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Five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the Carolina Hurricanes:
1. Tougher matchups
Taylor Hall and co. did a number on the Hurricanes earlier this week. The top line created a ton of chances and contributed on three of the team's five goals.
Duplicating that kind of performance will be tough with the Hurricanes on home ice. They control the matchups and you can bet they'll get the Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce pairing out against Hall's line every chance they get.
Among 120 defense pairings with 200+ minutes together at 5v5, the Slavin - Pesce duo ranks 13th in shot suppression and they're on for just 2.05 expected goals against per hour. For perspective of how strong they've been defensively, the stingy Boston Bruins allow 2.09 expected goals per hour.
Completely shutting down Hall is tough to do but they should be able to slow him down.
2. Keith Kinkaid
If it feels like Keith Kinkaid takes a step back after each step forward, it's probably because that's been the case.
He has given the Devils six quality starts on 20 tries thus far. Only once has he posted a .910 save percentage or better the game after doing so. Stringing together consecutive quality appearances has been a huge problem and that's a trend he'll need to buck today for the Devils to have a chance.
They're in the latter half of a back-to-back and the Hurricanes have lost consecutive games to teams they're jockeying for position with in the standings. They're going to come out firing today. Kinkaid has to be good.
3. 5v5 scoring
The Hurricanes are extremely disciplined and rarely take penalties. That was on display earlier this week as they were penalized just twice vs the Devils. They do a great job of staying out of the box, and winning special teams battles as a result, so you have to score at 5v5 in order to have success.
That could be difficult with Marcus Johansson and (likely) Miles Wood, who trails only Taylor Hall in 5v5 goals, out of the lineup.
4. A balanced attack
The Hurricanes have three of the league's top-45 5v5 chance generators in Jeff Skinner (2nd), Sebastian Aho (20th), and Brock McGinn (44th). They've smartly been dispersed all throughout the lineup, which makes the Hurricanes a difficult team to match up against – especially on the road.
5. Offense from the defense
The Hurricanes have a very mobile and talented defense unit so it's no surprise they like to join the play and get involved offensively. It shows in the numbers as Justin Faulk, Noah Hanifin, and Slavin all rank inside the top-35 in 5v5 shot attempts. That's much different than the Devils whose leader, John Moore, ranks 62nd.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
*Blake Pietila expected to draw in if Wood is suspended
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri
Jesper Bratt - Pavel Zacha - Nick Lappin
Miles Wood* - Travis Zajac - Stefan Noesen
Jimmy Hayes - Blake Coleman - Drew Stafford
Andy Greene - Sami Vatanen
John Moore - Damon Severson
Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Keith Kinkaid
Carolina (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Sebastian Aho - Victor Rask - Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn - Jordan Staal - Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner - Derek Ryan - Justin Williams
Joakim Nordstrom - Phil Di Giuseppe - Lee Stempniak
Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce
Haydn Fleury - Justin Faulk
Noah Hanifin - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Cam Ward
Puck drop is just after 5:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-CR.
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