Here are five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the New York Islanders:
1. A brick wall Thomas Greiss was spectacular for last year’s Islanders team and he picked up where he left off this season. Greiss has won 11 of his 19 games played and he owns an excellent .919 save percentage, which is miles above league average (~.904).
He’s played particularly well at 5v5. Greiss ranks 8th among 44 eligible goaltenders (750+ minutes) with a .930 save percentage, slotting ahead of Ben Bishop, Pekka Rinne, Frederik Andersen, Andrei Vasilevskiy and John Gibson to name but a few.
Greiss is playing at a very high level – clearly – and the Devils are missing a couple of their top weapons.
They probably won’t be able to muster up a ton of opportunities, especially against this stingy defensive team, so they’re going to have to get traffic in front of Greiss and make the ones they do get count. If they’re only generating the occasional dangerous look, and Greiss can see it, they are not going to have much success.
2. Recipe for disaster The Devils have played much faster under Alain Nasreddine. They’ve generated more offensively as a result but continue to give up a ton in their own zone.
That has worked fairly often, at least relative to the first couple of months, because Mackenzie Blackwood’s been there to bail the Devils out time and time again.
Despite giving up 62.39 shot attempts (28th) and 31.96 scoring chances (30th) per 60 over the last 10 games, they rank 9th in goals against during that span.
Blackwood can’t continue to be relied upon so heavily – especially while carrying such a ridiculous workload – so the Devils are going to have to clean things up a bit sooner than later. If they don’t, some big numbers are going to start going on the scoreboard.
3. Playing favorites The Devils have controlled 54.51% of the attempts and 53.80% of the expected goals with Damon Severson and Sami Vatanen paired together. Those numbers would be good for a top pairing on any team, let alone one that gets caved in more often than not.
Nasreddine recently put them together again and early indications suggest he’ll be riding them into the ground. Severson has logged at least 24 minutes in six consecutive games and this pairing recently played 26 (Severson) and 30 (Vatanen) respectively.
Expect to see a ton of them tonight.
4. Chances galore John Tavares. Nathan MacKinnon. Patrick Kane. Brendan Gallagher. Brady Tkachuk. Max Pacioretty. Those are the only players in the entire league with more 5v5 scoring chances than Blake Coleman over the last 15 games. Yes, Coleman has been that good at generating opportunities; and that’s without even mentioning his prowess on the penalty kill.
He is playing some of the best offensive hockey of his career right now and, with some key pieces out up front, he’s getting extra ice to maximize it.
Whether he finds the scoresheet or not, I think he might be the best bet on the roster to test Greiss.
5. Line 1 Simmonds It sure looks like Wayne Train is going to get some extra run tonight. While he hasn’t been overly productive of late, only Coleman and *ducks* Miles Wood have more scoring chances over the last 15 games. He’ll get some looks around the net.
With Kyle Palmieri blasting pucks on goal, and Nico Hischier’s ability to find the open man anywhere on the ice, he could very well stumble into some garbage around the paint. He’s just gotta put them in.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey Wayne Simmonds - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri Blake Coleman - Travis Zajac - Nikita Gusev Jesper Boqvist - Pavel Zacha - Miles Wood Kevin Rooney - Ben Street - John Hayden
Andy Greene - P.K. Subban Sami Vatanen - Damon Severson Will Butcher - Mirco Mueller
Mackenzie Blackwood
New York Anthony Beauvillier - Mathew Barzal - Josh Bailey Anders Lee - Brock Nelson - Jordan Eberle Michael Dal Colle - Derick Brassard - Tom Kuhnhackl Matt Martin - Casey Cizikas - Leo Komarov
Nick Leddy - Ryan Pulock Devon Toews - Scott Mayfield Noah Dobson - Johnny Boychuk
Thomas Greiss
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. eastern on MSG and MSG+.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com Recent Posts Midseason Vezina Trophy picks