The New Jersey Devils officially begin their road trip. They’ll head to the Windy City to take on the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks have been one of the more pleasant surprises in the league this season. The Devils own a 11-4-1 record which places them at the top of the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, Chicago sits at 8-5-3, which has them occupying the last wild card spot in the Western Conference early on.
Matchup Overview
The Devils were undefeated on home ice, until they played the New York Islanders on Monday Night. Funny enough, in this overtime loss, it could be argued that they played one of their better games of the season. Regardless, New Jersey is 3-1-1 in the month of November and two of their wins have come in either overtime or the shootout. Credit to the Devils, because they’ve been doing this without Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce, among several others, in the fold.
As a team overall, five-on-five play hasn’t been their strong suit. In November, they have a Corsi-for percentage (CF%) of 45.49 and their expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) sits at 44.47. The Devils will need to tighten things up in that regard and elevate their play during five-on-five for this road trip.
The Blackhawks are young, but a pleasant surprise this season. Contributions are coming from everywhere across the lineup. Connor Bedard looks more settled in his third season, tied for second in the league in points. Tyler Bertuzzi has been a great story entering the season and they finally have a truly reliable No. 1 goaltender in Spencer Knight.
Projected Lineup
New Jersey Devils
Forwards
Noesen-Hughes-Bratt
Meier-Hischier-Mercer
Palat-Glass-Gritsyuk
Cotter-Glendenning-Macewen
Defense
Siegenthaler-Nemec
Dillon-Hughes
Cholowski-White
Goalies
Markstrom
Allen
Chicago Blackhawks
Forwards
Bertuzzi-Bedard-Burakovsky
Teravainen-Green-Mikheyev
Moore-Donato
Dach-Foligjo-Lafferty
Defense
Vlasic-Rinzel
Grzelcyk-Murphy
Kaiser-Levshunov
Crevier
Goalies
Knight
Mrazek
What to Watch For
Pursue Quality Chances
The Devils, from a five-on-five standpoint, have not been the strongest. However, New Jersey should want to build off the game against the Islanders. When it comes to getting opportunities, they are there for the taking against the Blackhawks. Not only do the Blackhawks do a poor job of suppressing the opposition, but they also give up plenty of quality chances.
The Blackhawks have given up the sixth-most high-danger chances. Controlling the high-danger areas is always impotent, but given how both teams have had trouble limiting quality looks, it can help factor into the game.
Will Special Teams Decide Things?
This game is an ideal matchup for special teams play. Not because there is a mismatch, but because both teams have been excellent in those regards. Overall, this season, the Devils have the sixth-ranked power play and penalty kill, whereas the Blackhawks have the seventh-best power play and the eighth-best penalty kill.
The Devils thrive on the power play with majority of their chances come from the medium danger to high danger areas. From a penalty kill standpoint, the Devils don’t give much of quality, as they hold opponents to not getting close to the goal crease. The recipe for the Devils is there, as the Blackhawks allow more of their chances from close in. That’s feeding into what they do well.
Bedard and Tyler Bertuzzi have been the biggest weapons for the Blackhawks with the man advantage. For the Devils, Dawson Mercer leads the way.
How to Watch
Tonight’s puck drop is at 9:30 pm ET and can be found on TNT.