It was a rollercoaster of emotion at Prudential Center on Thursday night.
The excitement for the return of Ondrej Palat, Jack Hughes was named an NHL All-Star while he added two goals against the Blues. Those were some of the early highs, before the St. Louis Blues broke a 2-2 tie at 2:27 of the third period. The Devils slowly saw their lead slip away to a 4-2 deficit.
Another range of emotions.
And then the building exploded in excitement when Nico Hischier deflect a Dougie Hamilton power-play shot past Blues netminder Jordan Binnington to bring the team within a single goal. Hischier has goals in five-straight games to mark a new career-high. And although it provided a moment of excitement again, the Blues were able to hold off the Devils comeback, hitting the empty net and backstopped by a terrific performance from their goaltender Jordan Binnington.
Ondrej Palat finished the night playing 14:24 with two shots on net.
"I was just trying to go out there, play hard and win battles, block shots," Palat said post-game, "I just wanted to do the little things right, especially in the first game back, not make crazy plays, just keep it simple and I thought I did that."
Of how he felt during and after the game Palat said he is feeling confident in his groin.
"It was more just the nervousness, you have excitement, you have butterflies in your stomach before the game, I was like, I needed that I think. I know I'm going to get better."
Blues Spoil Palat's Return, Hughes' 2 Goals, Beat Devils 5-3 | GAME STORY
Jack Hughes had two goals on the night he was announced as an NHL All-Star, but the Blues take the two points
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The Devils play their final home game before a 12 day road trip. They will host the New York Rangers in a 3 p.m. matchup at Prudential Center.
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Here are some observations from the game...
- Ondrej Palat made his return to the lineup after being out since Oct. 24 and undergoing groin surgery on Nov. 1. It has beena long road to recovery, but he finally was able to suit up with his teammates for his seventh game of the season.
Thrown right into the mix, Palat slotted in on the top line with Nico Hischier and Jesper Bratt, while Tomas Tatar, who has been a pair with Hischier for the majority of the year, slotted down to Jack Hughes' wing with Erik Haula. - The return of Palat meant the coaching staff had to make a decision over who would come out. After sending Tyce Thompson back to the Utica Comets there was still an additional forward and not enough spots in the game lineup for them all.
Ultimately it was Fabian Zetterlund who was listed as the healthy scratch to make way for Palat's return. Zetterlund had just two points (1g, 1a) in his last 13 games.
"Either you've got to produce, or you've got to be a guy that the other team hates playing against," Lindy Ruff said about his decision to scratch Zetterlund. "Let's just look at the numbers. It's got to be better than that. If you're not producing then you better be hitting, if you're not doing either one, you've got to bring something else to the table. You look at what (Alexander Holtz) brought the night before, he deserved to stay in. So Z needs to bring more." - Jack Hughes had impeccable timing.
Just moments after it was announced by the National Hockey League that Hughes has been picked as a 2023 NHL All-Star, he showed everyone exactly why.
Not moments after the announcement, Hughes scored his first goal of the game, from the goal line, with a wrist shot he wired it past Jordan Binnington for his 23rd goal of the year.
If that didn't feel like enough, Hughes would add once again, this time unassisted with a snapshot past Binnington.
Hughes has been having yet another breakout year, topping his numbers from last season. Already with 24 goals on the year, he is two away from his career-high set in 2021-22. In the last 19 games, Hughes has 17 goals and leads the Devils in both goals and assists (22) at the 39-game mark.
Tweet from @NJDevils: Our star.Superstar. All-Star.#MadeInJersey pic.twitter.com/qSAp2yzbbC
"He has come a long ways," Ruff said of his tenure with Hughes, "And he puts the work in, you know, he's a guy that every day is going to practice, he's there for the extra work, he's working on his shot. He's been working around the net more. I think if you want to be a true goal scorer, you've got to be around the net more. You have to score the type of goal he scored (tonight)."
Tweet from @NJDevils: Seen here is 2x All-Star Jack Hughes doing All-Star things. pic.twitter.com/UwseWT9guc
- Akira Schmid was called up earlier on Thursday and jumped right into action, his first NHL game since Dec. 17. Schmid was called upon after Vitek Vanecek played last night in Detroit and Mackenzie Blackwood, who likely would have gotten the start tonight, was held out for precautionary reasons after being struck by a puck in the hand during a morning skate in Detroit.
Schmid didn't have a terribly busy opening two periods with just five and seven shots against respectively, but he was beaten twice, once by Jordan Kyrou on a deflection and again by Ivan Barbashev who turned everyone around with his deke moves before tying the game at two.
The young goaltender finished with 14 saves on 18 shots. He came into the game with a previous 5-3-0 record from earlier in the season.
"It doesn't really matter anymore what you've done in the past," he said, You've got to prove it again and again, every game. Obviously tonight, I wanted to be, I've got to be better. And that's a humbling experience as well. You know, I've just got to prove every night that you belong here." - The goal by St. Louis' Brandon Saad was scored when he was left wide open after Kevin Bahl took himself out of play, trying to defend against the Blues oncoming offense. Bahl slide on the ice and took himself out of the play leaving Saad to beat Schmid and score the 3-2 goal.
Bahl ended up playing just two shifts in the third period. - Tomas Tatar was looking to the skies in disbelief on several occasions tonight. The 31-year-old had some excellent chances on Binnington he was unable to finish but also was at the mercy of some big saves by the Blues netminder. Tatar finished with a season-high seven shots on net. - Jack Hughes led the team with nine shots on net.
