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The New Jersey Devils, losers in 15 of their last 17 games, continue their limp to the finish tonight when they host the Winnipeg Jets.
Like New Jersey, Winnipeg was a team I expected to take a step forward this season. I figured adding an elite scorer like Patrik Laine to an already talented roster would be enough for the Jets to compete for a playoff spot, especially in what has turned out to be a down year in the West, but things haven't worked out that way.
The Jets are 11 points out of a playoff spot and have played more games than the teams they're chasing so they weren't even in the conversation.
As is the case with the Devils, the Jets are sort of just going through the motions and playing for nothing down the stretch. Some of their guys need new contracts but most of the core is locked up so a good or bad end to the finish doesn't really alter anything moving forward.
If not anything else, the Jets are a fun team to watch -- they can score and have a lot of speed -- and the Devils have been more tolerable since all the kids started playing bigger roles so perhaps we'll get some entertainment out of this one.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Adam Henrique - Joseph Blandisi - Beau Bennett
John Quenneville - Pavel Zacha - Stefan Noesen
Miles Wood - Blake Coleman - Blake Pietila
John Moore - Damon Severson
Andy Greene - Ben Lovejoy
Jon Merrill - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Jets (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Nikolaj Ehlers - Bryan Little - Patrik Laine
Mathieu Perreault - Mark Scheifele - Blake Wheeler
Andrew Copp - Adam Lowry - Joel Armia
Brandon Tanev - Nic Petan - Chris Thorburn
Julian Melchiori - Jacob Trouba
Josh Morrissey - Brian Strait
Mark Stuart - Nelson Nogier
Michael Hutchinson
A few notes:
1) The Jets have the league's 29th ranked penalty kill and have been shorthanded more times than anyone. New Jersey generally doesn't score much at 5v5 so they'll have to take advantage of their power play opportunities.
2) Henrique has recorded a point in just four of his last 14 games and has four shots over his last four games. It appears likely he will finish with the lowest point total of his career (lockout season aside).
3) Schneider has allowed three or more goals in eight of his last 10 starts. If that trend continues tonight the Devils will almost certainly lose for the 16th time in 18 games.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 and can be seen on MSG+ and TSN3.
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