New Jersey Devils is not sure exactly who will be available when they try to recover in Game 2 in their Stanley Cup playoffs first round series against Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday in Raleigh, NC
The devils, already without the star forward Jack Hughes and defender Jonas Siegenthaler for the series due to injuries, the defender Brenden Dillon had left game 1 in the second period and forward Cody Glass in the third. Defender Luke Hughes also left the third but returned.
The hurricanes exploited to get a convincing 4-1 victory on Sunday and take the early series management.
New Jersey doesn’t know who will be available until playing time Tuesday. However, Devils coach Sheldon Keefe was only worried about how the team played, at least in public.
“For a man, myself including, we must all be better,” Keefe said.
Carolina surpassed New Jersey 45-24 in game 1.
“(Under) 5-on-5, I really didn’t have many problems with our game other than what we expected with the energy and pace,” Keefe said. “I thought during the second period, we were just overwhelmed and it wasn’t good enough. The third period was good, but the injury is done then.”
Hurricane’s defender Jalen Chatfield did early in the first period before Logan Stankoven did twice in the second. Stankoven’s second goal, on Power Play, Carolina set 3-0 before Nico Hischier got the devils on the board with just over a minute left in the middle period.
Andrei Svechnikov added an empty network goal late in the third period for Carolina.
“For us to win, we will need 20 guys chipping in. I think that’s what we got tonight,” said Hurricanes’ coach Rod Brind’amour. “We were ready to go. The first goal, I think, is huge just to really solve everything. It allows you to keep the course.”
Chatfield scored on a shielded wrist shot from right point 2:24 into the game.
“We called it the game, we run it a lot,” Chatfield said. “(It is) only few pucks to the net. We did a good job to arrive and cause chaos.”
Stankoven kept up in the second period with its goals.
“It was just nice to get the first one out of the way and start on the right foot,” Stankoven said. “When you get into a series is the first big one, but there is a lot of hockey left to play. It was a lot of fun to play out there.”
Hischier’s goal with 1:09 left in the second, New Jersey gave some hope after they had been unmatched 38-13 during the first two periods.
“We have to work harder, create, create your own lanes to the web,” New Jersey said forward Timo Meier. “They are strong and they fight hard, they compete, everything we know. And as I said, we have a game plan. We have to do it better.”
Keefe said: “We won’t get much. It’s the reality in it when you play a team like Carolina. They will make it really hard for you, but as I said, you had more than enough to make more points than we did. There are some opportunities there.”
-Field level media
