The Lightning were victorious by a large margin in the first matchup of these teams earlier in the season. –Getty Images
Match Overview
Tonight’s game will feature your New Jersey Devils, who currently own a 9-9-3 record, which puts them in last place in the Metropolitan Division, and the Tampa Bay Lightning, who own a 16-6-1 record, which puts them second in the Atlantic Division.
The Devils need to be more consistent. After a stretch of three games in which they picked up a point, they have followed it with a 1-1-1 record. It won’t get much easier tonight, as they face one of the league’s top teams.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were dubbed Stanley Cup contenders before the season started. So far, they’ve lived up to the hype. However, luckily for the Devils, the Lightning have been battling some injuries. Forward Ondrej Palat, defenseman Anton Stralman, and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy will remain out due to injury. It is projected that goaltender Louis Domingue (7-3-0, 3.31 GAA, .901 Sv%) will make his 11th start for the Lightning this year.
Tonight’s game will be at Amalie Arena and is scheduled to start at 7:00 PM.
Projected Devils Lines
**
Taylor Hall – Nico Hischier – Kyle Palmieri
Marcus Johansson – Pavel Zacha – Jesper Bratt
Blake Coleman – Travis Zajac – Miles Wood
Brian Boyle – Brett Seney – Stefan Noesen
Egor Yakovlev – Sami Vatanen
Andy Greene – Damon Severson
Will Butcher – Ben Lovejoy
Cory Schneider
**
Projected Lightning Lines
Yanni Gourde – Steven Stamkos – J.T. Miller
Tyler Johnson – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn – Anthony Cirelli – Mathieu Joseph
Adam Erne – Cedric Paquette – Ryan Callahan
Victor Hedman – Dan Girardi
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Braydon Coburn – Mikhail Sergachev
Louis Domingue
What/Who to Watch
- Cory Schneider must bring his “A game”. The Lightning score at a rate of 3.74 goals per game, which is tied for first in the league. The Devils will be on the front end of a back-to-back so expect whoever starts tonight not to be back in net tomorrow.
- The duo of Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov is the best in the league right now. They have combined for 58 points in 23 games. Point ranks near the top of the league in goals with 15. Kucherov ranks near the top of the league in points with 30. Sami Vatanen and Egor Yakovlev will be very busy tonight trying to tame what the Lightning call their second line.
- The Lightning give up the ninth most shots per game in the league (32.6). With a backup goaltender in net, the Devils must take advantage and get the puck on net as often as possible. Usually, when teams do this, good things happen. Let’s hope that trend continues tonight.
Statement Games
We are playing tonight’s game on StatementGames.com and you should too! Here are our two lock statements to get you started:
Taylor Hall + Kyle Palmieri + Nico Hischier OVER 0.5 Goals
Ryan McDonagh Will Play UNDER 24.06 MINUTES
Tonight’s game can be seen on MSG+ at 7:00 PM.