The New Jersey Devils have spent the first month-plus of the season picking up where they left off last year. Maintaining that pace might have gotten a little tougher Friday afternoon.
The Devils will be without leading scorer Jack Hughes Saturday when they visit the Washington Capitals in the first clash of the season between the Metropolitan Division rivals.
The Devils have been off since Wednesday night, when Simon Nemec capped his hat trick by scoring the game-winner in overtime to lift New Jersey past the host Chicago Blackhawks, 4-3. The Capitals concluded a four-game road trip Thursday, when they fell to the Florida Panthers 6-3.
The two days off might have been costly for the Devils, who announced Friday that Hughes is out with what the team described as a “non-hockey, hand injury.” Sportsnet reported earlier Friday that Hughes was injured in a “fluke accident” during a team dinner Thursday night.
Hughes has a team-high 10 goals and 20 points for the Devils, who lead the Eastern Conference with 25 points following Wednesday’s stirring win.
The unlikely hat trick by Nemec — who had just six career goals in his first 103 games and had never scored twice in a contest prior to Wednesday — sparked the comeback for the Devils, who trailed 1-0, 2-1 and 3-2.
Nemec is just the third defenseman in Devils/Colorado Rockies history to record a hat trick and the first since Uli Hiemer on Oct. 31, 1984.
“I was never like a shooter or a scoring guy,” Nemec said. “So yeah, I’m glad for that. But obviously, great team win. We were down like three times and we won. That’s good.”
The Devils — who finished third in the Metro last year and are trying to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since a 13-season streak from 1996-97 through 2009-10 — authored an eight-game winning streak in October and have lost consecutive games just once.
Building off a successful season has been tougher for the Capitals, who are last in the Metropolitan Division after leading the Eastern Conference with 111 points last year and reaching the second round of the playoffs.
Washington has lost seven of nine (2-6-1) since a 6-2-0 start. The Capitals, who outscored the opposition 26-14 over the first eight games, have been outscored 31-23 during their skid.
The Capitals took five penalties and allowed two power-play goals Thursday, when they fell despite outshooting the Panthers 40-28. Justin Sourdif scored 52 seconds into the third period to pull Washington within 3-2 before Florida scored twice over the next nine minutes.
“We’ve got to try to tilt the ice and earn those bounces,” Capitals right winger Tom Wilson said. “That’s the game of hockey, a lot of mistakes. You’ve just got to try and push your way down to their end and try and capitalize. We got a lot of pucks to the net. But a bit of a frustrating one, I guess.”
