Devils offense arrives in Game Three!

  The New Jersey Devils offense finally arrived for their series against the Carolina Hurricanes and it arrived with a vengeance as the Devils scored eight goals in their return to home ice and cut the Hurricanes' series lead to two games to one with an 8-4 triumph.

Jack Hughes led the New Jersey attack with two goals and two assists on the afternoon.

The remaining New Jersey goals are to:

Timo Meier, Michael McLeod (shorthanded), Nico Hischier, Myles Wood, Damon Severson, and Ondrej Palat (Power Play).

Game four will be in Newark on Tuesday night.

Hell Raisers

1)  Jack Hughes was inspired in his performance with two goals, two assists, and his first-ever fight in the NHL as Hughes tackled Sebastian Aho and tossed a few punches his way.

This was the type of game that Devils fans have hoped Hughes would provide once he gained the needed experience and poise and his play this season showed he is on his way.

Stepping up as he did today means he could be closer than we thought to superstar status.

2) The Devils activated Luke Hughes to play in game three and Hughes assisted on two goals, one of which belonged to brother Jack.

The Athletic did a mock redraft of Luke Hughes's draft class last October and Hughes, who was drafted by the Devils with the fourth pick in 2021, was selected first overall.

Defensemen with the skills and skating of Luke Hughes are far from common and the Devils were fortunate to have him fall in their lap.

I'll even be able to forgive the school that he attended with this level of play!

3) The Devils started Vitek Vanicek in the net for the first time since game two of the series against the Rangers.

Vanicek finished with twenty-six saves, received an assist on the goal scored by Miles Wood, and allowed a penalty shot goal against Carolina's Jordan Martinook.

4) Still, Vanicek allowed four goals which usually won't win many games and while some of those goals came during garbage time with both teams flying around and with plenty of what I'd call loose defense, I still wouldn't say I would go as far as saying I'm comfortable with the net situation at the moment.

5) This has become quite a gritty series between two teams known for their skating and offense.

Several skirmishes in this one and Erik Haula slugged it out with former Devil Stefan Noesen.

I didn't expect this much hostility between the two but it is clearly there and I'm guessing that something aggressive is going to decide one of these remaining games.

6) The Devils dominated this game even more than the 8-4 score, which was deceiving for the reasons above and that's why they should feel good about the win, which was as close to a must-win as there can be short of an elimination game.

Still, they cannot take too much away from this win, and game four is equally important.

Returning to Raleigh tied at two is almost a certainty for the Devils to win this series and they need another big effort on Tuesday to accomplish tying the series at two.