Early in the year, the New Jersey Devils won a lot of games on home soil and seemingly couldn't win on the road. Since the start of 2017 the roles have reversed.
Following another loss at home to Los Angeles, the Devils have lost five straight at the Prudential Center while going 4-0-1 in their last five road games.
They'll look be looking to get back on track, and head into the All-Star break on a positive note, when they play host to the Washington Capitals.
Doing so won't be easy, though, as the Caps are as hot as any team in hockey. They are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games and not only lead the tough Metro Division, but sit atop the entire league.
They're getting scoring from all their lines and, as usual, Braden Holtby has been great stopping .929% of the shots he's faced on the year.
This will be a tough game for the Devils but, luckily for them, their schedule eases up a little bit after the break. If they can even steal a point from this game they should feel pretty good about where they're at considering where they were a few weeks ago.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri Miles Wood - Adam Henrique - Mike Cammalleri Pavel Zacha - Jacob Josefson - Stefan Noesen P.A. Parenteau - Vern Fiddler - Devante Smith-Pelly
Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson Jon Merrill - Ben Lovejoy Karl Stollery - Steve Santini
Keith Kinkaid
And the expected lines for the Capitals (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - T.J. Oshie Marcus Johansson - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Justin Williams Brett Connolly - Lars Eller - Andre Burakovsky Daniel Winnik - Chandler Stephenson - Tom Wilson
Karl Alzner - Matt Niskanen Brooks Orpik - Dmitri Orlov Taylor Chorney - Nate Schmidt
Braden Holtby
A few notes:
1) Kuznetsov had a slow start to the season but has caught fire tallying 16 points in his last 12 games. He's back to his usual, creative self and is making all kinds of crazy plays happen so the Devils best play him tight.
2) The Devils' best shot at winning this game is turning it into a snooze fest. They don't have near enough talent to match Washington in an up and down game, so slowing the pace, making smart decisions with the puck and burning clock by working it down low probably gives them the best shot. If things open up and they're trading possessions it won't end well.
3) New Jersey's bottom-6 hasn't been great on the year and Stefan Noesen is being given an opportunity to try and help change that. He'll be given a few games to make an impact but if he doesn't, he'll probably be waived again. He has a lot to play for.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 and can be seen on MSG and CSN-DC.