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Hughes’ Mistakes Costly For Devils

January 24, 2022, 3:00 PM ET [29 Comments]
Sam Woo
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Mistakes galore!

Last night, the New Jersey Devils lost to the Los Angeles Kings 3- 2 at the Prudential Center. Turnovers and giveaways continue to plague the Devils as opponents are consistently making them pay the price. The Devils survived a physical Kings team that came out early outmuscling and had good puck possession deep in the Devils zone. It wasn’t until Damon Severson’s home run pass to a wide open Jesper Bratt that got the Devils up 1-0.

But a Jack Hughes ill-advised drop pass which was easily intercepted by King’s Alex Ifalo, led to an odd man rush the other way and the Kings tied the game 1-1 with an unassisted goal by Ifalo. The Devils took back the lead with a beautiful pass from Hughes to Bratt on the power play to make it 2-1 Devils.

In the second period, Kings’ Viktor Arvidsson scored following another Jack Hughes turnover to tie the game 2-2. Later in the third period, Kings’ Carl Grundstrom scored the game winner past Devils goaltender Jon Gilles to take the lead for good at 3-2.

The Devils need to do a better job protecting the puck and stop making risky plays. Hughes was involved on all three Kings goals and needs to be more careful with the puck. These are the growing pains that a rebuilding franchise goes through. But the good news is that this can all be corrected.

However, it wasn’t all Jack Hughes making mistakes. On the game winning goal, the Devils defensive positioning was horrendous with P.K. Subban out of the play heading towards behind the net and Ryan Graves at the glass in which Grundstrom was left all alone in the slot. The Devils need to protect the high danger area better and gifted the game on that sequence to the Kings.

The Devils need to address these mistakes and play a more disciplined game. Up next, Dallas Stars tomorrow!

Jesper Bratt The Enforcer

Did you like Bratt’s scrap with Grundstrom while sticking up for Jack Hughes?





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Sam Woo is co-host and executive producer of the Let's Go Devils Podcast which can be heard live every Sunday at 9pm ET and Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.

You can follow Sam on Twitter: @PrimetimeSamWoo
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