April 22, 2025, 12:13pm
RAILY, N.C. — New Jersey Devils defensemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon are injured in Game 2 injuries on Tuesday night in the first round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Coach Sheldon Keefe ruled out both Hughes and Dillon after not even taking part in the morning skating. Both Blue Liners came out early from Sunday’s Game 1 loss and skated towards the tunnel with support.
Keefe did not specify the nature of these injuries for a team that had already descended a well-known production before the Stanley Cup playoffs. That means Simon Nemek, the second overall pick in the 2022 draft, and Dennis Chorowski, will pull in for the first postseason action of their careers.
“It’s clearly a huge loss for us, but it’s not what we’ve faced in the regular season,” Keefe said. “The message remains the same in terms of team capabilities and the need to step up. And the group has to lift it up. So we could do it before and I expect the same.”
Dillon fell violently after being entangled with Carolina’s William career, struggling to get up and get up in the second season. Keefe said Dillon wanted to come back after the loss, but the doctors wouldn’t clear him.
Hughes got injured in the third season after getting off to the net and clutching the area on his left shoulder, but later returned to the game.
The Devils already have top center Jack Hughes (who had shoulder surgery in March and has come out towards the season) with defensive man Jonas Siegenhurler suffering a lower body injury since February. Keefe previously said that Siegenthaler hadn’t returned to the series.
Carolina won the series opener 4-1, scoring the first three goals of the game, earning a 4-1 shot advantage late in the second half of the second term.
The Devils got some good news with centre Cody Glass, who was cleared to play with, on the ice. He came when goaltender Jacob Mark Strom hit Carolina’s Andreis Vechnikov over the fold and instead hit glass to hit the ice in pain, but the glass was also damaged in the same chaotic play as Hughes.
