Friday night, the New Jersey Devils look to bounce back from their second-straight loss on Long Island against the Islanders. The Islanders won their first two games of the season against the Sabres and Coyotes and stand at 2-0-0. After winning their season opener, the Devils have lost their past two and are 1-1-1.

Lines and Pairings

Devils

Forwards

Toffoli-Hughes-Meier

Palat-Hischier-Bratt

Mercer-McLeod-Holtz

Tierney-Lazar-Bastian

Defense

Siegenthaler-Hamilton

Bahl-Marino

Smith-Hughes

Goalies

Vanecek

Schmid

Islanders

Forwards

Barzal-Horvat-Holmstrom

Engvall-Nelson-Palmieri

Lee-Pageau-Fasching

Martin-Cizikas-Clutterbuck

Defense

Pelech-Dobson

Romanov-Pulock

Bolduc-Aho

Goalies

Sorokin

Varlamov

Keys to the Game

Depth Injuries

While the Devils have been lucky in the fact they have yet to experience an injury to a major piece, they have lost some depth. Erik Haula and Tomas Nosek have both missed the past few practices, with neither expected to play tonight. Meanwhile, on the backend, Colin Miller went down with an injury during practice yesterday.

Colin Miller just crashed into an end board and went down hard. Looked like his leg/knee went into the boards. He's being looked at my a trainer on the #NJDevills bench and looks like he's in a lot of pain.

— Amanda Stein (@amandacstein) October 19, 2023

While Miller hasn’t played yet this season, the injuries to Haula and Nosek hurt. Michael McLeod who will be playing higher in the lineup will have to step up his game. Along with McLeod, Tierney and Lazar. who wouldn’t normally be playing, will need to be at least solid fourth line contributors against a tough Isles squad.

Undefeated

If you were to tell an average NHL fan before opening night that well over a week into the season the Islanders would be one of the only undefeated teams, they would have a hard time believing you. So, what has gone into New York’s hot start?

Well, first, Ilya Sorokin has only let in two goals through two games. Secondly, New York hasn’t had the toughest schedule to open, taking down the Sabres and Coyotes. The Islanders have also only played a couple games, starting their season last Saturday. The only team to start their season later was the Anaheim Ducks who opened later that night.

Where To Watch

The Devils and Islanders matchup is slated for a 7:30 pm ET puck drop. The game can be seen on NHL Network as well as MSG.