The New Jersey Devils dressed an extremely watered down lineup last time out and unsurprisingly lost the game as a result.
With just a couple tuneups remaining the Devils are going with a much better roster that will closely resemble what we'll see when the season begins next week.
Here are the Devils' line combinations:
Taylor Hall - Adam Henrique - Beau Bennett Mike Cammalleri - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri Reid Boucher - Pavel Zacha - Nick Lappin Miles Wood - Joseph Blandisi - Blake Speers/Sergei Kalinin
Andy Greene - Damon Severson Seth Helgeson - Ben Lovejoy Yohann Auvitu - Kyle Quincey
Cory Schneider Scott Wedgewood
And the Islanders':
Kulemin - Cizikas - Clutterbuck Ladd - Barzal - Parenteau Dal Colle - Quine - Ho-Sang Johnston - Beauvillier - Bernier
Hickey - Boychuk de Haan - Hamonic Pelech - Pulock
Greiss
A few notes:
1) This is a big game for Yohann Auvitu. With Jon Merrill banged up and Kyle Quincey seemingly slotted to play on the right side there is a left spot there for the taking. Another strong performance tonight may just win him the job.
2) The top-6 we see tonight is probably what we'll see when the Devils open the season in Florida. Tonight's game isn't overly meaningful to those guys but you'd like to see them perform well against a watered down Islanders team.
3) The Devils have made a change of plans and elected to give Cory Schneider the full 60 minutes tonight. This will be his last full game prior to the season so it'd be nice to see a good one; especially after a subpar effort last time out.
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