The New Jersey Devils (7-5-2) will look to finish their early-season trip to Western Canada with a win over the Edmonton Oilers (6-5-1) on Monday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
Match Overview
The Devils have split the trip so far, picking up an impressive shutout 6-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday before being shutout themselves by the Calgary Flames 3-0 on Friday.
Healthy on the blue line, the Devils have taken a few hits down the roster. Most of the fourth line is injured with Nathan Bastian joining Curtis Lazar on the sideline. Lazar is out indefinitely after knee surgery was announced on Halloween. Bastian injured his jaw fighting Ryan Lomberg in the loss to Calgary and is out “several weeks.”
As a result, if practice is any indication, Kurtis Macdermid and Justin Dowling are in the lineup skating on the fourth line with Tomas Tatar for the time being. Expect head coach Sheldon Keefe to simply ride the top-three lines until the Devils figure out a solution.
The Oilers, the reigning Western Conference champions, started the season rough at 2-4-1. Edmonton has since put things together a bit with wins in four of the past five games. The past two wins have come without superstar center Connor McDavid, who is expected to miss a few more weeks due to an ankle injury.
Of course, it helps when you have another top-five center on your roster. In the two games without McDavid, Leon Draisaitl has stepped up with three goals and three assists in that span. Goalie Stuart Skinner has also played well with wins in two of his past three starts, including a 27-save shutout vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Projected Lineup
New Jersey Devils
Forwards
Meier – Hischier – Mercer
Palat – Hughes – Bratt
Cotter – Haula – Noesen
Macdermid – Dowling – Tatar
Defense
Dillon – Hamilton
Siegenthaler – Kovacevic
Hughes – Pesce
Goalies
Markstrom
Allen
Edmonton Oilers
Forwards
Skinner – Nugent-Hopkins – Hyman
Podkolzin – Draisaitl – Arvidsson
Janmark – Henrique – Brown
Caggiula – Philp – Perry
Defense
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Dermott
Kulak – Emberson
Goalies
Skinner
Pickard
What to Watch For
Devils Defense
The Devils have completely rebuilt the defense. Three new players were added to the blue line in Brenden Dillon, Brett Pesce, and Johnathan Kovacevic. Pesce has only been back for five games. There’s a bit of a grace period with the defense and building chemistry but for Dillon and Kovacevic, each has played in all 14 games this season.
Jonas Siegenthaler has been a pleasant surprise so far this season and the pairing with Kovacevic has been the Devils’ best. According to most metrics, that duo has been one of the better defensive pairings in the league. Meanwhile, the Pesce and Hughes pair have ironed out some issues and has played much better as of late and the Hamilton and Dillon pairing, overall, is creating more than they are allowing.
Devils’ Penalty Kill
Both Lazar and Bastian played on the kill, a unit that was ranked inside the top-10 in the NHL until recently. New Jersey ranks 11th entering Monday at just around 82% on the kill. While the Oilers are without McDavid and winger Evander Kane, it’s still a dangerous unit on paper.
Mercer, Hischier, Bratt and Haula were the primary penalty killers against Calgary after Bastian went down. Expect to see more of Ondrej Palat and potentially Stefan Noesen on the kill. If the penalties rack up against Edmonton, you don’t want to wear down some of your top forwards killing penalties all night.
Where to Watch
The game has a puck drop of 8:30 pm ET on NHL Network if you’re not local and MSG if you’re local.