Match-up - Detroit Red Wings (14-8-7) @ New Jersey Devils (11-12-6) Road/Home records - 9-3-1 -------------- 5-4-3 TV - MSG Plus, FS-Detroit, RDS Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET Season series - 0-0 Last 10: Red Wings 5-3-2 / Devils 5-4-1 Projected starting goalies - Jonas Gustavsson vs Cory Schneider
Goals for/against per game
Detroit - 2.79/2.59 New Jersey - 2.21/2.28
Power play/Penalty Kill
Detroit - 20.8%/84.6% New Jersey - 17.0%/87.2%
Projected lines for the Red Wings (courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com):
Gustav Nyquist - Johan Franzen - Todd Bertuzzi Justin Abdelkader - Stephen Weiss - Daniel Alfredsson Drew Miller - Joakim Andersson - Tomas Tatar Danny Cleary - Cory Emmerton - Mikael Samuelsson
Niklas Kronwall - Jonathan Ericsson Kyle Quincey - Brendan Smith Jakub Kindl - Brian Lashoff
Injuries: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Danny Dekeyser.
Projected lines for the Devils:
Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr Adam Henrique - Patrik Elias - Steve Bernier Reid Boucher - Andrei Loktionov - Michael Ryder Tim Sestito - Jacob Josefson - Cam Janssen
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne Eric Gelinas - Jon Merrill Anton Volchenkov - Marek Zidlicky
Injuries: Ryane Clowe, Stephen Gionta, Bryce Salvador, Adam Larsson, Ryan Carter.
Some notes:
- The Devils played two good games against Montreal and only managed to squeeze out one point, so they could certainly use a win tonight. They're going up against a good team that's been excellent on the road, but Detroit is battered with injuries right now so they need to make this count.
- With Datsyuk and Zetterberg out, the two players the Devils should be most weary of are Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar. Since being inserted into the lineup Nyquist has four goals and six points in seven games while Tatar has 11 points in 21 games. Both of these guys have exceptional puck skills and will make the Devils pay if they give them time and space.
- Kronwall and Ericsson have been one of the best defense pairings in the NHL this season and will probably be able to neutralize the Devils' top line, so they'll likely need some secondary scoring on this night. That means Michael Ryder and Andrei Loktionov will need to play like they did against Montreal.
- Reid Boucher had a nice assist and a beautiful shootout goal in his NHL debut. What does he have in store for game no. 2?
- Damien Brunner has not played well so I can understand sitting him, however, I would have given him one more shot tonight against his former team. We saw how well Ryder played against Montreal, so perhaps a game against Detroit could have served as a slump buster for Brunner. Guess we'll never know.
- Despite looking human last game, Schneider will get the nod in goal tonight. I think this is the right call as Schneider's been the better goaltender of late. It also makes sense to give Brodeur the start tomorrow against a team he's very familiar with in the New York Rangers.
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