Match Overview

The New Jersey Devils return from their mandatory five-day break as they get set to take on the San Jose Sharks in a Sunday matinee. The Sharks will be in the second half of a back-to-back after losing to the Flyers 2-1 in overtime yesterday afternoon. After a suffering concussion from a vicious hit from Tom Wilson, John Moore returns to the lineup today. It’ll be his first game action since being hit from behind by Wilson on December 31st. The Sharks come into this afternoon’s matchup with a 5-2-3 record in their last ten and sit atop the Pacific Division while New Jersey looks to remain unbeaten in regulation (3-0-1) since coming out of the All-Star break.

Projected Lines

San Jose 

Karlsson/Thornton/Pavelski
Labanc/Marleau/Boedker
Meier/Hertl/Ward
Sorensen/Tierney/Haley

Martin/Burns
Vlasic/Braun
Dillon/Schlemko

Jones

New Jersey

Hall/Zajac/Palmieri
Wood/Henrique/Cammalleri
Zacha/Josefson/Noesen
Blandisi/Kalinin/Parenteau

Greene/Lovejoy
Moore/Santini
Helgeson/Severson

Schneider

What to Watch

• Brent Burns is having one of the best seasons by a defenseman in recent memory. He’s averaging 2.14 points per 60 minutes. The next best rate is Andrei Markov at 1.44 points per 60 minutes for defensemen with more than 500 minutes logged at even-strength. Burns has 57 points in 55 games and is first in the league with 213 shots on goal, which is more than Alex Ovechkin and Tyler Seguin. The Devils will have to find a way to limit the damage by Burns, because he will surely be the focal point for the Sharks offense today.

• After missing more than a month with a concussion, John Moore returns to the lineup and will be paired with Steven Santini. Moore has given up a lot of shots on the season, but may be aided by Santini, who is a more fluid skater than Ben Lovejoy or Kyle Quincey, and may help the Devils from getting hemmed in their zone too often. While Moore can be a liability defensively, he’s a good skater and has some offensive ability that the Devils are lacking on the backend and should help in creating controlled breakouts out of their own end.

• If the Devils want to stay hot coming out of their bye week, they’ll need the likes of Adam Henrique, Pavel Zacha, Kyle Palmieri to continue scoring. Henrique has 7 points in his last 5 games while Zacha has 7 points in his last 9 games. Both of those players and Palmieri are a part of the reason why NJ is 9-5-3 since January 1st. If they want to reach the current 92 point projected cutoff for the playoffs, they’ll need those guys to keep it up.

• After the long layoff, John Hynes returns to Cory Schneider in net this afternoon. Schneider has been fantastic in his last 15 games played posting a .930 save percentage with a .944 even-strength save percentage. New Jersey will need him to pick up right where he left off prior to their five-day break to keep pace in the playoff picture.

Today’s game can been on MSG+ at 12:30 PM.