Writer’s Twitter: @ChrisMottHockey

Preview

The Devils are coming off their victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins, hoping to keep the momentum moving forward. After closing out the game at home and not giving up any goals late in the contest, the Devils have started to take steps forward, but this must continue in order to climb out of the hole in the standings they dug. The Devils played Philadelphia once already, and it was their first loss on the season after starting out hot. Tonight, the Devils will look to avenge that loss and beat the Flyers on their own ice.

 

Keys to the Game

Centers are going to need to play well at both ends of the ice, and win face-offs as Nico Hischier and Brian Boyle both remain out of the lineup. Luckily, Travis Zajac is in the lineup, and many should expect to see him and his unit out against the top offensive weapons for the Flyers due to his great two-way play and typical dominance on face-offs.

Kinkaid will need to be “Blockaid” again, and not surrender soft goals. Kinkaid did a good job against a very offensively talented Pittsburgh Penguins team. Every start is important for Kinkaid because while Cory Schneider has yet to reclaim the net, Kinkaid has not done enough himself either to earn the title of starting goaltender. Kinkaid will no doubt be looking forward to the opportunity and starts and with more consistent solid play. He could become the starting goaltender for the Devils if Schneider cannot return to form. A goaltender however also needs help from his defense which means no dumb mistakes or lapses in fundamentals that can leave the goaltender hung out to dry.

Taylor Hall was phenomenal in the game against the Flyers and if that level of production can continue, the Devils have a very good chance in this contest. Hall himself has been snake bitten for much of the start of the season. Hall has been doing everything from generating offense to setting up teammates but was doing all the good things except putting the puck in the back of the net. The goal production was never really a big concern because the goals were going to come as Hall was constantly getting opportunities and Hall finally seemed to break through lately.

 

Projected Lineups

Devils

Taylor Hall – Travis Zajac – Kyle Palmieri

Marcus Johansson – Pavel Zacha – Jesper Bratt

Blake Coleman – Brett Seney – Joey Anderson

Miles Wood – Jean-Sébastien Dea – Stefan Noesen

Mirco Mueller – Sami Vatanen

Andy Greene – Damon Severson

Will Butcher – Ben Lovejoy

Keith Kinkaid

 

Flyers

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Travis Konecny

Oskar Lindblom – Nolan Patrick – Jakub Voracek

James van Riemsdyk – Jordan Weal – Wayne Simmonds

Dale Weise – Scott Laughton – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Ivan Provorov – Robert Hagg

Shayne Gostisbehere – Christian Folin

Travis Sanheim – Radko Gudas

Brian Elliot

 

Game time is at 7PM ET and can be seen on MSG+.

Play tonight’s game on StatementGames.com! Our two lock statements are…

Taylor Hall + Kyle Palmieri will score OVER 0.5 goals

Sami Vatanen will play OVER 22 minutes