Devils Try for Win in First Meeting With Flyers

(Image via. Kyle Ross/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con)

Saturday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils look to snap out of their mini-funk by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers. The Devils lost their most recent outing on Thursday, falling to the Toronto Maple Leafs on the road.

The Devils are currently 26-15-6, which currently has them second in the Metropolitan division. The Flyers hold a record of 20-20-6, which has them fifth in the Metropolitan.

Match Overview

The Devils are in a weird spot where they are on a five game point streak, but have only won two of those five games. While seven points in five games isn’t the worst outcome, I’m sure everyone in that locker room wants to be better. The Flyers are currently on a 3-0-1 run of play, but that comes after a stretch where the team went 2-6-0.

The Flyers are running a fairly healthy squad, with the only notable pieces missing being a pair of fourth liners in Nicolas Deslauriers and Ryan Poehling. The Devils are still playing without Erik Haula who was retroactively placed on injured reserve yesterday.

Last season, the Devils split the season series with the Flyers, going 2-1-1. They, of course, secured the most notable win of the bunch outdoors during the Stadium Series.

Lines and Pairings

Devils

Forwards

Palat-Hughes-Bratt

Meier-Hischier-Noesen 

Cotter-Dowling-Mercer

Tatar-Lazar-Bastian

Defense

Dillon-Hamilton

Hughes-Pesce

Siegenthaler-Kovacevic

Goalies

Markstrom

Allen

Flyers

Forwards

Foerster-Cates-Brink

Tippett-Frost-Konecny

Farabee-Couturier-Michkov

Laughton-Poehling-Hathaway

Defense

York-Sanheim

Zamula-Ristolainen

Seeler-Drysdale

Goalies

Ersson

Fedotov

Keys to the Game

Jack on Fire

While the Devils overall have been pretty cold on offense, that has not been the case for Jack Hughes. On the Devils five game points streak he has eight points, capped off by a three-point outing against the Leafs on Thursday. Hughes is now up to 55 points on the season in just 47 games, good enough for eighth in the NHL and 13th in points per game.

The Underrated Travis Konecny

Right behind the aforementioned Jack Hughes in the NHL’s points per game rankings for this season is Travis Konecny. Over his last three seasons, Konecny has been a sneaky good player for the Flyers.

The 2015 NHL Draft pick has 182 points in 182 games over the past three seasons, scoring 30 goals, or being on pace to score 30 goals, in each of them. He has easily been the Flyers most dangerous forward.

Where to Watch

Saturday’s matinee game is slated to begin at 12:30 pm ET. The game can be found on NHL Network.

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