Hellebuyck’s trade to the Devils came on the day his suspension, which began on Sept. 16, was scheduled to come to an end. Because of the impasse with Winnipeg, Tuesday was also his season debut.
“If you asked me, I was ready two months ago,” Hellebuyck said. “I don’t know exactly when (starting tonight) was official, but I’ve just had the mindset since the day I got here that I want to get in.
“It was a lot of fun. I thought the guys in front of me played a perfect game for me to get acclimated. A low amount of shots, blocking everything, keeping everything to the outside. They let me touch the puck a lot. … You can practice touching it and feeling good with the hands, but it’s all about immediate decisions, checking and having a play already picked before you even get the puck. So, I touched it as many times as I could just to work through it.”
Nico Hischier scored twice, and both Jack and Luke Hughes had a goal and an assist for the Devils (8-4-0), who have won four in a row and are 6-1-0 in their past seven. Jesper Boqvist also scored.
Justin Hryckowian scored for the Stars (7-4-1), who had their five-game winning streak end. Casey DeSmith made 22 saves.
“For sure our worst game of the season,” Dallas coach Glen Gulutzan said. “But they were good, too, so that’s why you see such a spread. It’s actually maybe less concerning when it’s everybody. It was from the top down of our team, so we have to look at ourselves. What did we do in the last few days that we came out that flat?”
Hischier gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 2:41 of the first period on a 2-on-1 rush with Timo Meier. Hischier kept the puck, cut around a diving Lian Bichsel, and outwaited DeSmith while cutting across the low slot before snapping a shot into an open net from the bottom of the left circle.
“If you look at what Timo did, he sprinted through, which is always very hard for the goalie to defend there,” Hischier said. “That sprint opened up the option for me to cut in the middle, and then a big part is he stops in front of the net, too, so I can take it a little bit further and have pretty much an empty net.”
Hischier scored again just 38 seconds into the second period to make it 2-0. He one-timed a drop pass from Meier at the top of the left circle past the glove of DeSmith.