The New Jersey Devils will be extra thin on the blue line for Game 2 vs. the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night at the Lenovo Center. Defenders Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon are both expected to miss the contest due to injuries per head coach Sheldon Keefe.
Hughes is dealing with an undisclosed injury that he picked up in Game 1. The 21 year old briefly exited the series opener, but was able to return, ultimately logging a -1 rating across 22:20 worth of ice time.
Meanwhile, Brenden Dillon had an awkward net front collision midway through the 2nd period, and appeared to suffer a lower body injury in the process. According to reports, Dillon was “eager to get back out there” but was held back by the team’s medical staff.
New Jersey, who were already without defenceman Jonas Siegenthaler and forward Jack Hughes to begin the series, will now need to field replacements on their back end to slow down the high powered Carolina offence.
Simon Nemec and Dennis Cholowski will draw into the lineup in place of Hughes and Dillon. The team used the following defensive pairings at Tuesday morning’s skate:
Brett Pesce – Dougie Hamilton
Brian Dumoulin – Johnathan Kovacevic
Dennis Cholowski – Simon Nemec
The banged up Devils squad will look to draw even with the Hurricanes when the puck drops at 6pm ET Tuesday evening.
Photo: Jenn G. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.