Here are five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the Arizona Coyotes:
1. The return of Nico Nico Hischier is expected to rejoin the lineup tonight, appearing in his first game since signing a lucrative seven-year contract extension. The Devils are asking a lot of the $50 million man, relying on him to help prop up Pavel Zacha offensively while negating some of Nikita Gusev’s shockingly poor defensive work. I’m not sure this will be a permanent line – if Jack Hughes’ 5v5 play doesn’t improve, Nico will likely find himself back on L1 – but I’m interested to see how it works. We know Hischier will be good at both ends and I think the winger’s strengths nicely complement the other’s weaknesses.
2. Snail’s pace Neither team plays particularly fast. In terms of expected goal pace (for + against/60) at 5v5, the Coyotes rank 27th and the Devils rank 24th. The Devils also sit 31st when it comes to shot attempts. They’re coming off 600 days of rest so they might have a little rust early, while the Coyotes – a team that already plays fairly slow – is in the latter half of a road back-to-back and surely won’t be looking to open things up.
3. NJ2 vs ARI1 One matchup I’m really excited to follow is Travis Baejac’s line vs Arizona’s top offensive trio. New Jersey’s shutdown trio has been excellent together, allowing just 36.73 attempts and 1.27 expected goals per 60 minutes. Those numbers will normalize a bit with more time but it’s hardly surprising a Blake Coleman - Zajac - Wayne Simmonds line has played excellent defense.
On the flip side, Arizona’s new-look top unit is generating 67.01 attempts and 3.42 expected goals per 60 minutes. Remarkably good numbers over a sample size of more than 100 minutes.
If Zajac and co. can find a way to slow them down, they’ll have a great chance of winning.
4. Quality starts The Devils are eight games into the season. They’ve gotten two quality starts from their goaltenders. Not so coincidentally, those two quality starts happened to be the two wins. As much as the offense needs to be more consistent, it won’t much matter if the goaltending isn’t at least adequate. Let’s hope Mackenzie Blackwood, fresh off an illness, can pick up where he left off last weekend.
5. Watching the points New Jersey has just one defender (Sami Vatanen) averaging ~8.6+ shot attempts per 60 minutes of 5v5 ice. Arizona has six. Six! Every defenseman expected to dress tonight is averaging 8.6 or more. Four of the six are generating 2+ chances per 60 minutes, too, where as only Vatanen is doing so for the Devils. The Coyotes’ blueliners will not hesitate to jump into the play or pull the trigger every chance they get. As a team, they’ve long struggled to create offense and getting their defenders more involved seems to be a way for them to try and help the forwards out. New Jersey’s crop of attackers must ensure they hustle getting back into the defensive zone, because Arizona’s defensemen will be looking to beat them up ice and add an extra layer of offense.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey Taylor Hall - Jack Hughes - Kyle Palmieri Pavel Zacha - Nico Hischier - Nikita Gusev Blake Coleman - Travis Zajac - Wayne Simmonds Miles Wood - Kevin Rooney - John Hayden
Damon Severson - P.K. Subban Andy Greene - Sami Vatanen Will Butcher - Connor Carrick
Mackenzie Blackwood
Arizona Clayton Keller - Derek Stepan - Phil Kessel Conor Garland - Christian Dvorak - Nick Schmaltz Michael Grabner - Brad Richardson - Vinnie Hinostoza Lawson Crouse - Carl Soderberg - Christian Fischer
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Jason Demers Jakob Chychrun - Alex Goligoski Kyle Capobianco - Ilya Lyubushkin
Antti Raanta
Puck drop is just after 7:00 p.m. and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-A.
numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com Recent Posts On Boqvist’s usage, 5v5 concerns, and Gusev’s defensive play