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Five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils play host to the Detroit Red Wings:
1. Taylor Hall's health
This is easily the biggest and most important storyline surrounding the Devils right now. Hall has been nothing short of spectacular for the Devils this season and is leading the way – by a country mile, no less – in points, scoring chances, and several other key offensive categories. Without Hall, the Devils would be in deep, deep, trouble.
We haven't gotten to that point, obviously, but he has missed several practices and/or morning skates over the last 7-10 days and nobody is hiding from the fact he isn't playing at 100%.
I don't know if this is something relatively new, or if it's been a lingering issue for a while, but he's shown no signs of slowing down as he has 19 points in his last 14 games and is riding a seven-game point streak.
One would think he has a good chance of making it eight against a poor Detroit team that has won just 18 times in 45 games.
2. Cory Schneider's return
Schneider has posted a sub .900 save percentage and allowed four goals or more in five consecutive games (all losses, as you'd expect). He's also made just one start since January 7th as a result of missing time with a sickness.
I don't imagine it's easy to jump back into the action cold when everyone is in midseason form but the Devils really need him to get back on track with a quality start tonight.
The Metro Division is extremely compact – the 2nd place Devils are five points behind the Capitals for 1st and six points ahead of the Hurricanes for 8th – so they can't afford to struggle over a multi-week period.
They need wins, and they need their $6 million goaltender to play well if they're going to get them.
3. 5v5 play
Despite their 3-4-3 record, the Devils have played well over their last 10 games.
For the most part, they've been able to control play regardless of opponent. There have been some exceptions – like Saturday against Philadelphia – but, in general, they've lost games because they've shot themselves in the foot at the wrong time, not because they've been out-played.
The Devils are actually playing some of their best 5v5 hockey of the year and, if the last 10 games are any indication, they should have a huge advantage over the Red Wings in that game state.
The Devils are comfortably over 50%, and near the top of the league, in all three categories while the Red Wings don't crack the top-25 in any of them. The Devils should be able to dictate play.
4. Blake Coleman in for Brian Gibbons
Gibbons has played well this season, and been a bigger contributor than anyone could have hoped for, but I think Coleman taking his spot due to injury actually makes the Devils a better team.
Coleman hasn't benefited from an unsustainably high shooting percentage like Gibbons has – the latter sits a hair under 20% – but he's more deserving. He ranks 5th on the Devils in shots/60 and 2nd(!!) in chances/60 while Gibbons slots 10th and 11th respectively.
He should make the 4th line a bigger threat offensively.
5. Watch out for Andreas Athanasiou
Henrik Zetterberg and Dylan Larkin get most of the headlines but Athanasiou is the biggest offensive threat the Red Wings have on their roster.
His rate stats were excellent last season and that's the case again this year as he's leading the team in points/60, shots/60, and scoring chances/60 at 5v5.
He is an electric skater and possesses elite puck skills so if he gets ice, he'll produce.
That's what we're seeing right now as he has five goals and nine points in nine games since being promoted into the top-6. He is a gamebreaker.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Jesper Bratt
Marcus Johansson - Travis Zajac - Drew Stafford
Miles Wood - Pavel Zacha - Kyle Palmieri
Blake Coleman - Brian Boyle - Stefan Noesen
Andy Greene - Sami Vatanen
John Moore - Damon Severson
Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Cory Schneider
Detroit (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Anthony Mantha - Henrik Zetterberg - Gustav Nyquist
Tyler Bertuzzi - Dylan Larkin - Andreas Athanasiou
Tomas Tatar - Frans Nielsen - David Booth
Luke Witkowski - Dominic Turgeon - Martin Frk
Niklas Kronwall - Mike Green
Danny DeKeyser - Jonathan Ericsson
Joe Hicketts - Nick Jensen
Jimmy Howard
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on Sportsnet, MSG and FS-D.
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