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Last time out the New Jersey Devils snapped a three-game losing streak in fine fashion, as they overcame an early 3-0 deficit en route to a shootout win over the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Tonight they'll be looking to build on that with another win over a struggling team in the Detroit Red Wings.
The Wings surprised some people to start the year going 6-4-0 in their first 10 but have since hit a wall. They've won just three of their last 10 games and only one of the seven losses was in extra time.
While they do have some talent on their roster the record in the last 10 reflects the kind of team the Wings are this season. At 5 v 5, the Wings have controlled just 45.46% of the shot attempts and 47.43% of the scoring chances on the year. They rank 30th and 26th in those categories.
This is not your father's Red Wings. This is not the powerhouse team we're accustomed to seeing. This is a flawed team and one that realistically shouldn't make the playoffs. The Devils should win this game even without Taylor Hall.
Here is a look at the lineup the Devils are expected to go with:
**will return to the lineup tonight
Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - P.A. Parenteau
Pavel Zacha - Adam Henrique - Kyle Palmieri**
Reid Boucher - Jacob Josefson - Beau Bennett
Sergey Kalinin - Vern Fiddler - Nick Lappin/Devante Smith-Pelly
Andy Greene - Damon Severson
Yohann Auvitu - Ben Lovejoy
John Moore - Kyle Quincey
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Red Wings (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Justin Abdelkader - Henrik Zetterberg - Anthony Mantha
Tomas Tatar - Frans Nielsen - Luke Glendening
Gustav Nyquist - Dylan Larkin - Thomas Vanek
Riley Sheahan - Steve Ott - Tyler Bertuzzi
Danny DeKeyser - Mike Green
Niklas Kronwall - Brendan Smith
Jonathan Ericsson - Ryan Sproul
Jimmy Howard
A few notes:
1) The Devils and Red Wings rank 30th and 29th in scoring chances for per 60 minutes played. If you're expecting back-and-forth game with the two sides trading chances you'll probably be disappointed, although both teams lack quality personnel on the back end.
2) Cammalleri started the season slowly but is finally heating up. He has four goals, seven points and 14 shots over his last three contests and is starting to look like the guy we saw a season ago. That's good news for the Devils because they could definitely use the boost offensively.
3) Detroit's penalty kill is sub 80% on the year. Could the Devils score power play goals two(!!) games in a row?
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:30 pm eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-Detroit.
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