Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils look to snap their two game losing streak on the road in Winnipeg. The team lost by a multi-goal margin against the Colorado Avalanche and Washington Capitals last week.
The Devils are 7-5-1, good enough for fourth in the Metropolitan division. The Jets hold a record of 7-5-2-0, which has them at third in the Central division.
Lines and Pairings
Devils
Forwards
Meier- McLeod-Bratt
Toffoli-Mercer-Holtz
Palat-Haula-Lazar
Nosek-Tierney-Bastian
Defense
Hughes-Hamilton
Siegenthaler-Marino
Bahl-Smith
Goalies
Vanecek
Schmid
Jets
Forwards
Connor-Scheifele-Iafallo
Perfetti-Namestnikov-Ehlers
Niederreiter-Lowry-Appleton
Barron-Gustafsson-Kupari
Defense
Morrissey-DeMelo
Dillon-Pionk
Samberg-Schmidt
Goalies
Hellebuyck
Brossoit
Keys to the Game
Alexander Holtz Promotion
For a reason maybe only head coach Lindy Ruff knows, Alexander Holtz was banished to the fourth line for an extended period of time. Now, finally, out of nowhere, Holtz is projected to get prime top-six minutes playing with Tyler Toffoli and Dawson Mercer.
His numbers haven’t been pretty this year, but if you dive a little deeper (as shown in the tweet above) it seems as if he has been dragged down by his linemates.
Akira Schmid Time?
With Vitek Vanecek having struggled in his past two games, and Akira Schmid coming in and stopping 20 of 21 shots against the Capitals Friday you’d think Schmid would get the start in net tonight.
Schmid was excellent last year in the regular season with an 8.2 goals saved above expected (GSAx) and .922 save percentage (sv%) on top of his excellent play that won the Devils their series against the Rangers in the playoffs.
Where To Watch
Devils vs Jets is slated for a 8:00 pm ET puck drop. The game can be seen on MSGSN.