The best time of the year has come and gone. Spending time with the family and getting to enjoy the holidays is a great way to decompress and be away from the game of hockey. The break is now over and the New Jersey Devils are back in action.
New Jersey welcomes the Columbus Blue Jackets into town. This will be the third meeting between the two clubs, with each winning a game. However, this matchup will have a different feel, as a familiar face will make his return. It did not happen the first time due to injury, but long-time Devils’ defenseman Damon Severson will get to play his former team. The tribute to come will be touching for him and the fans.
New Jersey concluded the break on a high note and will look to keep the momentum going. They currently are on the outside looking in on a playoff spot and will look to string games together.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
Forwards
Gaudreau-Fantilli-Danforth
Chinakhov-Voronkov-Marchenko
Johnson-Sillinger-Bemstrom
Gaunce-Kuraly-Texier
Defense
Werenski-Gudbranson
Provorov-Severson
Peeke-Jiricek
Goalies
Merzlikins
Tarasov
New Jersey Devils
Forwards
Toffoli-Hughes-Bratt
Palat-Hischier-Lazar
Meier-McLeod-Mercer
Holtz-Haula-Bastian
Defense
Siegenthaler-Nemec
Hughes-Marino
Smith-Bahl
Goalies
Vanecek
Schmid
What to Watch For
Timo Meier Continuing His Scoring Streak
For a while there was a missing person report out for Timo Meier. Ever since returning from injury, Meier has not looked 100% and is likely battling through it. Meier has been found and the reward has been him finding the back of the net. He had a strong November scoring four goals before being hurt. December he had been ice cold but has broke through the last two games and is making an impact.
Over the last two games, Meier has been generating chances and getting rewarded because of it. His five shots on goals rank second among all skaters and his individual expected goals (0.46) is third as well. Meier has not been shy to generating attempts, as his 10 are the most as well as his high danger attempts (three).
It has been great season him get the monkey off of his back and finding the scoresheet. Even with the few days off, seeing him maintain this momentum is huge.
Sustaining Good Offensive Pressure
The biggest thing to watch for is for the Devils to come out flying from the get go. When it comes to generating offense, New Jersey is more superior than the Blue Jackets. With having extra fresh legs, the Devils will look to pounce on the Blue Jackets early and often.
At five on five, the Blue Jackets are over matched by the Devils. The Devils have the fifth-best Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and control the shot attempts 55.04 of the time. For Columbus, this is not an ideal matchup but they did manage to hold the Devils to one goal in one of the games this season.
Columbus surrenders the second most expected goals against (xGA) with 82.58 and have allowed the second most goals against at five on five. They don’t do a good job of suppressing the opposition as a whole and opposing teams are feasting on the opportunities. They’ll be leaning on Elvis Merzlikins to shut the door but New Jersey will looo to pepper him with chances and stomp on the Columbus defense.
Where to Watch
Tonight’s puck drop is at 7:00 pm ET and can be found on MSG.