The New Jersey Devils continued their homestand on Wednesday night against the Dallas Stars. They left the ice to a smattering of boos as they dropped their third straight contest, getting blanked 3-0. Head coach Sheldon Keefe said they were “essentially lifeless” after Dallas scored their first goal.
Related: Stars Shut Out Devils in 3-0 Victory
Devils Miss Jack Hughes…Greatly.
There’s no question that the Devils desperately miss Jack Hughes. How much, though? Look at their rush offense in the second period with versus without him:
This is nuts … courtesy @MSGNetworks pic.twitter.com/mfnYLNN7UT
— Mike Morreale (@mikemorrealeNHL) December 4, 2025
Of course, the second period is the period of the long change, but the Devils haven’t generated enough offensive zone time on most nights for it to be an an advantage.
Moments after that graphic aired, the Devils took to the ice for the second period. They got outscored 2-0 in the frame, generating just five scoring chances. For reference, the average team generates roughly nine per period.
But it underscored a bigger issue that the team simply hasn’t scored much at all sans-Hughes. With him, they scored 3.35 goals per game. Without him: just 2.67 — an over 20% decrease.
This isn’t the first rendition, either. In the past four seasons, the Devils are 126-75-18 (.616 PTS%) with him in the lineup…and 22-28-3 without (.443 PTS%). Sure, there are other key injuries on defense, but it should be alarming that the Devils seem to always play to a mediocre record when Jack is out. And they still have roughly 15 games to go until he returns.
“With where we’re at not being able to score five, six goals every night, we’ve got to focus on the defensive side so pucks aren’t going in,” said defenseman Brenden Dillon. “You’re not going to replace a Jack Hughes or replace these other guys we have out of the lineup. By committee, instead of those highlight reel goals [we need to] be getting some greasy rebounds, throwing stuff to the net, crashing the net. We’re just not seeming to do that right now, and we’re going to have to change gears on that quick.”
Offensive Defensemen Struggle
In Jack’s absence, it would certainly help if they could consistently get offensive contributions from their defensemen. Luke Hughes and Dougie Hamilton both have the skillset to do so…but it’s been a struggle.
When Jack went down, Luke had seven points in the following eight games but is now without one in his last four, coupled with a minus-5 rating in those four contests. Hamilton — who recently returned from an injury of his own — has just one single point in 12 games: that’s 0.08 points per game (P/GP). For reference, his rookie season in 2012-13 — the lowest output of his career — was 0.38 P/GP.
It’s not for a lack of ability — prior to that 12-game stretch, Hamilton had seven points in 10 games. After the game, Keefe gave some great insight into Hamilton’s struggle to re-adapt:
“I thought he was playing quite well for us [at the time of his injury]. And then the wind gets out of his sails, and then while that happens, you get someone like [Simon] Nemec, who’s stepped up and really blossomed his game offensively. So now Dougie gets back in and it’s not the same environment as he left, you know, and it’s harder to get him back going, and he hasn’t gotten back to that level yet. I would say it is a work in progress to get his game back going, but it’s tricky, because Nemec is really feeling it offensively and you want to kind of capitalize on that at the same time.”
Nemec has certainly carried more of the load with eight points in his last 14 games, in addition to a plus-6 rating over that span. But in an ideal world, the Devils could find a way to get he — plus Luke and Hamilton — all contributing regularly. They all possess the skillset for that to happen.
Rough Goaltending on Homestand
The Devils, after avoiding a regulation loss in their first 10 home games, have now dropped three straight in that fashion.
In all actuality, even if Jacob Markstrom allowed just one goal tonight, it wouldn’t have made a difference. But he allowed three on 27 shots — an .889 save percentage (SV%) and minus-0.86 goals saved above expected (GSAx), per Moneypuck.
In the three games this homestand, Devils goaltenders have allowed 13 goals and combined for an .845 SV%, including minus-4.19 GSAx. In those three contests, the Devils actually cut down on high danger chances from their games post-Jack injury by over 24%. But they’ve struggled to get many big saves when needed.
It’s unfair to put too much pressure on the goaltenders, given that they’re getting virtually no scoring assistance. But it would help if they could get the timely saves, and aside from Jake Allen’s stellar performance in Buffalo, they haven’t gotten that much lately. Since Jack’s injury, their team SV% is just .892%.
Moving Forward
The Devils — now 16-10-1 — will look to get back in the win column at home on Friday night against the Vegas Golden Knights (7:00 PM EST).
