Wednesday, the New Jersey Devils look to grab their third straight win against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Devils are currently 30-29-2 after defeating the Florida Panthers on Tuesday. The Leafs are 27-24-10, they’ve lost four games in a row coming out of the Olympic break.
Match Overview
The Devils and Maple Leafs are both solidly out of the playoff picture, with New Jersey being 11 points and Toronto being nine points outside the final wild card spot. Both teams have struggled relative to preseason expectations, both in expected and actual results. The Leafs are 21st in five-on-five expected goals percentage (xG%) at 48.4%, the Devils have been even worse at 47.6%.
Both teams have dealt with injuries, but are mostly healthy now. The Leafs are just missing Chris Tanev on their blueline, while the Devils are only without Stefan Noesen. The teams have split the season series this year, with New Jersey winning 5-2 in October, and the Maple Leafs winning 4-0 in December. Both games were in Toronto.
Lines and Pairings
Devils
Forwards
Meier-Hischier-Mercer
Gritsyuk-Hughes-Brown
Bratt-Glass-Hameenaho
Cotter-Bjugstad-Tsyplakov
Defense
Hughes-Pesce
Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Dillon-Nemec
Goalies
Allen
Markstrom
Maple Leafs
Forwards
McMann-Matthews-Nylander
Knies-Tavares-Domi
Maccelli-Roy-Joshua
Lorentz-Laughton-Cowan
Defense
Rielly-Carlo
Benoit-McCabe
Ekman Larsson-Myers
Goalies
Stolarz
Woll
Keys to the Game
Hughes Been Hot?
Since scoring the gold medal winning goal a week and a half ago, Jack Hughes has been a busy man, but that hasn’t stopped him from being productive on the ice. Hughes has five assists in four games since the Olympic break while also having a 59.84 Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and 63.06 xG% at even strength.
Final Game for Dougie?
After tonight’s game, the Devils don’t play again until 3:00 pm ET on Saturday, exactly 24 hours after the trade deadline. That means that Wednesday’s game could be the last as a Devil for some players. The most notable of those players is Dougie Hamilton who in his time as a Devil has accumulated 185 points in 284 games for a 0.65 points per game, the highest in team history among all defenseman with at least 150 games.
Where to Watch:
Puck drop for Wednesday’s game is set for 7:00 pm ET and can be found on ESPN+, Hulu, and Disney+.