Match Overview

Coming off a 2-1 shootout victory, the Devils will look to close out a home-and-home against the Washington Capitals with a win this afternoon at The Rock. Keith Kinkaid was spectacular Thursday night stopping 43 of 44 shots and all two shootout attempts he faced.

New Jersey was outshot and out-chanced once again Thursday night. Whether it’s Kinkaid or Schneider in net, the Devils will have to be a lot better because they can’t expect a team like Washington to score only one goal on 40+ shots again.

Projected Lines

Washington

Ovechkin/Kuznetsov/Oshie
Johansson/Backstrom/Williams
Connolly/Eller/Burakovsky
Winnik/Beagle/Wilson

Alzner/Carlson
Orlov/Niskanen
Orpik/Schmidt

Holtby

New Jersey

Cammalleri/Zajac/Palmieri
Bennett/Henrique/Parenteau
Wood/Josefson/Lappin
Gazdic/Kalinin/Smith-Pelly

Greene/Severson
Auvitu/Lovejoy
Moore/Quincey

Kinkaid*

What to Watch

• Based off his performance Thursday night, I’d expect Keith Kinkaid to be back in net this afternoon. Schneider has struggled, albeit it’s far from his fault, while Kinkaid is sporting a .929 save percentage on the year. In his nine starts, Kinkaid has faced 40 shots or more four times, so it’s not like he hasn’t earned that .929 save percentage. It’d be surprising not to see him starting today’s matchup.

• As shown Thursday night, Washington has a ton of firepower. They average 57.9 shot attempts per 60, which is eighth highest in the league. The Devils will have to be better defensively, because they probably won’t be as lucky if they give up 40+ shots to Alex Ovechkin and co again.

• On top of being better defensively, New Jersey needs to be better on offense as well. They have just 17 goals in their last 10 games. Even with Taylor Hall in the lineup, they’ve struggled to score. Much of this comes back to the struggles of Kyle Palmieri and Adam Henrique, although Henrique has picked it up over the last couple of weeks. New Jersey has also struggled to get any secondary scoring from bottom six players such as Devante Smith-Pelly and Sergey Kalinin. If players like them can start contributing, they may be able to right the ship a bit.

• Based off yesterday’s practice, it seems that Pavel Zacha will once again be a healthy scratch. I can understand giving a younger player such as him a breather, but having someone like Luke Gazdic in over him doesn’t make a ton of sense, especially since Gazdic doesn’t figure into the Devils long-term plans. With the Devils out of the playoff picture, they’d be better off giving Zacha some valuable playing time.

Today’s game can be seen at 1PM on MSG+