The boos rained down inside the walls of Prudential Center on Sunday night, with many of the 16,092 New Jersey Devils fans in attendance voicing their displeasure with the performance of 22-year-old defenseman Luke Hughes against the Carolina Hurricanes.
In a game of mistakes, the youngest Hughes’ brother’s two blunders proved costly as the Devils suffered a 3-1 loss to their division rival.
While his weren’t the only errors committed by a Devils player, they were the ones that affected the scoreboard, and for those individuals spending their hard-earned money on tickets, the numbers on the jumbotron are the only ones that matter.
“For me, I don't want to see any of our players have to go through something like that, in terms of the fan reaction,” head coach Sheldon Keefe said during his post-game media availability.
For approximately 32 minutes, fans booed Hughes every time he touched the puck, regardless of whether it was at full strength, the power play, or penalty kill.
“It is disappointing that that was the reaction that we had in the building for the youngest player on the ice," Keefe continued, "but he will give them lots of reasons to cheer in the future."
Hughes’ first mistake came 51 seconds into the opening period. During his first shift of the game, Hughes attempted to clear the puck out of his goaltender’s crease, but instead knocked it into his own net.
Hughes’ reaction was immediate as he threw his hand up towards his helmet in disbelief. Netminder Jake Allen, known as one of the leaders in New Jersey’s locker room, quickly spoke to Hughes as Carolina celebrated their first goal of the night.
The Devils managed to tie the game seven minutes later when Dawson Mercer scored his 11th goal of the season. Entering the first intermission, the score was deadlocked at 1-1.
Sports psychologists will be the first to say that games are 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical. It was clear through the first period that Hughes struggled, but there was hope that the 20-minute intermission would offer him a mental reset as the game was within reach when the puck dropped at the start of the middle frame.
Seven minutes into the second period, things completely unraveled for the young defenseman as he skated with the puck through Allen’s crease with former Devil Taylor Hall hot on his heels. The Hurricanes forward quickly knocked the puck off Hughes’s stick and poked it past Allen for a 2-1 Carolina lead.
“(I was) trying to make a play,” a visibly upset Hughes said post-game. “Just got a lucky stick on it. I have made those plays millions of times, and today, it just didn't go my way.”
From that moment, Hughes heard the fan’s frustration every single shift.
“We stand behind him,” Nico Hischier said. “I mean, it is a game of mistakes. Mistakes happen. He is obviously not happy about his game, but there is more to come. He is going to learn from that, and I know he will, and we are here to support him, and that's what good teams do.
“I understand the frustration (of the fans), but I think Luke is the first guy who takes accountability in that,” Hischier continued. “I know he will be better in the next game, and we support him with that."
Allen also supported Hughes during his media availability.
“I am a goalie,” he said. “I am the one who always gets the bad end of the stick when I make a mistake. I have made so many mistakes to count. I have had fans boo me. I have had this and that, which, listen, I don't think he deserves. He is a kid who made two mistakes in a hockey game. Whoever doesn't make mistakes, I would love to meet you, you know? It is a tough situation for him. In a game like that, probably something he has never felt before.”
Frustration has been building within the Devils' fanbase for weeks. Despite getting key players back from injury, the team has struggled and, at the time of publication, is out of playoff position. The organization was unable to acquire Quinn Hughes from the Vancouver Canucks and is in a difficult cap situation, requiring a move to activate defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic from Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR).
It’s been a tough stretch for the Devils organization and their fans. On Sunday night, everything reached a boiling point where, unfortunately for Hughes, he became the target.
Sports fans have the right to act as they please when attending games, as long as it doesn’t violate the guidelines set by the venue. As Hughes said of the booing, “It is what it is, and it is part of sports.”
Still, those actions do not affect just the target of the frustrations. There were 19 other players wearing Devils jerseys, listening to the persistent heckling of their teammate and, in Jack Hughes's case, his younger brother.
Over the years, the organization has worked to make New Jersey a destination players choose, whether in free agency or by accepting a trade. There is no doubt that players across the League saw or, at least, heard about the events at Prudential Center. Actions can lead to consequences, and fans relentlessly taunting their own player on home ice isn’t a ringing endorsement for players who will be deciding where to continue their careers.
In situations like this, multiple points can be true simultaneously. Does Hughes need to improve his play after signing a seven-year, $63 million contract with the Devils? Yes. Did the lack of moves and media availabilities by general manager Tom Fitzgerald lead to the now-viral moment in Newark? Yes. Did Hughes deserve to be booed for a period and a half? No.
And for those wondering why Keefe did not bench Hughes after his second on-ice error, he provided his reasoning.
“These are innocent mistakes, right? I mean, it is not like the guy is not working, not trying,” Keefe said. “You do that, and to me, you may not get the player to play well again for a couple of weeks. You have to get some belief. You have to get back out there and shake it off. As I said, when you have talented players, they are going to make mistakes at times that aren't going to look great. You can't come down hard on those all the time, and then celebrate the high-risk plays that they make and they execute at a high degree. The game doesn't work that way from the coaching end of it. You know, I come down too hard in that situation, I am going to have a player who is going to be playing to a small percentage of his potential. It is a growth moment.”
The Devils’ next four games will be on the road against the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, Winnipeg Jets, and Minnesota Wild. The club won’t play in front of the home crowd until Jan. 14 when they host the Seattle Kraken. The schedule will provide a separation from Hughes and his teammates and the fans, allowing things to cool down, as many feel things were taken too far when Hughes got caught in the crosshairs.
If nothing changes, things will continue to come to a head between the fanbase and the team’s front office. You just don’t want to see another player end up as the scapegoat, the way Hughes was last night, as a result.
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