“He’s baaaack!”
Wednesday night, as the New Jersey Devils said goodbye to the regular season and prepared for the postseason, they welcomed a familiar face back into the fold. Dougie Hamilton, who had been out with a lower-body injury since being injured against the Dallas Stars on March 4th, returned to active duty with one thing on his mind: getting ready for the playoffs. On Wednesday night, that meant taking on the Detroit Red Wings in the regular season finale. New Jersey lost the game 5-2, but the result wasn’t as important as the process.
As they continue to prep for their date with the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round, the Devils used the game against Detroit as an opportunity to rest a lot of weary, banged-up bodies. Captain Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Timo Meier, Ondrej Palat (left Tuesday’s game against Boston with an injury), Stefan Noesen, Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce, Jonathan Kovacevic, Paul Cotter (second game of a two-game suspension) and Jacob Markstrom all took a seat against the Red Wings.
Nico Daws started in net with Jake Allen serving as the backup. Dawson Mercer kept his consecutive games played streak alive (now at 328 and counting). But the big news was Hamilton’s return.
Devils’ Head Coach Sheldon Keefe spoke to reporters before the game, saying, “He has worked hard. I’d say he is a little bit ahead of schedule. I think he was, six to eight weeks was sort of the projected time period. And he’s at the front end of that. So credit to him for the work that he’s put in and he’s excited to go. We had some conversations, whether it was gonna be last night or today and gave him the extra day, saved him the flights and all these kinds of things. He’s excited today and he’ll pair up with (Brenden) Dillon, give them a chance to get some reps in together.”
Keefe was asked what he expected out of Hamilton in this game, to which he replied, “He’s played, coming up towards 900 games, I think, in The League. Just need him to do what he’s done.”
That “do what he’s done” is in reference to creating offense, which has been Hamilton’s calling card throughout his career. “It’s definitely a big part of it (creating offense),” Keefe explained. “That’s what he does. He moves the puck up from your end to the opposition’s end and gets it to the net, has the ability to score from anywhere. So, yeah, it brings a different element for sure.”
Against the Red Wings, Hamilton played the second-highest amount of time among all Devils skaters at 23:43. He also put up four shots on goal, served two minutes in the penalty box for tripping Mortiz Seider in the second period and had a minus-one rating for the game. Hamilton saw 2:26 of action on the power-play and 35 seconds on the penalty-kill, proving that he had no restrictions and was being thrust right back into everything.
“I’ve kind of been all over the map with my D-partners the last 15, 20 games here and for Dougie, we all know the type of player (he is),” Brenden Dillon explained after the game. “He’s a guy who can impact your lineup like that. I thought from the first shift tonight, it was great to be back with him. We were communicating. Some great reads, some 0-zone stuff. Obviously, when Dougie’s shooting the puck, he’s at his best and we saw that tonight. It’s tough to jump back in after as long as he was out, but credit to him for coming back and pushing to get back.”
“I just played my first game in six weeks,” Hamilton said after the game. “So, body-wise, yes, I feel good. Just trying to get used to playing hockey again.”
As for the rest of the cobbled-together Devils roster, Erik Haula and Dawson Mercer provided the goal-scoring when they took New Jersey’s 3-0 deficit in the third period and turned it into a 3-2 deficit with 5:39 to go in the game. Alex DeBrincat and Marco Kasper (empty netter) proceeded to cancel out Haula and Mercer’s goals to seal the game, 5-2 in favor of Detroit.
Detroit’s Vladimir Tarasenko appeared to have scored a power-play goal early in the first period while Brenden Dillon was in the box for tripping Patrick Kane, but the goal was taken down after the Devils successfully challenged for goalie interference.
However, there was nothing to challenge when Jonatan Berggren sniped the puck past Nico Daws with 2:53 left in the period to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead. Then, 5:20 into the second period, J.T. Compher doubled New Jersey’s misery when he went top-shelf on Daws to increase Detroit’s lead to 2-0. And Dylan Larkin made it 3-0 Red Wings at the 2:55 mark of the third period.
Alex Lyon completed Detroit’s bell-to-bell victory by making 28 saves on 30 shots. Meanwhile, Nico Daws made 21 saves on 25 shots.
But like we said earlier, the big story was Dougie Hamilton’s healthy return to the lineup. Now it’s all about preparing for Carolina.
