Jack Hughes And The Toothless Devils Are Getting Absolutely Obliterated By The Canes In Every Which Way
Well shit. The only good bit of news or silver lining right now for the New Jersey Devils is that they rallied from a 0-2 deficit in their last series against the Rangers despite getting blown out 5-1 in each of the first two games.
...Chances of pulling that off again, though? Slim to none. Especially against this Carolina Hurricanes club who gives opponents such a minimal margin for error. Carolina was the second-least penalized team by PIM per game this season and owned the No. 2 penalty killing unit in the NHL. Although New Jersey ranked fourth in both those categories, the hot hand of young goalie Akira Schmid has gone ice cold. Schmid got yanked early in Games 1 and 2 of this semifinals showdown, and the Devils are staggering back to Newark with their pointy tails between their legs.
Considering how damn close these clubs dueled for the Metropolitan Division crown during the 2022-23 campaign and were only separated by a point in the end, it's a little jarring to see how one-sided this series is so far in the Canes' favor. New Jersey even took the last two of the regular-season series to tie it up at two apiece.
But as we can see, the playoffs are a different animal and Carolina is rising to the occasion to say the least. A four-goal second period broke Game 2 wide-open for the victorious hosts on Friday, as Jesperi Kotkaniemi lit the lamp twice in about two and a half minutes.
OK that's enough about the hockey. Canes are crushing. Pretty simple. Let's get a little weird because it's Friday night into Saturday morning at this point and I'm sure many of you are in that headspace anyway.
It's gotten to the point where the biggest subplot of this Devils-Canes postseason duel is Jack Hughes losing his tooth. Little did I know there's a serious simp/thirst subculture on the Twitterverse centered around Hughes. Many grieving young women felt the need to share how distraught they were by the damage caused to Hughes' perfect pearly whites.
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Someone put together AN ACTUAL THREAD of Jack Hughes' ivories, people! This is a freaking movement. Mobilize the troops. Let's all rally around this cause and encourage Jack to get a new tooth. Make it some sort of charitable endeavor.
Several of these reactions have me dyinggggggg.
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Did anyone else know this was a thing or…?
Sadly this is the most notable footage of Hughes as a player from the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs:
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I do not believe this is where he lost his tooth. Unclear precisely when this tragedy occurred and broke the hearts of myriad women.
Anyway, if Hurricanes netminder Frederik Andersen keeps playing as well as he is, the Devils don't have a snowball's chance in Hell of fighting their way back to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. What a luxury it is for the Canes to have both Andersen and Antti Raanta (once he's back from an undisclosed illness) to turn to as viable backstops.
This quote from coach Rod Brind'Amour was prior to Game 2 but still:
Crank that siren, Carolina. Y'all are in pretty prime position for your second-ever Stanley Cup and should be the favorite at this point. Sorry for the weird blog on your behalf/somewhat at your expense. To paraphrase Mugatu, you're just so hot right now. Grasping at straws for fun/dumb angles over here. Congrats on the quality hockey, though.
Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok