Here are five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the New York Rangers:
1. A golden opportunity Jack Hughes did not play well in his first couple of games. He created very little offensively and gave up quite a bit in his own zone. John Hynes and co. elected to move him away from Nikita Gusev – another undersized, offensive-minded rookie – and it has paid off as Hughes leads the Devils with a 57.69 CF% and 66.62 xGF% over the last four games. He’s done everything but find the scoresheet. He’ll every opportunity to do just that tonight playing big minutes with the team’s two most productive wingers, and I think he’s a good bet to take advantage.
2. High-event hockey Four of New Jersey’s six games to date have featured at least seven goals. Three of six have featured at least nine goals. The Devils, even when the shot volume isn’t necessarily there, have routinely played in extremely eventful games. I’d bet on that being the case again vs the Rangers.
New York’s new-look defense has been far from sturdy in the early-going. The Rangers rank dead last in attempts, expected goals, and chances against per 60 minutes of 5v5 play. Not great!
They’re experiencing serious defensive issues – clearly – and we all know about the New Jersey side of things so I think we could be in for some real action in this one.
3. Slow starters The key to this game for the Devils: stopping NYR1. Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad are high-end top line talents who generally feast on the Devils and Pavel Buchnevich has always been productive when given real opportunity. The Rangers don’t have much firepower beyond this line so if the Devils can slow them down, they’ll have a good chance of coming out on top.
Doing so could be easier than expected. At least according to the first few games of the season. With NYR1 on the ice, the team is shockingly controlling just ~38% of the attempts ~36% of the expected goals. That’s not going to continue forever, obviously, but this line still appears to be figuring itself out. The Devils really need that to continue for one more night.
4. Stay out of the box Zero (0) teams have allowed more power play goals than the Devils. Zero! They’re bleeding shot attempts and chances at a very unusual rate for the team and, unsurprisingly, they’re often fishing pucks out of the net as a result. New York a) is shallow up front and; b) struggling to generate at 5v5 (they rank 31st in xGF/60) so they’d be in pretty good shape if they can show some team discipline tonight.
5. A quality start The defense has been very rocky at times. Nobody will argue otherwise. But six games into the year the Devils have gotten a save percentage above .890% from their starter just once. The current high point is .906, which isn’t even good. Things have not been easy on Cory Schneider or Mackenzie Blackwood but, at some point, the Devils need one of their goaltenders to step up and out-perform expectations. That hasn’t happened.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey Taylor Hall - Jack Hughes - Kyle Palmieri Nikita Gusev - Pavel Zacha - Jesper Bratt Blake Coleman - Travis Zajac - Wayne Simmonds Miles Wood - Kevin Rooney - John Hayden
Damon Severson - P.K. Subban Will Butcher - Sami Vatanen Matt Tennyson - Connor Carrick
Mackenzie Blackwood
New York (via dailyfaceoff.com) Artemi Panarin - Mika Zibanejad - Pavel Buchnevich Chris Kreider - Brett Howden - Kaapo Kakko Brendan Smith - Ryan Strome - Jesper Fast Greg McKegg - Lias Andersson - Micheal Haley
Brady Skjei - Anthony DeAngelo Libor Hajek - Jacob Trouba Marc Staal - Adam Fox
Alexander Georgiev
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. and can be seen on NBCSN.
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