The New Jersey Devils host the Philadelphia Flyers tonight in a battle between two teams coming off the bye.
The Devils actually played some pretty good hockey leading up to the break but the combination of a few calls working against them, and a couple boneheaded decisions, proved costly and they dropped their last five games as a result.
On the other side of things, the Flyers come into this contest playing arguably their best hockey of the season. They're 4-0-1 in their last five games and picked up impressive multi-goal wins over the likes of Tampa Bay and St. Louis during that stretch.
They're now right back in the playoff race – depending what happens elsewhere, they could grab hold of a wild card spot with a win tonight – so there is plenty of reason to expect their best foot forward in this one.
I'd expect some rust early on but with both teams rested, it being a rivalry game, and so much to play for, this should be a fun game.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Jesper Bratt Marcus Johansson - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri Miles Wood - Pavel Zacha - Drew Stafford Blake Coleman - Brian Boyle - Brian Gibbons
Andy Greene - Damon Severson John Moore - Sami Vatanen Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Cory Schneider
Philadelphia (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Claude Giroux - Sean Couturier - Travis Konecny Michael Raffl - Valtteri Filppula - Jakub Voracek Jordan Weal - Nolan Patrick - Wayne Simmonds Jori Lehtera - Scott Laughton - Tyrell Golbourne
Ivan Provorov - Shayne Gostisbehere Robert Hagg - Andrew MacDonald Brandon Manning - Radko Gudas
Brian Elliott
What to watch for:
1) Severson has been in and out of the lineup of late, and seen somewhat limited ice when he has drawn in, but he's expected to skate alongside Greene on the top pairing in this one. As I wrote on Friday, I think Severson is a better compliment to Greene than Santini is – the latter two have similar strengths and weaknesses – and this is a good opportunity for him to prove it.
2) Both Schneider and Elliott rank inside the top-9 among 26 eligible goaltenders (1,200+ minutes) in 5v5 save percentage this season. This *probably* won't be a goal-fest.
3) The Provorov - Ghost pairing has been spectacular together. Despite playing big minutes against stiff competition, the Flyers have controlled 56% of the attempts with them on the ice. They've been excellent in shot generation, and suppression, and the ice has generally been tilted in Philadelphia's favor with that duo out there so John Hynes will want to keep Hall away from them as much as possible.
4) As for which pairing the Devils should be attacking, I definitely suggest Hagg and MacDonald. Both players struggle defending the blue line and I think the Devils' team speed – particularly on the top line – could cause all kinds of problems (you can see more visuals here).
5) I guess the Devils and Flyers can't play without Nico vs Nolan being a thing so here it goes. Patrick's season doesn't hold a candle to Hischier's thus far. He hasn't been given the same opportunity, but the rate stats are nowhere close, anyway. Nevertheless, Patrick does have 14 scoring chances at 5v5 over his last nine games despite limited ice so perhaps he's turning a corner.
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and NBCSP.
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