Tonight, the New Jersey Devils look to snap their two-game winless streak against the Seattle Kraken. The Devils are six points out of a wild card spot with one game in hand on the Detroit Red Wings. They also sit eight points out of third in the Metropolitan division with three games in hand on the Philadelphia Flyers. 

The Devils are 25-21-4, good enough for fifth in the Metro. The Kraken hold a record of 21-20-10, which has them sixth in the Pacific division.

Match Overview

These two teams are both in major slumps, with an identical record of 3-6-1 in their last 10 games. The Devils lost their last game 1-0 in overtime. The game was particularly frustrating given the Devils lack of goaltending this season. The fact they got the goaltending but couldn’t finish surely left a bitter taste in the mouths of many.

The Kraken have lost two games in a row to the San Jose Sharks and Philadelphia Flyers, both in regulation. Their last game against the Flyers may have only been by a goal, but should have been by more. The Kraken were outshot 38 to 19 in the affair.

In terms of all time records between these two teams, they teams have had a pretty even split. The Devils are 3-0-2 and the Kraken are 2-3-0. The last time these two teams played was in December where the Devils took the game 2-1. Simon Nemec scored his first NHL goal in the game.

Lines and Pairings

Devils

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Kraken

Forwards

Tatar-Beniers-Eberle

Schwartz-Wennberg-McCann

Tolvanen-Gourde-Bjorkstrand

Tanev-Yamamoto-Burakovsky

Defense

Dunn-Larsson

Oleksiak-Borgen

Evans-Dumoulin

Goalies

Daccord

Grubauer

Keys to the Game

Power Play Slump

Remember when the Devils power play was by far the best in the NHL to start the year? Wasn’t that fun? Well, regression to the mean hits hard sometimes and right now the Devils are in a 0-for-22 slump. That includes going 0-for-6 since the return of Jack Hughes. The Devils have fallen all the way to ninth in the NHL in power play percentage. 

The Kraken have a sub-par penalty kill so this may be the game to get back in the swing of things after playing the league’s number three and four penalty kills, respectively, over the past two games. The Kraken are ranked 20th in penalty kill percentage at 78.7%. They rank two spots below the Devils who are at 79.6%. 

Using the Depth

The Devils and Kraken both have a ton of forward depth but they have to learn how to use it right. For the Kraken, maybe having potent goal scorer Andrei Burakovsky on the fourth line isn’t the best usage of him. For the Devils, having Alexander Holtz and Timo Meier in the bottom-six isn’t doing them any favors as well. 

In the end though it’s easy to sit back and play arm-chair general manager or coach, but we’re not in those meetings and locker rooms. Will these choices pan out eventually? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Where to Watch

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 pm ET on MSGSN at the Prudential Center.