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The New Jersey Devils dropped their first outing of the preseason to the Philadelphia Flyers last night in a battle between two extremely watered down lineups.
Tonight's lineup will feature a lot more experience as about half of the roster will be suiting up for the big club on opening night.
Here are the projected lines for the Devils:
Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - Nick Lappin
Sergei Kalinin - Pavel Zacha - Beau Bennett
Blake Pietila - Michael McLeod - Blake Coleman
Devante Smith-Pelly - Vern Fiddler - Brian Gibbons
Andy Greene - Ben Lovejoy
Yohann Auvitu - Steve Santini
Vojtech Mozik - Andrew MacWilliam
Scott Wedgewood
Mackenzie Blackwood
And for the New York Rangers:
Jimmy Vesey - Kevin Hayes - Rick Nash
Nathan Gerbe - Brandon Pirri - Pavel Buchnevich
Michael Grabner - Marek Hrivik - Jesper Fast
Adam Tambellini - Maxim Lapierre - Nicklas Jensen
Nick Holden - Kevin Klein
Ryan Graves - Chris Summers
John Gilmour - Dylan McIlrath
Antti Raanta
Mackenzie Skapski
Notes:
1) In Andy Greene's first game he skated alongside Damon Severson. Tonight he'll get his first game action with Ben Lovejoy as a partner. One of those two will skate alongside Greene on the top unit so I think the Devils are testing out their options and trying to get a feel for what works best. Tonight will be a good test for them as they'll likely play regularly against Rick Nash's line, which is made up of three players that will be in the NHL this season.
2) This will be Pavel Zacha's second game of the preseason. This will also be Zacha's second game at center this preseason. The Devils drafted him as a center and I think they want to play him there from the word go should he play his way onto the team.
3) Auvitu impressed against Montreal and he'll need to do just that again tonight as, with the addition of Kyle Quincey, the Devils have even more competition for a spot on the left side than they already did.
4) Nick Lappin dominated in possession and scored a pair of goals in his preseason debut. As a result of his strong play he'll get a look alongside Cammalleri and Zajac on the top line tonight. This is a real good opportunity for him to make some noise.
5) Scott Wedgewood stopped 26-27 (.963SV%) in two periods of play against Montreal the other night. Another strong showing from him would go a long way towards winning the backup job.
Puck drop is just after 7:00 eastern and can be seen on MSG and MSG+.
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