Tonight the New Jersey Devils and Edmonton Oilers square off in a battle between two teams at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Led by Taylor Hall, who ranks 1st on the team in assists, points, primary points, shots, shot attempts, and scoring chances, the Devils have shockingly won nine of their first 11 games and sit atop the Metro Division.
Meanwhile, the Oilers have won just three times, and have fewer points than all but Arizona, despite having arguably the league's most dominant player, and seven of their first 11 games coming on home soil.
While it is still very early in the season, the Oilers have dug themselves a pretty nice hole and will need to start winning games -- and fast -- if they're going to have a realistic shot at getting back into the playoffs.
This is a huge game for the Oilers so you know they'll put their best foot forward. The Devils need to be ready.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
*upper-body injury, status for game unknown
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Drew Stafford Marcus Johansson* - Adam Henrique - Jesper Bratt Brian Gibbons - Pavel Zacha - Jimmy Hayes Brian Boyle - Blake Coleman - Miles Wood
Andy Greene - Damon Severson John Moore - Steve Santini Mirco Mueller - Will Butcher
Cory Schneider
Edmonton (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Patrick Maroon - Connor McDavid - Leon Draisaitl Milan Lucic - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Kailer Yamamoto Drake Caggiula - Ryan Strome - Anton Slepyshev Jussi Jokinen - Mark Letestu - Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse - Adam Larsson Oscar Klefbom - Matt Benning Yohann Auvitu - Kris Russell
Cam Talbot
Five things to watch:
1) Hall is on absolute fire having tallied 11 points and 22 chances over his last six games. You can bet he'll want to keep that going tonight to try and stick it to his former team.
2) Among 206 eligible defensemen, the Oilers have four -- Auvitu, Klefbom, Nurse and Benning -- inside the top-8 in terms of individual shot attempts/60. Their defense shoots the puck a *ton* so look for them to get involved in the offense tonight.
3) The Oilers have scored just 17 5v5 goals this season and 10 have come from players on the top line. It's easier said than done but if the Devils can limit the damage of that unit, they'll be in really good shape. The Oilers are getting absolutely no secondary scoring right now.
4) The Devils rank 27th in 5v5 shot suppression and the Oilers rank 1st in 5v5 shot generation so pucks will likely be heading Schneider's way early and often. He's been great the last two games -- he stopped 71-74 during that stretch -- and will need to be so again if the Devils are going to win for the 10th time in 12 games.
5) In the first seven games of the season, the Devils had a minus-3 scoring chance differential at 5v5. Over the last four games, they have a minus-29 chance differential in that game state. If this continues, it's only a matter of time before the Devils pay for it on the scoreboard.
Puck drop is just after 9:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on Sportsnet, MSG+ and NHL Network (U.S.).