The Jets best skater is Nik Ehlers. As mentioned in the piece yesterday Ehlers seemed to garner the ire of head coach Paul Maurice and played very little down the stretch in the third period against the Flyers and basically nothing in OT.
Why focus on Ehlers when speaking of the Devils? Well the Devils are a fast team. Simply put with Taylor Hall doing his thing and Nico Hischier driving the play for the Devils the Jets' head coach and his players know this is going to be a fast game.
Given the slog that was Thursday night and the less than dynamic transition game for the Jets this particular match-up looks to be an interesting one and more than because of the speed on the Devils vs the low event methods of the Jets. These are similar teams.
From the net out the Jets and Devils are relying on former Moose Corey Schneider and surprising new number one goalie Connor Hellebucyk to be almost beyond stellar.
Hellebuyck
GP 14 Save % .930 5th overall GAA 2.29 6th overall SA 430 18th overall
Schneider
GP 13 Save % .924 8th overall GAA 2.64 14th overall SA 449 14th overall
Without either of these two player neither of these teams would be where they are tied for points with indexical records of 11-4-3. Thus this matchup is an intriguing comparison and measuring point for both teams.
Back to the opening point on Ehlers, it would appear that his speed would be a necessary asset to use against the Devils. While the first line of Connor, Scheifele and Wheeler has been clicking well would adding Ehlers and his very competent zone entries not be a huge help with Wheelers speed too?
With Perreault making a solid return last game could some line shuffling as below work for this match up?
Ehlers, Scheifele, Wheeler Connor, Little, Laine Perreault, Copp, Armia Lowry, Hendricks, Tanev
The use of Perreault on the fourth line last game as a depth move for his introduction back to games was fine but it should not be permanent, he's simply too valuable and dynamic to be limited to those limited minutes.
It's expected to be Mason in net to get him a start before the Jets embark on a 4 game road trip next week opening in Nashville.
Matinee games have always been an odd thing for the Jets and perhaps not there best time to play. With the Devils playing in a different time zone and coming off a slog in Toronto and the Jets having the same kind of game vs the Flyers it will be interesting if the two teams come at each other tentatively or ready to open up.
Patrik Laine is riding a 7 game point streak Ehlers has 2 goals and 2 assists in last 10 games Byfuglien has not scored a goal this season but has 10 assists Little has 1 goals and 1 assist in his last 10 games
Game time is 2pm CST.