Tonight, the New Jersey Devils look to continue their success from this past week by beating the Buffalo Sabres. The Devils are five points out of a wild card spot chasing the Washington Capitals who have a game in hand. They also sit six points out of third in the Metropolitan division with a game in hand on the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Devils are 36-33-4, good enough for sixth in the Metropolitian. The Sabres hold a record of 34-34-5, which has them sixth in the Atlantic division.
Match Overview
Everyone knows the Devils story with their injuries, goaltending, and most recently their coaching change. The Sabres are a strange team though, not having a true weakness on the outside.
Both teams however have dealt with incredibly inconsistent play, looking great one game and horrible the next.
The Devils have won their last two games 4-0 and 6-3, respectively, on the road against the New York Islanders and Toronto Maple Leafs. Meanwhile, in their last game the Sabres fell to the Ottawa Senators, 6-2 at home.
The last time these two teams met was back in November when New Jersey routed the Sabres 7-2 on home ice. Eight Devils collected multiple points including Nico Hischier who was the first star of the game in his return to the lineup. Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo scored for Buffalo.
Lines and Pairings
Devils
Forwards
Bratt-Hischier-Meier
Hughes-Haula-Holtz
Palat-Nosek-Mercer
Willman-Tierney-Lazar
Defense
Hughes-DeSimone
Bahl-Marino
Smith-Nemec
Goalies
Allen
Kahkonen
Sabres
Forwards
Peterka-Thompson-Tuch
Benson-Cozens-Quinn
Greenway-Krebs-Skinner
Robinson-Girgensons-Olofsson
Defense
Byram-Dahlin
Power-Jokiharju
Bryson-Clifton
Goalies
Luukkonen
Levi
Keys to the Game
What Went Wrong in Buffalo
Like mentioned before, the Sabres are perfectly mediocre on the outside, they rank middle of the pack in Corsi-for percentage (CF%) and expected goals percentage (xG%) as well as save percentage (SV%) at five-on-five, so what’s wrong?
To figure out why the Sabres are bad we have to dive deeper. Is their shooting percentage? No, that’s middle of the pack as well. Offensively, they rank 18th in Corsi-for per 60 minutes (CF/60) and 20th in expected goals for per 60 minutes (xGF/60). Defensively, they rank ninth in Corsi-against per 60 minutes (CA/60) and 21st in expected goals against per 60 minutes (xGA/60). Neither of those are too shabby.
That’s all at five-on-five, however, if we look at the special teams is where we find the issue. The Sabres power play ranks 27th with their penalty kill ranked 20th. If we look at the fancy numbers the Sabres power play ranks 25th in CF/60 and 30th in xGF/60. On the penalty kill, they rank 19th and 21st respectively in CA/60 and xGA/60.
So, what has the Sabres done? Mediocre at five-on-five to go along with poor special teams.
Has Anything Changed Under Green?
As most Devils fans probably know, the Devils relieved Lindy Ruff of his duties in early March and have been rolling with Travis Green as interim head coach ever since. So, has anything been different? Well, actually, yes, but it’s not in the way management should want to see.
The main issue under Ruff was goaltending. That has gotten better as of late, leading to a 4-1 stretch of hockey. The power play has also looked better for the most part. Besides that, however, it’s been worse overall.
As you can see from the tweet above, the Devils CF% and xG% have both dropped by quite a few points in the dozen games thus far under Travis Green. Is this a bad sign for the future? Only if Green returns as head coach, which based on a recent report from TSN, could be the case.
Where To Watch
The Devils and Sabres matchup is slated for a 7:00 pm ET puck drop. The game can be seen on MSGSN in region and NHL Network if you are not in the NY/NJ area.