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After the best imaginable start to the season, the New Jersey Devils have come back down to earth losing six of their last eight games.
Pavel Zacha has been sat due to poor performance, Adam Henrique was recently demoted to the 4th line for the same reason and, simply put, not a lot has gone right of late.
The Devils will be looking to change that, and get back on track, tonight when they take on the Minnesota Wild.
In large part due to injuries, the Wild started the season horribly. They have found their footing of late, though, winning four of the last five games and shutting out the opposition in three of those games.
They're starting to look like the team everyone expected them to be and are a tough draw for a Devils side that's hit a rut.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri
Pavel Zacha - Travis Zajac - Jesper Bratt
Miles Wood - Brian Boyle - Drew Stafford
Adam Henrique - Blake Coleman - Brian Gibbons
Andy Greene - Steven Santini
John Moore - Damon Severson
Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Cory Schneider
Minnesota (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Marcus Foligno - Eric Staal - Nino Niederreiter
Jason Zucker - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund
Daniel Winnik - Joel Eriksson Ek - Luke Kunin
Chris Stewart - Matt Cullen - Tyler Ennis
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin - Mathew Dumba
Kyle Quincey - Mike Rielly
Devan Dubnyk
Five things to watch:
1) After sitting out a handful of games, Zacha will be reinserted into the lineup and get a good opportunity alongside Travis Zajac and Jesper Bratt on the 2nd line. I expect he'll look rejuvenated and come out with a lot of energy – at least that's the hope.
2) Over the last two games, the Hall - Hischier - Palmieri line has combined to generate 33 scoring chances. They have zero goals to show for it. If they continue to be as dangerous as they've been, and pile up the chances, they're going to be rewarded sooner than later.
3) I thought the Butcher - Lovejoy pairing was going to be a disaster. So far, I've been very wrong. In ~50 minutes together at 5v5, the Devils have out-attempted opposing teams by 28, out-chanced them by 20, and outscored them by five. They haven't been spoonfed offensive zone starts, either. If this duo can continue to give the team solid minutes, it should help stabilize the defense a little bit.
4) Dubnyk was among the slow starters for Minnesota but he has really hit his stride of late. Over the last four games, Dubnyk has stopped 129 of the 133 shots he's faced (.969 save percentage) and looked like a Vezina-caliber goaltender in the process. The Devils will have their hands full.
5) Staal's best days may be behind him but he's still a huge threat offensively as he leads the Wild in points, shots, shot attempts, and chances at 5v5.
Puck drop is just after 8:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on FS-N and MSG+.
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