Five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the Florida Panthers:
1. Top line on top line A road back-to-back vs the Aleksander Barkov line could normally be considered an impossible matchup. That's no longer the case – at least it hasn't been this year.
For whatever reason, Florida's top line has struggled. The Evgenii Dadonov - Barkov - Mike Hoffman trio owns some pretty ugly numbers. They're controlling 45.49% of the shot attempts and 45.99% of the scoring chances. It's not just the small share that's a problem. It's also the rate of which they give up attempts and chances. They concede 62.04 attempts, 30.4 chances, and 15.2(!) high-danger chances per 60 minutes at 5v5. This is over a ~150 minute sample, too, so it's not just a couple games of noise.
New Jersey's top line has been one of the league's best this season. If the Barkov trio continues to bleed chances, Taylor Hall and co. are definitely capable of taking advantage.
2. Another 5v5 edge The Devils have squandered a few really favorable matchups of late so I'm sure nobody wants to hear how great of a spot they're in at 5v5. I'm going to talk about it, anyway.
Over the last 10 games, the Devils have controlled well over 53% of the high-danger chances at 5v5. The Panthers rank 26th owning 45.5% of the high-danger looks during that span. They've really struggled and not having Vincent Trocheck, or Roberto Luongo between the pipes to bail the team out, only makes matters worse. The Devils need to take advantage.
3. New Jersey's PK vs Florida's PP The Devils have played very well on the PK this season. They rank 8th in shot attempts against/60 (86.18), 4th in goals against/60 (5.5), and are just outside the top-10 in expected goals against/60.
On the flip side, Florida sits tied for 3rd in power play goals and, rate stat-wise, rank top-12 in shot attempts, goals, and expected goals. Losing Trocheck hurts, no doubt, but the Panthers still have plenty of talent on the top unit.
This will be a fun matchup; one we'll probably see a lot of considering the Devils take a lot of penalties and the Panthers rank 2nd in minors drawn per 60 minutes.
4. The revived 2nd line Pavel Zacha leads the Devils with 17 scoring chances over the last five games. Marcus Johansson is tied for 3rd with 13 and Jesper Bratt's speed and playmaking has made him a big-time threat as well. Put it all together and it should be no surprise this line is controlling ~57% of the attempts since assembled. They're playing very well right now and I would expect that to continue against a Florida team that is pretty shallow up front.
5. A struggling goaltender To say James Reimer's had a rough go at it this season would be an understatement. Among 35 goaltenders to play 600+ minutes thus far, Reimer ranks 31st with a .894 save percentage while stopping -4.89 goals above average, according to NaturalStatTrick.
The Devils are pretty good at generating high-danger looks. If that's the case again, they should be able to capitalize.
Here are the projected lineups.
New Jersey Devils
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri Marcus Johansson - Pavel Zacha - Jesper Bratt Miles Wood - Travis Zajac - Blake Coleman Brian Boyle - Brett Seney - Stefan Noesne
Andy Greene - Damon Severson Mirco Mueller - Sami Vatanen Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Keith Kinkaid
Florida (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Evgenii Dadonov - Aleksander Barkov - Mike Hoffman Jonathan Huberdeau - Nick Bjugstad - Frank Vatrano Dryden Hunt - Jared McCann - Troy Brouwer Micheal Haley - Juho Lammiko - Colton Sceviour
Michael Matheson - Aaron Ekblad Keith Yandle - Mark Pysyk Bogdan Kiselevich - Mackenzie Weegar
James Reimer
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. ET and can be seen on MSG+2 and FS-F.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey
Recent Posts Zacha, Johansson steal the show in much-needed win