New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes wasted little time Thursday night proving he was all the way back from an injury-wracked 2025-26 season.
The New York Islanders will have to wait a little longer to see Mathew Barzal back at full strength.
The Islanders will play their home opener Saturday night in Elmont, N.Y., when they host the Devils in a clash of longtime Metropolitan Division rivals.
The Islanders have been off since Wednesday, when they suffered a season-opening 2-1 defeat to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Devils won their season opener Thursday night, when Hughes scored with 1:37 left in overtime as New Jersey edged the visiting Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2.
Emil Heineman scored a short-handed goal in the third period for the Islanders, who continued to feel the effects of Barzal’s absence. Barzal missed all of training camp with left knee inflammation stemming from the broken kneecap he suffered Feb. 1, 2025. New York general manager Mathieu Darche said Wednesday that Barzal could begin skating this weekend or early next week.
Barzal has led or shared the team lead in scoring in seven of the last nine seasons — including last year, when he finished with 53 assists and 72 points, each of which were the third-highest totals of his career. Despite his stellar numbers, the Islanders missed the playoffs after losing 10 of their final 14 games.
Without Barzal, the Islanders were limited to seven goals while going 1-3-0 in four preseason games — including one goal apiece in each of the defeats. Head coach Peter DeBoer shuffled the lines throughout Wednesday’s game, when Heineman started on the third line and ended it on the first.
“We’re looking to see what clicks,” DeBoer said following practice Friday. “We’re going to keep trying things until we get some combinations that feel really good. I don’t like to flip lines around.
“I don’t think it’s any secret we haven’t scored a lot of 5-on-5 goals, even through exhibitions. So we’ve got to find some combinations that work there.”
Any combination that features Hughes on the ice is usually a good one for the Devils, who missed the playoffs by 11 points last season, when Hughes missed 21 games due to finger and lower-body injuries.
Despite the lengthy absences, Hughes led the Devils with 77 points and 50 assists while ranking second with 27 goals, just one behind Nico Hischier. New Jersey went 34-24-3 with Hughes and 8-13-0 without him.
Hughes was quiet Thursday until the decisive sequence, which began with him stealing the puck from Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim behind the Devils’ net. After racing up the ice, Hughes dished to Jesper Bratt as the teammates neared the crease.
Bratt immediately dished back to Hughes, who tucked the puck into the wide-open net as Flyers goalie Joseph Woll was caught leaning towards Bratt.
“Definitely a great handle by (Bratt), that pass was a bit of a grenade that I sent his way,” Hughes said. “Great handle, back to me, empty net. We’ve been doing that for years and I look forward to doing it for a lot more years with him.”
