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A short time ago it seemed like the season was lost and the New Jersey Devils would be as likely to compete for last place as they would for a playoff spot.
Following a 4-1-1 stretch, in which they beat four teams with more points and three currently in playoff position, the Devils have started to climb the Eastern Conference standings.
The Devils now sit just three back of the Philadelphia Flyers, and they've played the same amount of games, so they have put themselves in a position to seriously contend for a Wild Card spot.
With another win tonight the Devils would leapfrog Florida, Carolina and get themselves within one point of a playoff spot.
The Kings aren't exactly a free pass, but they aren't as good as they've been in years past. They have lost four in a row, six out of 10, own a negative goal differential and tonight they'll be playing in the latter half of a back-to-back.
This is a game the Devils need to win. Let's see if they can do it.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood - Adam Henrique - Mike Cammalleri
Jacob Josefson - Pavel Zacha - P.A. Parenteau
Luke Gazdic - Vern Fiddler - Sergey Kalinin
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill - Ben Lovejoy
Karl Stollery - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Kings (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Dwight King - Anze Kopitar - Marian Gaborik
Tanner Pearson - Jeff Carter - Dustin Brown
Andy Andreoff - Nic Dowd - Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford - Nick Shore - Jordan Nolan
Jake Muzzin - Drew Doughty
Brayden McNabb - Alex Martinez
Derek Forbort - Kevin Gravel
Peter Budaj
A few notes:
1) Schneider returns to the cage tonight after missing the last two games with an illness. He has a .936 save percentage through eight games in 2017. Can he pick up where he left off?
2) After a bit of a quiet spell, Hall has rebounded nicely with points in six straight and 18 shots in those games. It's no coincidence the Devils are 4-1-1 in those six. When Hall goes, the team goes.
3) Kings' goaltenders have stopped just 88.7% of the shots they've faced over the last 10 games. Both guys are struggling, and surely lacking some confidence, so the Devils need to test them early, often, and get traffic in front of the net whenever possible. Make things as difficult as possible.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 and can be seen on MSG and FS-W.
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