The New Jersey Devils (11-10-1) begin a four-game road trip Tuesday against the Vancouver Canucks (16-8-1). The Devils had a three-game winning streak snapped by the Sharks last time out on Friday. Meanwhile, Vancouver sits second in the Pacific division and is 8-2-1 at home this season. This will also be the first time all three Hughes brothers take the ice in the same NHL game.
Match Overview
There is some positive news on the injury front for New Jersey before tonight’s contest. Forward Erik Haula was back at practice yesterday after missing the last three games. He is expected to play tonight. However, Dougie Hamilton and Tomas Nosek will remain out indefinitely with their respective injuries.
Brendan Smith will also serve the second game of his two-game suspension tonight for slashing Philadelphia’s Travis Konecny.
Akira Schmid played both legs of the back-to-back on Thursday and Friday and struggled on Friday, so Vitek Vanecek figures to be back in net tonight. For the season, Vanecek has posted a .879 save percentage and a -9.95 goals saved above expected (GSAx). Schmid has a .891 save percentage and a -4.35 GSAx.
As for Vancouver, the Canucks have been off to a great start. JT Miller is tied for second in the league with 36 points while Quinn Hughes is tied with Cale Makar for the lead among defensemen with 34 points. Elias Petterson, Brock Boeser, and Filip Hronek are all north of a point-per-game as well. On top of that, Boeser leads the league with 17 goals.
In net, Thatcher Demko has been tremendous. He has a .924 save percentage and an 14.31 GSAx. His backup, Casey DeSmith, has played well also, with a .904 save percentage and a 0.39 GSAx.
Vancouver also acquired Nikita Zadorov from Calgary last week. He made is Canucks’ debut Saturday against the Flames and will play his second game with Vancouver tonight.
Projected Lines
New Jersey Devils
Forwards
Haula – Hughes – Toffoli
Palat – Hischier – Bratt
Meier – Mercer – Holtz
Lazar – McLeod – Bastian
Defensemen
Siegenthaler – Nemec
Bahl – Marino
Hughes – Miller
Goaltenders
Vanecek
Schmid
Vancouver Canucks
Forwards
Mikheyev – Petterson – Lafferty
Kuzmenko – Miller – Boeser
Joshua – Blueger – Garland
Hoglander – Aman – Karlsson
Defensemen
Hughes – Hronek
Cole – Juulsen
Zadorov – Myers
Goaltenders
Demko
DeSmith
What To Watch For
Goaltending and ‘Finishing’
As touched upon above, Vancouver has a significant edge in goal over the Devils this season. However, that extends to the rate at which both teams finish their chances as well.
The statistic “PDO” measures a teams shooting percentage and save percentage combined together. Since every shot on net is either saved or scored, the league average always comes out to 1.000.
So far this season, Vancouver is the highest in the NHL with a 1.040 PDO at five-on-five, thanks to a 10.61 shooting percentage and a 93.39 save percentage. Meanwhile, the Devils have the worst PDO in the league at five-on-five at 0.965.
This is not to say that Vancouver is a bad team. The Canucks have a very talented roster and a goaltender playing great hockey which contributes to this metric. However, it does show that both teams are due for some regression to the mean as the season goes along. For tonight, it will be interesting to see if goaltending or ‘finishing’ makes the ultimate difference.
Simon Nemec
The 2022 second overall pick made his NHL debut on Friday and picked up two assists. Nemec logged 19:45 of ice time at five-on-five playing on the top pair and posted a 72.09 Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and a 67.94 expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) at five-on-five.
It was a very encouraging debut for the top prospect who will be back with Jonas Siegenthaler on the top pair tonight. Nemec is also expected to quarterback the second power play unit once again.
Erik Haula
Erik Haula returns to the lineup tonight for New Jersey, making tonight the first time the Devils’ top-nine forward group is fully healthy since October. On the season, Haula has a 54.22 CF% and a 56.71 xGF%.
With Haula back in the lineup, Michael McLeod is expected to slide back down to the fourth line, providing a noticeable boost to the depth of the Devils’ lineup. Haula will also be back on the New Jersey penalty kill against a Vancouver power play that is clicking at 27.5% this year, good for fourth in the league.
Where To Watch
Puck drop between the Devils and Canucks is scheduled for 10:00 p.m. ET on MSGSN.
Note: All statistics via Natural Stat Trick