THE SCOOP
The Devils finally received some good news on the injury front with the returns Dougie Hamilton (undisclosed), Connor Brown (undisclosed) and Evgenii Dadonov (hand) on Tuesday night in a 5-1 loss at Tampa Bay.
The Devils defied the odds despite a list of injuries that could fill the chapter in a book. The team is 13-5-1 with 27 points on the season – good for a first place tie in the Eastern Conference. The club is 4-1-1 in the past six games despite missing key figures in Jack Hughes (finger), Brett Pesce (upper-body) and Cody Glass (upper-body).
New Jersey is in the midst of a five-game road trip. The contest against the Panthers will be the fourth leg of the trip with the Devils picking wins in the opening two contests at Chicago (4-3 OT) and at Washington (3-2 SO) before falling to Tampa.
It’s been a tough start for the defending two-time champs. They’re missing their two best players up front in Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk for the start of the year. Barkov, the club’s captain, is expected to miss the entire season with a knee injury. Tkachuk is out until around mid-December. Brad Marchand (13g-10a), Sam Reinhart (10g-6a) and Anton Lundell (5g-11a) have carried the offense.
Without their top two studs, the team has treaded water. In an odd schedule quirk, the Panthers are playing 11 of 12 games at home that includes a trip to Nashville breaking up a five-game and six-game homestand. Florida is in the opening five-game stint with the Devils featuring as the fourth squad. Florida went 2-1-0 in the first three games.
On Wednesday, the team announced that forwards Eetu Luostarinen (burns) and Cole Schwindt (broken) arm are going to miss extended time. Luostarinen suffered his burns during a BQ accident. Schwindt was hurt after colliding with goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on Monday.