Life without Nico Hischier is not a life the New Jersey Devils could survive

 

The New Jersey Devils lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 4-2 on Monday night. It was a tale of two halves, as the Devils were lifeless and frustrating in the first 30 minutes of the game, where the team gave up three unanswered goals to put themselves in a terrible hole. Something wasn’t clicking on offense or defense. The power play looked dreadful. Jake Allen tried his best to make stupendous saves to keep the Devils in it, but they failed to score three goals again, and it cost them important points in the standings.

There was a lot going on in this game that stood out. There were injuries (Nathan Bastian took a nasty hit and never returned), there was some rough performances (Brett Pesce was on the ice for all the goals against), and there was an incredible effort to end the game to try and win (Jack Hughes played an insane shift of north of four minutes).

 

While the effort at the end was there, the Devils were missing just a little extra the entire game. The power play needed something extra. The offense needed something extra. They needed something extra in the defensive zone, and they clearly missed their captain.

Nico Hischier got injured on Saturday night when he took an illegal check to the ribs against the Montreal Canadiens. The play wasn’t called a penalty, but Hischier was clearly in pain. He tried to return to the game, and he played a shift in the third period, but he eventually left for good. Sheldon Keefe did give a positive update after the game, calling Hischier day-to-day, but then Hischier went to New Jersey for extended testing.