia got goals from Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen, while New Jersey answered with Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes.
Hamilton’s goal came at 17:59 of the second period, a shot from the point that deflected off the left post and pulled the Devils even at 1-1. It also put him in a special spot in franchise history: in his 306th game with New Jersey, he became the second-fastest defenseman after Scott Stevens to reach 200 points with the team. Stevens did it in 250 games.
Philadelphia had opened the scoring when Ristolainen redirected a shot from the point by Sanheim midway through the first period. Sanheim later put the Flyers ahead 2-1 early in the final period with a slap shot from Sean Couturier.
Joseph Woll, acquired in an offseason trade with Toronto, stopped 41 shots for Philadelphia. Jake Allen made 23 saves for New Jersey.
The Devils entered the season with their top eight scorers back from a team that finished seventh in the Metropolitan Division at 42-37-3 for 87 points.
The Flyers visit Carolina on Saturday. The Devils are on the road to face the New York Islanders on Saturday.
In Other News...
Dawson Mercer Enters A Critical Devils Season For One Big Reason
The Devils spent the offseason reshaping their forward group, and the ripple effects have landed squarely on Dawson Mercer. With additions such as Anthony Mantha and Luke Evangelista changing the depth chart, Mercer is no longer being viewed through the lens of the breakout 2022-23 season that raised expectations around him. Instead, he enters this year in the bottom six, a different kind of assignment for a player whose value once seemed to be trending steadily upward.
That shift gives Mercer a chance to prove he can still matter even without the same offensive runway. He is expected to skate with Arseny Gritsyuk and Evan Rodrigues, a lineup spot that could help stabilize his game and show the Devils he can contribute in a lesser role. If the production does not rebound, though, the questions around his long-term fit in New Jersey are only going to get louder. [Read more 🡒]
Devils Face A Costly Long Term Test As Cap Space Climbs
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Cody Glass, Declan Chisholm, Jonas Seigenthaler, Anthony Mantha, Dawson Mercer and Amadeus Lombardi all fit somewhere in that conversation, whether as current contributors or players who could matter more down the road. Sunny Mehta and the front office now have to balance those rising contract expectations against the need to keep the cap flexible, which makes the next stretch of negotiations a potentially expensive test of how the Devils want this roster to look long term. [Read more 🡒]
Devils May Have One Early Problem With This Revamped Lineup
The Devils are heading into the season with a noticeably different look after a busy offseason that brought in Anthony Mantha, Luke Evangelista, Evan Rodrigues, Amadeus Lombardi, Jesper Boqvist and defenseman Declan Chisholm, while Simon Nemec and Jacob Markstrom are gone. Even with all that turnover, the bigger short-term challenge may not be talent so much as timing, because this roster is being built to sort itself out on the fly.
New Jersey also plans to use a three-goalie rotation, and every one of its four forward lines is expected to feature at least one new face. That kind of overhaul can work, but it rarely clicks instantly, and the Devils may need several weeks before the chemistry settles in and the best version of the lineup comes into focus. [Read more 🡒]