PRE-GAME MEDIA AVAIL RECAP
WASHINGTON, DC - The Devils head into Washington tonight dealing with yet another major injury challenge.
Earlier in the day, the team announced that Jack Hughes underwent surgery on his finger. He’s expected to miss about eight weeks of action and will be re-evaluated at the six-week mark. It’s a gut punch for a group that has already been navigating a steady stream of absences.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe didn’t hide how tough the news is for both player and team.
“It’s a tough situation obviously. I feel for Jack, he’d been playing so well and worked so hard last summer to get himself back,” Keefe said. “Tough for him, tough for us as a team. But we’ve unfortunately had to get used to these situations of people dropping out of our lineup and pressing on as a team. So, that’s what we’ll have to do.”
Keefe added that out of respect for the situation he didn’t want to get into the minute details of how the injury happened, but stressed that it was a freak accident and “more bad luck than anything,” and the focus now is on doing everything possible to help Hughes recover.
Turning a Loss Into a Spark
As difficult as the news is, Keefe sees a chance for the rest of the group to grow through it.
“The team game’s got to get better, the individuals have got to get better,” he said. “There’s more opportunity for all that to happen.” He pointed to how the team responded the last time a key piece went down, using Brett Pesce’s absence and Simon Nemec’s recent breakout as an example.
“When we lost Pesce previously, it took us longer than I would have liked to sort of recalibrate,” Keefe said. “Nemec gets a hat trick the other night — does that happen if Dougie Hamilton’s in the lineup? Maybe not. So now we’ve got a better version of Nemo here, more confident. That’s just one example of how others can step up and the team just presses on.”
Still, he was honest about the size of the hole down the middle.
“It’s a big hole. You take Jack out in addition to Cody Glass,” Keefe said. “We’ve already talked about the hole that Cody Glass himself left when he left the lineup. So yeah, it’s a big hole, it’s a concern. We’ve got to manage it as best we can.”
Injury Updates on MacEwen, Glass, Brown, Hamilton, Dadonov
The loss of Hughes comes on top of injuries in the previous game, when both Zach MacEwen and Cody Glass were hurt and didn’t finish. MacEwen was placed on IR, which opened the door for Nathan Legare to be recalled and join the club in Chicago. Yesterday, the team also placed Connor Brown on IR retroactive to October 30 and recalled Shane Lachance.
Keefe said Glass has an upper-body injury and is week-to-week. Both he and MacEwen have returned to New Jersey for evaluation, with MacEwen expected to be out longer than Glass.
He also noted that Brown and Dougie Hamilton have been skating and are expected to rejoin practice on Monday, at which point the staff will determine whether they’re ready to join the next trip. Evgenii Dadonov is progressing as well, though Keefe said he isn’t as close as Hamilton and Brown yet, but is “a lot further along” in terms of managing the puck and shooting.
NHL Debut for Lachance, Return for Legare
One bright spot amid the wave of injuries: Shane Lachance is set to make his NHL debut.
“Yeah, he will make his debut. Excited for him,” Keefe said. He acknowledged Lachance had a shortened camp because of an injury but liked what he showed both at the Buffalo Prospects Challenge — where he had two goals and three points in two games — and in his lone preseason game, where he scored before getting hurt again.
“From everything that I saw both at the rookie tournament and the games that he played for us… the detail that he plays with, the competitiveness, the size that he brings, all those types of things,” Keefe said. “It hasn’t all come to fruition the way I would have thought or would like to see at the American League level, but it doesn’t change the excitement that I have for this player and what he can bring to our team. So, he’ll get a great chance here today, and off we go.”
Lachance has one goal in 11 games this season with Utica, the same stat line as Legare, who was recalled earlier when MacEwen went on IR.
Legare’s return also fills a specific need.
“It’s a big reason why he’s here,” Keefe said. He praised Legare’s training camp, noting that he “showed that he could do a lot of the simple things well — up and down the ice, physicality, defensive play.” With the style of game Washington tends to play, Keefe said, “we’re going to need that in a game like today so the timing is good to get him back involved.”
Five-on-Five, Special Teams, and a Heavy Opponent
The Devils come into the matchup on a run of four consecutive games that have required overtime, including one shootout. They’ve also leaned on a strong penalty kill, which has been among the top units in the league and has gone 11-for-13 over the last six games.
At five-on-five, Keefe has been pushing for growth — and liked what he saw in their most recent outing in Chicago, where the team scored three even-strength goals. But he was quick to point out that tonight is a different challenge entirely.
“I liked a lot of things we did in Chicago. Obviously Jack was a significant contributor in that,” he said. “But the reality is the game here tonight is going to be a much different hockey game than what was on the ice in Chicago. It’s going to be way faster, way more physical, way more competitive, just the nature of the type of game that Washington plays.”
He expects the Devils will have to hit all three key areas to get a result.
“We’re going to have to be great at five-on-five, we’re going to have to be great at special teams, we have to be great in goal,” Keefe said. “As you lose bodies, your team game has to get better in those three different phases — special teams, five-on-five and goaltending.”
Capitals Profile
Washington returns home after a four-game road trip in which the club went 1–3–0, most recently dropping a 6–3 decision to Florida. Despite that stretch, the Capitals have been one of the stingier teams defensively so far, ranking near the top of the league in goals against per game and shots against per game.
They’ve allowed one or fewer goals against in seven of their 17 games, and have given up the fewest five-on-five goals in the league while ranking near the top in five-on-five goal differential. They’ve also generated more five-on-five shot attempts than their opponent in most of their games and sit among the league leaders in overall shot-attempt percentage at five-on-five.
Tom Wilson leads Washington in goals, points and hits, and paces Capitals forwards in ice time. Nic Dowd is expected to play in his 600th career game tonight.
