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It wasn't pretty, but the undermanned New Jersey Devils managed to squeeze out a point on the road in Montreal last night.
They'll attempt to do the same, or one better, this evening when they host the red-hot Dallas Stars.
They started the season slowly under new head coach Ken Hitchcock but the adjustment period certainly appears to have concluded.
The Stars have gone 7-3-0 in the last 10 games and controlled a hair under 54% of the shot attempts – good for 3rd in the league during that stretch – so it's no fluke the wins are piling up on a consistent basis.
With the Devils in the latter half of a back-to-back, and the Stars hitting their stride, another loss seems likely. Let's see if the Devils can defy the odds again.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Jesper Bratt - Nico Hischier - Drew Stafford
Blake Coleman - Travis Zajac - Brian Gibbons
Jimmy Hayes - Brian Boyle - Nick Lappin
Miles Wood - Pavel Zacha - Stefan Noesen
Andy Greene - Steven Santini
John Moore - Sami Vatanen
Will Butcher - Damon Severson
Cory Schneider/Keith Kinkaid
Dallas (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Jamie Benn - Radek Faksa - Tyler Pitlick
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Alex Radulov
Remi Elie - Tyler Seguin - Devin Shore
Gemel Smith - Martin Hanzal - Brett Ritchie
Esa Lindell - John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis - Greg Pateryn
Stephen Johns - Julius Honka
Kari Lehtonen
What to watch for:
1) The Stars recently decided to have Benn, Seguin, and Radulov – the Stars' three leading chance generators at 5v5 – anchor their own lines and it has paid off. They've been absolutely dominant and have caused matchup nightmares – teams just don't have enough capable personnel to slow down all three lines. The Devils surely fit into that group, especially with three of their four best forwards out of the lineup. It could be a rough night.
2) The Lindell - Klingberg pairing has been fantastic together and not just offensively. They currently have an expected goals against of 1.78 per 60 minutes despite playing stiff competition on a nightly basis. For perspective, the Blues have an xGA of 1.90/60 and they lead in that category by a decent-sized margin. This pairing has been spectacular at both ends of the ice so John Hynes will certainly want to use last change to his advantage and keep Nico away as often as possible.
3) Dallas ranks 5th in shot attempts/60 and 2nd in expected goals/60 while on the man advantage. Their power play has been fantastic, which is no surprise given their personnel, and doesn't need many chances to convert. With the Devils severely lacking firepower right now, they can't afford to be undisciplined and hand Dallas an easy goal or two.
4) Coleman generated a team-high six scoring chances last night and is now up to 69 (#nice) on the season, which ranks him 3rd only behind Taylor Hall and Hischier. What does he have to show for it? Three goals. He's never going to be a big scorer, but it's probably fair to say he should score more than once every 23 chances. With so much firepower out of the lineup, the Devils could sure use some of that positive regression.
5) Zacha has low-key tallied 10 scoring chances in his last three games. The most he recorded in any three-game window this season is seven, so he's making some progress. If he continues to generate quality looks at this frequency, he should be rewarded sooner than later.
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-W.
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