Devils won’t have injured defensemen Luke Hughes, Brenden Dillon for Game 2 against Hurricanes

RALEIGH N C AP New Jersey Devils defensemen Luke Hughes and Brenden Dillon are out with injuries for Tuesday night s Tournament of their first-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes Coach Sheldon Keefe ruled out both Hughes and Dillon after neither participated in the morning skate The blue-liners both exited early from Sunday s Match loss and skated off to the tunnel with assistance Keefe didn t specify the nature of those injuries which are another hit for a squad that was already down prominent pieces before the Stanley Cup Playoffs That means Simon Nemec the No overall pick in the draft and Dennis Cholowski will draw in for the first postseason action of their careers It s obviously big losses for us clearly but not unlike anything we faced in the regular season Keefe declared The message would remain the same in terms of our club s ability and need to step up And the group has to rise above it So we ve been able to do it before and I expect the same Dillon went down hard after getting tangled with Carolina s William Carrier then struggled to get to and stay on his feet in the second period Keefe stated after the loss that Dillon desired to return but doctors wouldn t clear him Hughes was hurt in the third period after going down and ending up in the net clutching at his left shoulder area though he later returned to the challenge The Devils are already without top center Jack Hughes who had shoulder surgery in March and is out for the season while defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler has been out with a lower-body injury since February Keefe had announced previously Siegenthaler isn t expected back for this series Carolina dominated the series opener in a - win scoring the event s first three goals and holding a -to- shot advantage late in the second period The Devils did get various good news with center Cody Glass who was on the ice and is cleared to play Glass was also hurt in Tournament on the same chaotic play as Hughes though his came when goaltender Jacob Markstrom took a whack at Carolina s Andrei Svechnikov atop the crease and instead struck Glass to send him crashing to the ice in pain AP NHL playoffs https apnews com hub stanley-cup and https apnews com hub nhl Source