Devils Down Two Key Defensemen to Injuries Ahead of Crucial Game 3

The 2024/25 season has been good overall to the New Jersey Devils, but late in the year, the talented young team have been hampered by injuries, and that hasn't stopped in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

After dropping both games played in Carolina, the Devils head back to New Jersey facing a must-win scenario in Game 3, but unfortunately, several of their top remaining names came into that one under an injury cloud.

Now, the Devils have confirmed on social media that both Luke Hughes and Brendan Dillon will miss the next game, and while their immediate future beyond that is unclear, if they go down 3-0, it may not matter who is in the lineup.

While the top pairing of Brett Pesce and Dougie Hamilton is still solid, the bottom-four will see New Jersey now rely on veterans like Brian Dumolin and Dennis Cholowski, while also turning to young standout Simon Nemec for some big minutes.

With the rampaging Hurricanes coming into town, the last thing that New Jersey needed was a loss defensively after giving up a total of seven runs thus far in this series.

Ultimately, after two dominant outings for Carolina thus far and the Devils already missing superstar Jack Hughes, this was always going to be a tough ask for them to turn things around, but with both Dillon and Luke Hughes potentially set to miss not only this game but Game 4 as well, it would be incredibly impressive if they could turn things around and get back into this series.