Someone In The Devils Organization Desperately Needs To Point Jack Hughes Towards The Weight Room
I love the effort. I really do. This is what separates the NHL from the NBA. It's game 10 of 82 for the Devils, it's still just October, and you have Jack Hughes flying down the ice trying to prevent an empty net goal with 13 seconds left that would seal the win for Detroit. I won't go as far as to say that these guys treat every game like it's game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. But they care every time they step on the ice.
Howeva...
Talk about things you just absolutely hate to see. It's a hustle play, and you can't knock that. But if you're the Devils, you'd almost rather lose that game 10-0 last night than to see your guy end up getting plastered on his ass like that. You'd almost rather Jack Hughes end up taking a 5-game suspension for absolutely obliterating Michael Rasmussen in that spot then the result they got.
These are the New Jersey Devils we're talking about here. When this franchise was at the peak and a true dynasty in the NHL, it was thanks to guys like Scott Stevens going out there every night and committing a few manslaughters. If you were stuck on the ice with Scott Stevens, you knew there was always a chance you were going to have to get carried off the ice by a couple of your teammates. That, and having the best goalie on the planet, was the Devils' identity.
You're just not going to win a Cup if your top guy has never seen the inside of a weight room before. The Devils have plenty of talent up the middle of the ice with Hischier and Haula. They can afford to lock Jack Hughes in the gym for a few weeks and slide those guys up to the top 2 lines. I'm pretty sure New Jersey has to be the steroid capitol of the world. Get the young man on the juice, sacrifice just a little skill for some toughness. If the Devils every have any aspirations of recapturing those glory days of the late 90s/early 2000s, then that's what it's going to take.
P.S. -- Breaks my heart posting this as a guy who grew up idolizing Eric Lindros, but you can't deny the fact that Scott Stevens was a PROBLEM.