Tonight the New Jersey Devils will host the Ottawa Senators for the second time in a week.
The Senators blanked the Devils, 3-0, last time out in a very slow-paced, low-event game and it's safe to expect more of the same this evening.
The Devils don't exactly open things up and play firewagon hockey in the best of times and the Senators are good at slowing down teams that do.
With the Senators running into some serious injury problems -- Mark Stone, Bobby Ryan, Mike Hoffman, and Tommy Wingels are all banged up -- you'd have to believe they'll be even more adamant about keeping the pace of play slow.
When there is a talent deficiency you don't want to play a back and forth game, allowing it to show through. Without those four, the Devils are the more talented side so the best way for the Sens to keep up is to slow things down. We'll see if they can do it.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri Pavel Zacha - Adam Henrique - P.A. Parenteau Mike Cammalleri - Jacob Josefson - Stefan Noesen Miles Wood - Joseph Blandisi - Devante Smith-Pelly
Andy Greene - Ben Lovejoy Kyle Quincey - Damon Severson Jon Merrill - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Senators (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Note: no lines have been reported post-injuries. Injured players asterisked.
Ryan Dzingel - Derick Brassard - Mark Stone** Mike Hoffman** - Kyle Turris - Zack Smith Tom Pyatt - J.G. Pageau - Curtis Lazar ** - Chris Kelly - Chris Neil
Marc Methot - Erik Karlsson Dion Phaneuf - Cody Ceci Mark Borowiecki - Chris Wideman Fredrik Claesson
Craig Anderson
A few notes:
1) The Devils are tied for 27th in 5v5 goals over the last 10 games while the Sens are tied for 24th. With the Devils struggling, and the Sens missing several key contributors, there probably won't be much offense in this one -- at least at full-strength.
2) Hall has taken his game up a notch of late registering nine points and 36 shots over his last nine games.
3) Karlsson has seven points and 18 shots over his last five games. With several key forwards out the Sens will look to Karlsson to be even more involved and help them create offense.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 and can be seen on MSG+, RDS2 and TSN5.
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