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The New Jersey Devils host the Arizona Coyotes tonight looking to move to 3-0-0 on home soil and jumpstart their offense in the process.
The Devils have scored two or less in each game they've played this season but there's reason to believe that streak will be snapped tonight.
The Devils are shooting an unsustainably low 3.5% at 5 v 5 thus far. To put that in perspective the Toronto Maple Leafs had the worst 5 v 5 shooting percentage in the league last season and still shot 6.5%. The Devils will start getting bounces sooner or later and I think they'll start getting them tonight.
There's also the fact the Coyotes are 0-4-0 on the road thus far and have bled goals to date. They've allowed 21 goals in five games and no team has given up more shots, scoring chances or high-danger chances per 60 minutes of 5 v 5.
If there is a game for the Devils to break out this is it so I fully expect their offense to be stagnant and them to play a 2-1 game for the fifth time in six contests.
Here is a look at the lineup the Devils are expected to go with:
Taylor Hall - Pavel Zacha - Kyle Palmieri
Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - P.A. Parenteau
Beau Bennett - Adam Henrique - Devante Smith-Pelly
Sergei Kalinin - Vern Fiddler - Reid Boucher
Andy Greene - Damon Severson
John Moore - Ben Lovejoy
Yohann Auvitu - Kyle Quincey
Cory Schneider
And who they'll go up against:
Tobias Rieder - Martin Hanzal - Radim Vrbata
Max Domi - Christian Dvorak - Anthony Duclair
Jordan Martinook - Brad Richardson - Shane Doan
Lawson Crouse - Laurent Dauphin - Ryan White
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Connor Murphy
Alex Goligoski - Michael Stone
Jakub Chychrun - Luke Schenn
Justin Peter
A few notes:
1) I'm really looking forward to watching Hall and Zacha work their magic together on the top unit. They've played with each other here and there to start the season and it seems every time they're on the ice they make something happen offensively. Against a leaky Coyotes team I think they could have a real strong game.
2) In OEL and Goligoski the Coyotes have a couple very capable offensive defensemen who like to jump into the play so the Devils will have to watch for trailing players pinching on the weak side.
3) Schneider has been absolutely spectacular to date posting a .943 save percentage through five starts. If he puts forth another good performance tonight the Devils should be able to pick up a relatively easy win given how bad the Coyotes' defense/goaltending has been.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7 pm eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-Arizona.
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