New Jersey Devils (25-27-12) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (40-17-6) • 5PM ET • Prudential Center • MSG • TOJN/WFAN
The Devils previously beat the Blue Jackets 5-1 this season. -Getty Images
Another game, another one-goal loss. This has been a particularly rough stretch for the Devils, which doesn’t get any easier tonight in an early Sunday evening tilt against Columbus. What makes it harder is that they’ll be without their captain and best defenseman (loose term) Andy Greene for the second straight game for personal issues. His absence was felt last night in Boston and the likes of Ben Lovejoy and Jon Merrill will once again be tapped to play 22+ min against the 5th highest scoring team in the league.
Weirder still, the Devils will face former teammate Kyle Quincey just a few days after he was shipped to the Jackets for Brandon Prout who saw his first action in a Devils uniform last night. They face CBJ again on Tuesday and once again before season ends.
While it was nice to see DSP end his scoring drought and Palmieri maintain his torrid streak, it should be noted that Taylor Hall has three goals in the past 18 games and nine in 39 games since returning on Dec. 1 from knee surgery. Yikes.
As of writing this, no staring goalies have been announced yet, but as an early back-to-back, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Keith Kinkaid get the nod in net.
Projected Devils Lines
Hall-Zajac-Palmieri
Wood-Henrique-Bennett
Blandisi-Coleman-Noesen
X-Rooney-Smith-Pelley
Merrill -Lovejoy
Prout-Santini
Severson-Moore
Kinkaid / Schneider (19-20-10, 2.64 GAA, .914 Sv%)
Devils Injury Report
- Forward Jacob Josefson is said to be out. He sustained an “upper-body” injury in the first period of the Devils’ 4-3 OT loss against Montréal two games ago.
- Forward Pavel Zacha, who sustained a concussion against the Rangers three games ago, has participated in the last couple practices but will remain out of this afternoon’s game. I imagine Zacha will be good to go very soon as he has been practicing.
- Forward Michael Cammalleri went awkwardly into the boards in the Devils’ 1-0 defeat against Washington Thursday night. Hynes says he is out at least a week and will be evaluated then. His injury is described as an “upper-body” injury.