The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (26-22-2) @ Vancouver Canucks (17-28-5)
The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio Network
The Time: 10:00pm ET
Last Devils Game
Late Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils played the second half of a back-to-back in Edmonton against the Oilers. Arseny Gritsyuk and Cody Glass scored goals, Jake Allen was great, and the Devils grinded out a 2-1 victory over the Leon Draisaitl-less Oilers.
Last Canucks Game
Vancouver was in action on Wednesday when they hosted the Washington Capitals. Despite the Caps jumping out to an early 2-0 lead, the Canucks scored four straight and eventually held on for a 4-3 victory. The win snapped a losing streak that we will talk about shortly.
Last Devils-Canucks Game
On December 14, the Canucks visited New Jersey having just traded their captain and one of the best players in the world, Quinn Hughes. It didn’t matter, as they defeated the Devils 2-1 despite being held to just 15 shots. It was an infuriating game all around.
Clarity On Luke
As you all probably know by now, Luke Hughes injured his shoulder in the game in Calgary back on Monday. Tonight won’t be the Devils’ first game without him in the lineup, but it will be their first game after getting a little more clarity on the situation:
Not that it was any surprise, but Luke Hughes is now officially on LTIR. Crucially, the initial reports seem to indicate that New Jersey is NOT declaring his season over. He is also choosing to forgo surgery, opting for rehab instead. This also seems to mean that the Devils will not have his full $9m cap hit available to them. If they had elected to place him on Season Ending LTIR, they would. But because they are (for now) going with regular LTIR, they will get a shade over $3m in cap relief at the moment. This is all subject to change of course, but as far as I can tell, this is the latest info.
All of that is also secondary to the young man’s health. What is it with the Hughes brothers and shoulder injuries? I for one am pretty concerned since it appears to be his right shoulder that was injured this time, whereas the one he injured prior to last season was his left. It also appeared to be his left shoulder that he injured against Carolina in the playoffs last April. So unless I’m missing something, and please correct me in the comments section if I am, this is a supposedly perfectly healthy shoulder that simply fell out of its socket thanks to some very light contact. On the surface, that is very, very troubling.
In the here and now, Hughes will miss some time. How much time remains to be seen. Hughes was in the midst of a very disappointing season, but he was actually starting to put together a quality stretch of hockey over the past couple weeks, which makes the timing of this injury sting so much more. Here’s to a speedy recovery for the youngest Hughes brother.
The Blueline in Hughes’ Absence
The good news (well, not actually good, but you know what I mean) is that the Devils have plenty of experience this season playing with a shorthanded defense corps. If Hughes really is done for the year, they will have played less than one handful of games with all of their NHL-level defensemen available to them. Johnny Kovacevic was the final piece to return, and he only played a few contests before Hughes got hurt. Pretty unbelievable.
In any case, New Jersey knows how to handle injury adversity, and along those lines, here is how they lined up in practice yesterday:
As Stein mentions in her tweet, this is how the Devils lined up against the Oilers as well. Their response to placing Hughes on LTIR was to call Colton White back up to the big club. He’s skating as an extra for now, but don’t be surprised to see him get back into a game soon if another defenseman gets hurt.
So how do we feel about these pairings? Personally, I think this is about as good as it’s going to get unless Hughes returns at some point. I know Keefe isn’t crazy about having a defenseman play on their off-side, but it looks like he’s decided that is the lesser of two evils between that or playing White.
Lenni Looks Strong
Lenni Hameenaho had his second consecutive strong game to begin his career on Tuesday. Skating on a line with Cody Glass and Arseny Gritsyuk, Hameenaho did not register a point, but he was on the ice to help create Gritsyuk’s goal. According to Natural Stat Trick, at 5-on-5, Hameenaho registered an unthinkable 100% Expected Goals For%. No, that’s not a typo. Perhaps it’s a bug in NST’s system, but it’s not a typo. Hameenaho somehow pitched a shutout in terms of xGF% against the Oilers, the only Devil to reach 100% xGF.
Unsurprisingly, his linemates were second and third on the club in xGF% on Tuesday, with Gritsyuk coming in around 87% and Glass getting to about 69%. In 5:10 together at 5-on-5, the trio out-attempted Edmonton 5-0, outshot them 3-0, outscored them 1-0, and yes, posted an xGF% of 100. It was an all around spectacular night from that line, and it already has folks around here calling for that line to be kept together for a while. It’s hard to argue against that when you see results like this.
Aside from the advanced metrics, Hameenaho just looks solid based on my own personal eye test. He does not look overwhelmed by the speed of this level, he has creativity and hockey IQ, and he’s putting himself in positions to help his team offensively and defensively. Hameenaho looks like he belongs. I think it’s only a matter of time before he gets his first NHL point.
Vancouver Blues
Prior to Wednesday’s victory over the Washington Capitals, things were pretty bad in Vancouver.
How bad? How about 11 losses in a row bad.
Yes, the Canucks had lost 11 straight games before doing the Devils a solid and topping the Capitals 4-3 on Wednesday. The last time they had won a game before that was in another year entirely. 2025 to be exact. December 29, 2025 to be even more exact. Somehow, Vancouver went almost a full calendar month between victories.
Everyone except for Canucks ownership and management knew Vancouver was going to be bad this year. And while they weren’t awful to start the year, it’s mostly been straight down since they traded Quinn Hughes. This of course culminated in their 11-game losing streak, in which they allowed 50 goals. Overall, they were outscored 20-50 through those 11 games. It doesn’t get much worse than that.
The two remaining big-name players in Vancouver are Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser. As you can imagine, both players have struggled this season. Pettersson has 13 goals and 29 points through 42 games, while Boeser is up to 11 goals and 24 points in 48 games. Way, way below what was expected out of either of them.
J.T. Miller is long gone. Quinn Hughes is gone. Kiefer Sherwood and his team-leading 17 goals is gone, traded to San Jose recently. There is such a dearth of talent in Vancouver these days. I know the Devils already lost to this team earlier this season, and I know they’re in the second half of a long west coast road trip. But I’m sorry, this is absolutely a must-win. You cannot lose to this team again, especially considering the Devils are trying to save their season at the moment. They’ve done a solid job of righting the ship with four wins in their last five games, but they absolutely need to make it five out of six tonight. Anything less than two points will be an abject failure.
Projected Lineup
Here’s how the Canucks lined up in their last game:
Expect much the same tonight.
Your Take
What do you think of tonight’s game? Do you agree that it is a must-win? How concerned are you about Luke Hughes’ long-term health? On the other hand, how impressed are you with Lenni Hameenaho? As always, thanks for reading!