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Following a couple of underwhelming performances, one of which they somehow squeezed a point out of, the New Jersey Devils return to action tonight when they host the Florida Panthers.
It'll (surprisingly) be a battle between two of the lesser teams in the conference.
The Devils' defense has been an issue all year long and the goaltending has suffered as a result. Meanwhile, the Panthers have dealt with a lot of injuries, as well as a coaching change, which has made it difficult for them to get on track.
To date, the Devils have played 41 games and have won just 16 times (only four teams have won fewer games) while the Panthers have just 17 wins in as many games.
Both sides have won just four of their last 10, and are sub 50% possession teams in that span, so it's not as if either side is trending upwards heading into this contest.
I think the Panthers are more likely to have a strong second half but right now neither team is leaving much reason to be optimistic. We'll see if that begins to change this evening.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Mike Cammalleri - Adam Henrique - Kyle Palmieri
Taylor Hall - Pavel Zacha - P.A. Parenteau
Sergey Kalinin - Travis Zajac - Nick Lappin
Miles Wood - Devante Smith-Pelly - Beau Bennett
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill - Ben Lovejoy
Seth Helgeson - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Panthers (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Jonathan Marchessault - Vincent Trocheck - Jaromir Jagr
Jussi Jokinen - Jared McCann - Reilly Smith
Denis Malgin - Michael Sgarbossa - Colton Sceviour
Greg McKegg - Derek MacKenzie - Paul Thompson
Keith Yandle - Jason Demers
Michael Matheson - Aaron Ekblad
Mark Pysyk - Jakub Kindl
Roberto Luongo
A few notes:
1) Over the last 10 games, the Devils are controlling 43% of the shot attempts and ~40% of the scoring chances at 5v5. The Panthers have a big advantage at 5v5.
2) Schneider has posted a .953 save percentage or better in three of his last four starts. He'll likely face a lot of shots again tonight so he'll need to be on his game for the Devils to have a shot.
3) Hall has hit a bit of a wall of late tallying just five points in his last 12 games despite firing pucks on net at a good rate. The Devils need him to get going sooner than later.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 eastern and can be seen on SN, SN1, MSG+ and FS-F.
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