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The New Jersey Devils went into the bye week on a positive note by winning their final two games and three of their last four.
They'll be looking to pick up where they left off this afternoon when they play host to Pete DeBoer and the San Jose Sharks.
The Sharks lead the Pacific Division in points (71) and goal differential (+18) but they have not been nearly as good on the road as they have been at home. In their own building they have won 66% of their games and have a +16 goal differential, whereas they win 51% of the time and own a +2 goal differential away from home.
Today they'll play their second game in as many days, which is made worse with another early start time, and without a couple important forwards in Logan Couture and Joonas Donskoi.
Still, there is plenty of talent on their roster, and Martin Jones will be back between the pipes, so it's not as if the Sharks are handing out a free two points. The Devils will have to earn them.
Here are the expected line combinations for New Jersey:
Taylor Hall - Travis Zajac - Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood - Adam Henrique - Mike Cammalleri
Pavel Zacha - Jacob Josefson - Stefan Noesen
Joseph Blandisi - Sergey Kalinin - P.A. Parenteau
Andy Greene - Damon Severson
Seth Helgeson - Ben Lovejoy
Kyle Quincey - Steve Santini
Cory Schneider
And the expected lines for the Sharks (via dailyfaceoff.com):
Melker Karlsson - Joe Thornton - Joe Pavelski
Kevin Labanc - Patrick Marleau - Mikkel Boedker
Timo Meier - Tomas Hertl - Joel Ward
Marcus Sorensen - Chris Tierney - Micheal Haley
Paul Martin - Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Justin Braun
Brendan Dillon - David Schlemko
Martin Jones
A few notes:
1) Palmieri had a slow start to the year but he's really going now. He has at least three shots in six of his last seven games and five goals, 10 points in his last 12 games.
2) Burns has 22 points in his last 17 games and leads all defensemen in shots, shot attempts, goals and points. He activates all the time and is a one-man shooting gallery so the Devils will need to make sure they account for him at all times and get to their points as fast as possible.
3) Schneider owns a .930 save percentage in 14 appearances this year (2017). Let's see if he can keep his rythem following the break.
Tonight's game is scheduled for 12:30 and can be seen on MSG+, CSN-CA, Sportsnet One and Sportsnet360.
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