I know a lot of teams believe that, but with the corps we got, we got a good group. Hughes was in no mood to make any excuses. 'I didn't think he was even going to play tonight, and for him to put the skates on and play just says a lot of a lot about his character, the fact he didn't even want to be out of the lineup.' 'I got to give him a lot of credit,' Ruff said. Hughes battled through the pain, however, and finished with one assist and one shot in 14:16 of ice time, more than five minutes less than his playoff average. 'I said in the morning they were going to give me everything they had, and they gave me everything they had.' New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said.Īfter the game, it was learned that center Jack Hughes, who led the Devils with six goals and 11 points in 12 playoff games, played through an upper-body injury that he sustained during the 6-1 loss in Game 4 on Tuesday. The Devils were a resilient bunch, and one that played a solid road game in what was the lowest scoring and tightest outcome of the series. But, I'm just really proud of our group.' But it doesn't make things better.'įorward Michael McLeod added: 'Getting to the second round was huge for our team, and beating the New York Rangers (in seven games in the Eastern Conference First Round) was memorable, but now we have to figure out how we can be better in certain ways. Said captain Nico Hischier: 'I don't think anybody counted us in, but here we were. 'We'll be back,' New Jersey forward Erik Haula said. One by one, they expressed not just disappointment but optimism after they were eliminated with a 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at PNC Arena on Thursday.

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