Five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the Minnesota Wild:
1. Minnesota's top line The Wild's top line isn't littered with household names, however, its been as effective as one that is. Among 55 lines that have logged at least 200 minutes together this season, the Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund trio ranks 1st with an Expected Goals For% of 66.25. They are also three of the team's top-4 chance generators at 5v5.
Travis Zajac and co. will have their hands full slowing these guys down.
2. Solid penalty killing Don't expect the power play units to go off in this one. The Devils are tied for the league lead in short-handed goals and they've mostly been strong killing penalties all season long.
On the other side of things, the Wild are littered with two-way forwards and unsurprisingly rank inside the top-5 in Expected Goals Against/60 as a result.
3. Jesper Bratt's slump Bratt has points in just two of his last 15 games and has been a sub 50% possession player nine times in that span.
I think a lot of his struggles can be attributed to less time with Hall and added responsibility trying to carry his own line as a rookie. It's only natural to hit some speed bumps given the circumstances. In saying that, the Devils need him to get going again because they're not getting much offense beyond Hall and the top line. It's hard to win consistently when that's the case, especially with 2nd and 3rd string netminders starting every night.
4. Taylor Hall's streak Hall extended his point streak to 19 games last time out and was extremely dangerous leading the Devils with 11 shot contributions (shot attempts + shot assists) at 5v5.
He is playing as well as anyone in the league right now and should cause all kinds of problems for a very top-heavy Wild defense core. John Hynes controls the matchups and will surely do his best to get Hall as much time away from the Ryan Suter - Mathew Dumba pairing as possible. That should lead to plenty of opportunities for Hall to find the scoresheet once again.
5. Edward Lack Lack has faced 15 shots or more five times this season. His last appearance vs Tampa Bay, where he stole the show stopping 48 of 51, was the only game he posted a save percentage higher than .870.
The Devils better hope he can buck the trend again tonight because they've won just two of the last 14 games where their goaltenders have posted a .910 save percentage or less.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri Blake Coleman - Pavel Zacha - Jesper Bratt Miles Wood - Travis Zajac - Stefan Noesen Blake Pietila - Brian Boyle - Jimmy Hayes
Andy Greene - Sami Vatanen John Moore - Damon Severson Will Butcher - Ben Lovejoy
Eddie Lack
Minnesota (via DailyFaceoff.com)
Jason Zucker - Mikko Koivu - Mikael Granlund Tyler Ennis - Eric Staal - Nino Niederreiter Zach Parise - Matt Cullen - Charlie Coyle Marcus Foligno - Joel Eriksson Ek - Daniel Winnik
Ryan Suter - Mathew Dumba Nick Seeler - Jared Spurgeon Gustav Olofsson - Nate Prosser
Alex Stalock
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-N.