Tonight the New Jersey Devils are in Vancouver to take on the Canucks in a battle between two of the biggest early season surprises.
Following 70 and 69-point campaigns, not much was expected from either side but both seem poised to take large steps forward.
Led by a potent offense(!), the Devils have soared out of the gate winning eight of their first 10 games and shockingly sit atop arguably the league's toughest division as a result.
Meanwhile, the Canucks are off to a 6-3-2 start under first-year head coach Travis Green and look nothing like the 69-point team they were a year ago.
They don't play a flashy style, and they don't have much (any?) star power, but they've quietly been very good as they sit 10th in Expected Goals For% at 5v5 after finishing 28th a season ago. This will be a tough test for the Devils, especially without Kyle Palmieri.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Drew Stafford Marcus Johansson - Adam Henrique - Jesper Bratt Brian Gibbons - Pavel Zacha - Jimmy Hayes Miles Wood - Brian Boyle - Blake Coleman
Andy Greene - Damon Severson John Moore - Steve Santini Mirco Mueller - Will Butcher
Cory Schneider
Vancouver (via DailyFaceoff.com)
*questionable
Sven Beartschi - Bo Horvat - Brock Boeser* Daniel Sedin - Henrik Sedin - Jake Virtanen Markus Granlund - Brandon Sutter - Derek Dorsett Thomas Vanek - Alex Burmistrov - Sam Gagner
Ben Hutton - Chris Tanev Michael Del Zotto - Erik Gudbranson Derrick Pouliot - Alex Biega
Anders Nilsson
Five things to watch:
1) Hall has caught fire of late tallying nine points, 13 shots, and 16 scoring chances over the last five games. It could be tough for him to stay hot as he'll undoubtedly see a steady dose of Chris Tanev, one of the league's best shutdown defenders. This will be a fun matchup.
2) Brian Boyle is expected to make his season debut tonight. Forget about how he'll impact the team, it'll just be nice to see him on the ice and having fun again after the health issues he's had to battle.
3) As expected, defense has been a problem for the Devils this season. They rank 24th in 5v5 shot suppression and 28th in expected goals against/60 so Schneider will likely see no shortage of pucks coming his way. He'll need to be on his game.
4) It'll be fun to see two contrasting styles collide. The Devils play an up-tempo game (they average 113 attempts for + against/60) and excel offensively (they're 6th in xGF/60 with 2.71) while the Canucks like to slow things down (102 attempts for + against/60) and excel defensively (2nd in xGA/60 with 1.98).
5) If Boeser returns to the lineup, the Devils will need to stick to him like glue. He has 21 5v5 chances in just eight games and ranks 6th in chances/60, ahead of superstars like Alex Ovechkin, Auston Matthews, and Vladimir Tarasenko. Puck drop is just after 10:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and SNV.