Match Overview

The Devils take to the road to finish a home-and-home with the Columbus Blue Jackets as they look to snap a seven-game winless streak. New Jersey was shutout and managed just 20 shots on goal in Sunday’s 3-0 defeat. Columbus is 23-9-1 at home on the year, so the Devils will have their hands full; especially if they’re without the likes of Damon Severson and Miles Wood. After stumbling a bit after their historic sixteen game win streak, the Blue Jackets have found solid footing with a 6-3-1 record in their last ten games. However, they only have 10 regulation wins in their last twenty-eight games. New Jersey needs to play with more urgency if they want to end their seven-game winless streak tonight, but they’ll have a tall task regardless.

New Jersey will be without Andy Greene, Mike Cammalleri, and Jacob Josefson; all of whom did not make the trip. After not playing Sunday, Severson and Miles Wood made the trip, but their status for tonight is unknown.

Projected Lines

New Jersey Devils

Hall/Zajac/Palmieri
Zacha/Henrique/Bennett
Lappin/Coleman/Noesen
Blandisi/Rooney/Smith-Pelly

Merill/Lovejoy
Moore/Santini
Prout/Stollery

Schneider

Columbus

Foligno/Wennberg/Bjorkstrand
Jenner/Dubinsky/Atkinson
Hartnell/Gagner/Saad
Korpikoski/Karlsson/Anderson

Werenski/Jones
Johnson/Savard
Murray/Nutivaara

Bobrovsky

What to Watch

• As pointed out by Todd Cordell yesterday, the Devils have been playing a very low-event style of hockey as of late. During this seven-game winless streak, they’re averaging 50.3 shot attempts per 60 minutes and 51.3 shot attempts against per 60 minutes (via Corsica); two of the lowest marks in the league during that time span. I’d expect more of the same from the Devils tonight. They don’t have the necessary parts to be aggressive on offense and if Severson and Wood do not play, it’s all the more likely that scoring chances for and against will be few and far between as the Devils don’t have the necessary pieces to get in to a barn burner.

• The Devils don’t have a lot going right now, and they’re missing key pieces such as Severson, Cammalleri, and Wood on offense. They’ll need Taylor Hall, Travis Zajac, and Kyle Palmieri to continue being the driving force on offense. They’ve easily been the Devils best line over the last few weeks and they’ll need them to rack up the points tonight to stop the bleeding. The three combined for 10 higher danger chances when on the ice as opposed to 1 against versus Columbus Sunday evening. If they can pull that off again, they should be able to breakthrough.

• Not much has been made of his play because of their losing streak, but Steven Santini has been really good over the last seven games. He has a 53.5% Corsi and is averaging 53.6 shot attempts per 60 minutes as opposed to 46.5 shot attempts against per 60 (via Corsica). He played 19 minutes on Sunday evening and handle himself quite well. If Severson is out again, John Hynes should look to keep Santini in an elevated role. With the Devils out of the playoffs, it should be all about developing young players such as Santini. There’s nothing to lose at this point.