So, to clarify, the bottom hand of their most skilled forward, the back of their most physically imposing forward, and the hip of a player whose job is entirely reliant on lateral movement. I didn't know that I could find myself more impressed by the late-season run the Devils went on to will themselves into the playoffs, but this news does a pretty good job of highlighting all that they overcame.
I don't really know that there is all that much left to say in praising Taylor Hall, but turning a great first half of the season into a dominant second half of the season while nursing an injury that he was able to keep completely unnoticeable transcends all sorts of logic. Not only was he the Devils' best player on a nightly basis (as evidenced by the point streaks), but - considering they made the playoffs by a single point - he absolutely had to be. How he was able to take his his game to such an unforeseen level with literally anything laboring him, never mind his shooting hand, is so incomprehensible that you just have to tip your hat to both his talent and his tenacity and recognize that your average, everyday asshole will never truly understand either of them.
I can't say I knew how badly Cory Schneider was banged up throughout a losing streak that overshadowed his excellent start and came to define his season, but I'm certainly not shocked that his hip required a fairly significant surgery. It was pretty obvious something was off, so if there's anything surprising about this injury it's that he was able to fight through it and give the Devils more than enough chances to win any of the last three games of their series against Tampa Bay. Five months is quite the recovery time, but it basically ensures that Keith Kinkaid will be sticking around while also delegitimizing any judgements that might have been made about his play since the start of 2018. His health is a bit of concern going forward, but apparently his head isn't and that's what a lot of people figured was ailing him down the stretch. There's now even more reason to believe that the Cory Schneider we saw in the playoffs returns in October, and this time with a fluid and full range of motion.
I don't know that Pat Maroon will be back with the Devils, though the mutual interest appears to be very real. If the money and term end up being reasonable, it's pretty easy to envision a scenario where he's even better at taking the abuse necessary to position himself in front and winning/protecting pucks in the corners. After all, the only way that job could be made more thankless is by quietly doing it through the type of back pain that typically keeps people glued to their bed 20 minutes longer than they'd like. In case you were unaware of just how absent his skill set was in the Devils' lineup, consider that the insertion of it was obvious to the naked eye all while the person who possessed it was left painfully sticking a protruding disc in the face of opposing goaltenders.
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