After 172 long days, Devils hockey is finally returning home to the Rock. The fired up home crowd will watch as the New Jersey Devils (2-1-0) take on the two time defending cup champion, Florida Panthers (3-2-0) who are coming off a 4-1 defeat in Detroit just last night.
Matchup Overview
The Devils return to Newark for their home opener after taking two of three on the road to begin the season. After a rough opener in Raleigh, New Jersey bounced back with consecutive wins over the Lightning and Blue Jackets. They’ll continue to face a challenging early-season schedule as they look to prove themselves as one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference.
The Panthers, on the other hand, are looking to accomplish what no team has done since the 1980s and win three straight Stanley Cups. However, this year won’t be an easy ride as the Panthers will be without debatably their two best forwards to begin the year. Matthew Tkachuk, who’s rehabbing from offseason surgery, will be out until at least December. Meanwhile, their captain, Alexander Barkov, will miss the entire 2025-2026 season after suffering a torn ACL in training camp.
Despite those losses, the Panthers’ lineup remains dangerous with all four lines capable of finding the back of the net.
Lines
New Jersey Devils
Forwards
Palat- Hughes- Bratt
Meier- Hischier- Mercer
Gritsyuk-Glass-Brown
Cotter-Glendening- Halonen
Defense
Hughes- Pesce
Siegenthaler- Hamilton
Dillon- Nemec
Goalies
Allen
Daws
Florida Panthers
Fowards
Samoskevich- Bennet-Marchand
Luostarinen- Lundell- Reinhart
Verhaeghe- Rodrigues- Boqvist
Greer- Kunin- Gadjovich
Defense
Forsling- Ekblad
Mikkola-Jones
Balinskis- Petry
Goalies
Tarasov
Bobrovsky
Keys To The Game
Welcome Home?
The Devils will come home in what is expected to be a packed Prudential Center, but home ice hasn’t exactly been kind to them in recent years. The Devils have struggled in front of their home crowd with a combined record of 36-38-8 over the past two seasons. Their struggles at the “Rock” also include home openers, where the Devils have lost four of their past six. The only memorable home opener moment in recent years is Jack Hughes’ overtime winner against Chicago, which was then followed by his now-infamous stick toss.
Questions in Net
Injuries have once again become a concern for a Devils team that’s seen the past two seasons disrupted by them. Both netminders were banged up in Monday’s win over Columbus. Jake Allen, who left after the second period with cramps, appears ready to return Thursday night. However, Jacob Markström, injured while allowing a goal in that same game, will miss at least a couple of weeks with a lower-body issue.
This isn’t an unfamiliar situation for the Devils, who went without Markström for 11 games last season. Allen stepped up big for the Devils, who went 6-5-0 during that span, posting a .921 save percentage (SV%) and a 11.58 goals saved above expected (GSAx) across nine appearances. Even Nico Daws came through for them with a .966 SV% and a 6.30 GSAx in parts of five games.
Getting off to a hot start this season is critical, and if the Devils want to do that they will now once again need these two to step up again.
How To Watch
Puck drop for Thursday’s home opener is set for 7:00 pm ET and can be found on MSG SportsNet.