Tonight the New Jersey Devils conclude their seven-game preseason schedule in Washington against the Capitals.
Let's take a look at the projected rosters:
Lineups for #CapsDevils tonight! #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/hgeQVFyIEk
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) September 27, 2017
Here are five things to watch:
1) Nico Hischier has had a very strong preseason but this will be his first game against a team dressing more than a handful of established NHL players. It'll be a good test for him.
2) With all due respect to Viktor Loov and Brian Strait, I don't think they are NHLers and I expect that will shine through tonight against a Washington team with a very potent offense. If they struggle, which I expect to be the case, they'll undoubtedly be cut.
3) This is Hayes' last chance to prove he deserves a contract. He has played well thus far but another strong showing should earn him the deal he's after, be it with New Jersey or another team that has taken notice of his play.
4) Cory Schneider has looked sharp against watered-down lineups but going up against the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov and co. is a different animal. It'd be encouraging to see another strong performance so he can head into the regular season with a lot of confidence in where his game is at.
5) I'm interested to see how the Devils fare against the Caps at 5v5. A couple regulars are missing from each side but, for the most part, these lineups are similar to what we'll see next week. Preseason is preseason but it'd still be nice to hang with what should be one of the better teams in the league.
Puck drop is just after 7 p.m. Eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and CSN-DC.