The New Jersey Devils picked up their first road win of the season on Sunday night as they toppled the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1, in their own building.
Led by a Mike Cammalleri hat trick the offense started to show signs of life, although there were certainly stretches of play where they left a lot to be desired.
Nevertheless they got the result they wanted and will be looking for a repeat performance tonight at home.
They figure to have a good chance of doing just that having played their best hockey on home soil. They are 4-0-1 at the Prudential Center while the Hurricanes have won just twice in eight contests on the road.
That is probably more on goaltending than anything else - Eddie Lack and Cam Ward have both been quite bad - which, of course, means the Devils have a big advantage in goal with Cory Schneider back between the pipes.
Let's see if it translates to another win.
Here is a look at the lineup the Devils are expected to go with:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - P.A. Parenteau Pavel Zacha - Adam Henrique - Kyle Palmieri Beau Bennett - Jacob Josefson - Mike Cammalleri Sergey Kalinin - Vern Fiddler - Nick Lappin
Andy Greene - Damon Severson Yohann Auvitu - Ben Lovejoy John Moore - Kyle Quincey
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Hurricanes:
Jeff Skinner - Victor Rask - Lee Stempniak Joakim Nordstrom - Jordan Staal - Andrej Nestrasil Sebastian Aho - Elias Lindholm - Teuvo Teravainen Viktor Stalberg - Jay McClement - Phil Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin - Brett Pesce Ron Hainsey - Jakub Nakladal Noah Hanifin - Ryan Murphy
Cam Ward
A few notes:
1) The Devils generate the second fewest shot attempts per hour of five-on-five play while the Hurricanes allow the fourth fewest. The Devils probably won't get a lot of good looks at full-strength so they'll have to take advantage of the ones they do get. Luckily for them that may not be too difficult with the way the Hurricanes' goaltenders are playing.
2) Henrique and Palmieri have been two of the Devils' worst shot suppression forwards thus far and Zacha is a rookie not playing in his natural position. This is a line John Hynes should be keeping away from Carolina's top unit whenever possible.
3) Lappin will start on the 4th line but he's earned trust from the coaching staff and has been seeing more minutes of late as a result. Don't be surprised if he moves up at some point, especially if the Devils are defending a lead later on.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 7:00 pm eastern and can be seen on MSG+ and FS-Carolina.
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