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Following a surprising shutout victory over one of the best 5v5 teams in the NHL, the New Jersey Devils are back at it tonight in Carolina.
On the surface, the Hurricanes won't scare anyone -- they have 16 wins in 36 games and a negative goal differential -- but they are a pretty good side and that's starting to show as they're 6-3-1 in their last 10 games. The Devils are 3-6-1 during that same span.
Also working against the Devils is they're on the road. To this point, they have five wins in 22 tries away from the Prudential Center and have looked downright awful at times. The Hurricanes, like the Devils, have been much better at home owning an 11-3-1 record in their own building. Add in Travis Zajac may be out again tonight and the Devils are in a bit of a rough spot.
That was certainly the case last night vs Boston, and last week at Washington, but they found a way to surprise us both nights. Can they can pull another rabbit out of their hat tonight? If they can, they'll claw within six points of the final Wild Card spot.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
*questionable due to back-to-back
Mike Cammalleri - Adam Henrique - Kyle Palmieri
Taylor Hall - Pavel Zacha - P.A. Parenteau
Miles Wood - Sergey Kalinin - Nick Lappin
Beau Bennett - Devante Smith-Pelly - Luke Gazdic
Andy Greene - Ben Lovejoy
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider*
And the expected lines for the Hurricanes (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Jeff Skinner - Viktor Rask - Derek Ryan
Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen - Lee Stempniak
Brock McGinn - Jordan Staal - Andrej Nestrasil
Joakim Nordstrom - Jay McClement - Viktor Stalberg
Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce
Noah Hanifin - Matt Tennyson
Ron Hainsey - Ryan Murphy
Cam Ward
A few notes:
1) Santini made his season debut last night and registered an assist while posting a team-high plus-9 shot attempt differential at 5v5. If he continues to play anywhere close to that level he won't be going back to Albany.
2) Zacha has been quiet for months but looked very good skating on a line with Hall last night. Maybe this was the spark he needed to get going.
3) Severson started the season strongly but has gone quiet of late. He is pointless in the last five games and has just three in his last 13. The Devils need him to get going and contribute from the back end again, especially with John Moore out. Those two account for pretty much all of the offense from the defense.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 pm eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-SE.
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