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After an unsuccessful road trip to begin the season the New Jersey Devils return home still looking for their first win of the year.
They figure to have a decent shot at getting it tonight as they're catching the Anaheim Ducks at the right time.
They have struggled out of the gate under new coach Randy Carlyle and, on top of all the depth they lost in the off-season, they are still without Hampus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell, two of the team's most important players.
With Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler, Sami Vatanen and co. still in the fold the Ducks won't be pushovers but there is no better time to play the Ducks than now.
The Devils need to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them tonight because, while still early, it's very difficult to make the playoffs when you put yourself behind the 8-ball early with a handful of losses.
Here is a look at the lineup the Devils are expected to go with:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - P.A. Parenteau
Mike Cammalleri - Adam Henrique - Kyle Palmieri
Beau Bennett - Pavel Zacha - Devante Smith-Pelly
Reid Boucher - Vern Fiddler - Jacob Josefson
Andy Greene - Damon Severson
John Moore - Ben Lovejoy
Yohann Auvitu - Kyle Quincey
Cory Schneider
And who they'll go up against:
Nick Ritchie - Ryan Getzlaf - Jakob Silfverberg
Andrew Cogliano - Antoine Vermette - Corey Perry
Ryan Garbutt - Ryan Kesler - Nick Sorensen
Emerson Etem - Chris Wagner - Jared Boll
Cam Fowler - Josh Manson
Jacob Larsson - Sami Vatanen
Clayton Stoner - Kevin Bieksa
John Gibson
A few notes:
1) In the first couple games of the season the Miles Wood - Vern Fiddler - Blake Speers line was getting absolutely caved in. In effort to change things up Reid Boucher and Jacob Josefson, two more known commodities, have replaced Wood and Speers. The latter two making the team out of camp made for a good story but to this point they haven't played well enough to earn their spot in the lineup. I think these were necessary changes.
2) It's still early, obviously, but the Devils have not scored a power play goal this season and are 29th in power play scoring chances (last among those with at least 10 PP minutes). They need to find a way to get going on the man advantage because they're still not a team that will light it up at 5 v 5.
3) The Ducks lost a ton of forward depth during the summer and really don't have much talent in the bottom-6. I think the Devils' bottom-6 has more skill to offer and should be able to take advantage of the mismatch.
Tonight's game is schedule for 7 pm eastern and can be seen on MSG and PRIME.
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