NEWARK—Jack Hughes did all he could, but the New Jersey Devils couldn’t overcome the early hole they dug themselves in versus the Dallas Stars. In their first game returning from the 4 Nations Face-Off break,

Devils center Jack Hughes raised his arms in the air and looked into the packed Prudential Center crowd for all to see. The celebration made sense because he was one of the few Devils players to show up on Saturday night against the Dallas Stars.

Evgenii Dadonov and defenseman Thomas Harley scored first-period goals and Casey DeSmith made 31 saves as the Dallas Stars defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-2

Nico Daws made 29 saves to record his first NHL shutout as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Nashville Predators 5-0 on Sunday.

NEWARK—For a second, it looked like the New Jersey Devils were going to skate without Jack Hughes on Saturday morning. However, the superstar forward stepped on the ice a smidge late, and skated with the team as a full participant before their tilt with the Dallas Stars.

Dallas capitalized on early chances to build a two-goal lead and held off a third-period push from New Jersey to secure the victory