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Following a successful road trip, the New Jersey Devils returned home and put together a disaster of a performance Friday night against Montreal.
Tonight they will be looking to get back on track against the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers had a fantastic start to the season, headlined by a stretch where they won 10 consecutive games, but have hit a wall of late.
In their last 10, they have won just twice and they're 4-8-3 over their last 15. They have not only struggled to keep the puck out during that span (28th in 5v5 goals against) but also to score (t-29th in 5v5 goals for).
In saying all that, the Flyers have a very talented roster, are at home, recharged from the bye week and they're playing a team in the latter half of a back-to-back that is also dealing with some injuries and illnesses.
This will be a tough game for the Devils to grab, but it's one they need. Let's see if they can do it.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
*questionable with the flu
Taylor Hall - Adam Henrique - P.A. Parenteau
Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Jacob Josefson - Pavel Zacha - Beau Bennett
Miles Wood - Blake Coleman/Vern Fiddler - Devante Smith-Pelly
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill* - Ben Lovejoy
Karl Stollery - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Flyers (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Michael Raffl - Claude Giroux - Wayne Simmonds
Nick Cousins - Sean Couturier - Jakub Voracek
Dale Weise - Brayden Schenn - Travis Konecny
Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Roman Lyubimov
Mark Streit - Radko Gudas
Ivan Provorov - Andrew MacDonald
Michael Del Zotto - Shayne Gostisbehere
Michal Neuvirth
A few notes:
1) Both goaltenders on the Flyers have sub .900 save percentages on the year and, as mentioned above, have conceded a lot of goals over the last 15. Meanwhile, Schneider owns a .936 save percentage over his last eight starts and is playing his best hockey of the season. The Devils should have the advantage in goal.
2) The Flyers are lethal on the power play ranking 1st in shot attempts/60, 1st in shots on goal/60 and 4th in chances/60. The Devils can't afford to take undisciplined penalties and make things easy on the Flyers, especially with how much they've struggled at 5v5 of late.
3) Seven players in the NHL have more primary points than Voracek this season. He is the straw that stirs the drink for the Flyers and will need to be keyed on.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 eastern and can be seen on MSG+2 and TCN-PH.
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