The New Jersey Devils have lost 18 of their last 20 games and are now closer to the 30th ranked Colorado Avalanche than they are a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Devils were not a good team to begin with and, lately, they've played almost every kid in the farm system, some of whom aren't ready for NHL action and may never be full-time players. That shows in the record.
There have been a lot of bad performances and even when the Devils have played well they've failed to capitalize on the opportunities and convert them into wins. Part of that is bad luck, and part of it is offensively challenged players taking said chances.
During many years I'd say every loss is key -- the Devils are one point away from 29th, and one point away from 27th -- but this draft doesn't have the elite talent on top we've seen in recent years (there is no Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel, Connor McDavid, Patrik Laine, etc.)
In other words, it realistically doesn't make much difference if the Devils are picking 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th. I think it's fair to say a guy who is 2nd on one team's draft board is 5th on several other team's boards so it really is just personal preference. There will be good players to come from the draft, there always is, but right now there is no slam dunk pick that stands above the rest, which means there isn't much reward for losing 18 of 20 and finishing in the basement.
At this point, I'm just hoping for something resembling entertaining hockey. Hopefully a Devils vs Flyers matchup can give us that tonight.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Adam Henrique - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri Taylor Hall - Pavel Zacha - Mike Cammalleri Beau Bennett - Joseph Blandisi - Stefan Noesen ** - Jacob Josefson - Blake Coleman
Andy Greene - Steve Santini John Moore - Damon Severson Micheal Kapla - Ben Lovejoy Jon Merrill
Keith Kinkaid
And the expected lines for the Flyers:
Travis Konecny - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek Jordan Weal - Valterri Filppula - Wayne Simmonds Dale Weise - Sean Couturier - Brayden Schenn Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-à‰douard Bellemare - Colin McDonald
Ivan Provorov - Andrew MacDonald Michael Del Zotto - Shayne Gostisbehere Sam Morin - Brandon Manning
Anthony Stolarz
A few notes:
1) Through two games the Devils have out-chanced their opponents 22-14 at 5v5 with Kapla on the ice. The Devils know what they have with a lot of their kids now. Kapla has started well but they still haven't seen much of him. If he can continue to play like he has and solidify himself as a top-6 option for next year it'll be a big boost for the Devils.
2) Kinkaid has stopped 66 of 70 over his last two starts (.942SV%) and owns the highest save percentage of his career (.916). The Devils wanted to see how he fares when the usage rises a little bit and so far he has answered the bell. A couple more strong showings to end the season will probably make him a safe bet to return as the backup.
3) The Flyers aren't going to the playoffs but their shot and chance suppression numbers have been excellent over the last few weeks. I'm interested to see what the Hall-Zacha duo, in particular, can create offensively considering they'll probably spend a lot of time together over the next few years.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 and can be seen on CSN-PH and MSG+.
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