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Following a few days off, the New Jersey Devils return to action today with a late afternoon game against the rival New York Rangers.
The Devils will not make the playoffs this season but they should still have no problem getting up for this game. If not anything else, they'll be looking to knock the Rangers down a peg and try to lessen their chances of grabbing a divisional playoff spot.
The Devils will be a man down in their efforts, though, as rookie forward Pavel Zacha is out with a concussion.
Zacha has played extremely well over the last few weeks and been one of the team's best players in that span. Zacha recorded a disappointing seven points in his first 37 games but picked it up considerably tallying nine in his last 14 games (not including the one he left early with an injury).
With Zacha out, I expected Mike Cammalleri to reclaim his spot in the top-6 but it seems Beau Bennett will fill that slot while Cammalleri remains on the 3rd line.
I don't know if John Hynes is trying to make a statement, believes this gives the team the best chance to win or wants to see how his younger guys fare given a larger role but it's an interesting decision nonetheless.
Cammalleri wasn't happy being scratched and is probably not thrilled having his minutes cut, so it'll be interesting to see if Bennett, who was recently a healthy scratch, getting a top-6 spot over Cammalleri adds more fuel to the fire.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Beau Bennett - Adam Henrique - P.A. Parenteau
Mike Cammalleri - Jacob Josefson - Stefan Noesen
Miles Wood - Joseph Blandisi - Devante Smith-Pelly
Andy Greene - Ben Lovejoy
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson
Jon Merrill - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Rangers (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Jimmy Vesey - Derek Stepan - Rick Nash
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Mats Zuccarello
Michael Grabner - Kevin Hayes - J.T. Miller
Oscar Lindberg - Brandon Pirri - Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Marc Staal - Nick Holden
Brady Skjei - Kevin Klein
Antti Raanta
A few notes:
1) Ryan McDonagh gets headlines but Brady Skjei is the defenseman the Devils will have to watch out for at full-strength. Skjei has 21 points at 5v5, which puts him behind only Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson, Dougie Hamilton, Dustin Byfuglien and Victor Hedman among defensemen. He can skate, he can move the puck, and he has the production to prove it.
2) The Devils should attack Dan Girardi with the puck every time they can. Target his side when entering the zone and expose his lack of speed and deteriorating defensive game. I think Hall, Wood, and the Devils' speedier players can cause a lot of problems for him.
3) When the Devils are on the power play they best be careful with the puck, especially at the blue line. The Rangers play their forwards very high on the penalty kill and have the speed to take off with any turnovers they cause.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 5:00 and can be seen on MSG+ and MSG.
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