Takeaways from NJ Devils loss to Sharks: Sour return for Jack Hughes

NEWARK — The Devils could not keep the good vibes going.

Despite getting star center Jack Hughes back from a shoulder injury and extending him for eight more years, the Devils delivered a disappointing end to the day in a 5-2 loss to the Sharks at Prudential Center. 

After scoring less than five minutes into the game, the Sharks poured it on with three goals from Jacob Middleton, Timo Meier, who also added an empty-netter, and Erik Karlsson in the second period to cruise to the win. 

"All I can do is worry about myself, but there’s a few things that I need to sharpen up in my game," Hughes said. "It’s not fun losing but the good thing is we have to more chances back-to-back coming up so we’ll put that one behind us, regroup and we’ve got to get better as a team. It’s my first game back, but it’s a wakeup call for myself and the team."

The Devils got their offense going far too late, with Tomas Tatar and Jesper Bratt scoring midway through the third period.

It was a sloppy, disjointed effort from the Devils on the heels of a strong performance against the Flyers on Sunday. The Devils have lost six of their last eight games, with two coming in shootouts. They get a chance to rebound with back-to-back games against the Wild and Jets, respectively, beginning Thursday

Here are some of the takeaways from the Devils' disappointing effort on Tuesday:

Jack is back

One of the few pleasant sights for Devils fans on Tuesday was the return of Jack Hughes.

After missing 17 games with a dislocated shoulder and signing a eight-year contract extension Tuesday, Hughes took the ice in the Devils starting lineup.

He flashed the uncanny quickness that netted him $64 million but largely looked to get other players involved in the first period and the second period, including a 2-on-1 breakaway pass to Yegor Sharangovich that was swept aside midway through the second period.

"There’s some rust in his puck play, and I think that was to be expected," Ruff said. "I thought at times he skated really well."

In his first action since the second game of the season, Hughes logged 15 minutes and 54 seconds of ice time and fired just one shot.

Second period to forget

It might be hard to find a worse period through the Devils' first 20 games than the one they had in the second on Tuesday night.

Three goals allowed, three penalties, and it could've been worse.

Jacob Middleton made it 2-0 four minutes and 14 seconds into the period when he threaded a shot into the top left corner from the left circle and a failed coach's challenge on the play put the Devils down a man.

After Jesper Bratt was whistled for hooking midway through the period, the Sharks took advantage as all four Devils collapsed in the corner and left Timo Meier wide open for the third goal of the game.

The Sharks tacked on one more 41 seconds later when Alexander Barabanov sent a pass through a sea of legs and connected to Erik Karlsson for a goal.

"We didn't get to the right spot," Ruff said. "Our puck play, in general, wasn't good. Our attention to coming back and playing sound defense obviously hurt us. They made some mistakes and we let some good offensive opportunities just slip away. The ones we made, they took advantage of."

Mackenzie Blackwood made a pair of sprawling pads saves on Logan Couture and Matt Nieto inside six minutes to play to limit the damage.

The Devils flashed some of their resolve in the third period, but they had dug themselves in way too deep to respond.

Slow starts continue

Over the last two weeks, the Devils have been plagued by slow starts and it continued on Tuesday night.

In their last eight games, the Devils have only carried a lead into the second period once while trailing in five of those games.

The result has been frenzied attempts to come back down the stretch. After trailing by two goals against Minnesota, the Devils fought back with two goals in the third period, including a tally from Pavel Zacha with an extra attacker to grab a point in a shootout loss.

"We’ve gotten points from games that last year we probably wouldn’t have gotten, but the third period has turned into critical points," Ruff said. "I think we’ve got to become the team that can be consistent, that can put some goals up on the board early, force a team to chase us and take advantage of those offensive opportunities."

The Devils had to play from behind from nearly the beginning of Tuesday's game after Noah Gregor cashed in on his own rebound after deflecting a shot from Radim Simek four minutes and 26 seconds into the game.

The Devils trailed 1-0 after 20 minutes despite some of their best chances of the game as they outshot the Sharks 14-10 in the opening period. James Reimer came up big with a breakaway save on Zacha and stuffed Ryan Graves on a good look on the right doorstep early in the action.

"We’ve played some really good first periods and haven’t scored," Ruff said. "I think there’s been some periods where we haven’t liked how we played. I would probably say missed opportunities. (We need to start) bearing down on opportunities and turning some of those great opportunities into goals."