Saturday, the New Jersey Devils look to continue their momentum from a strong third period on Wednesday, facing off at home against the Utah Mammoth.
The Devils are currently 21-17-2 after snapping their four game winless streak on New Year’s Eve. The Mammoth are currently 19-19-3, they took down the New York Islanders on the road Thursday.
Match Overview
These two teams have followed very similar seasons. Here is a table showing some key stats before and after the Thanksgiving break for both squads:
| Pre-Thanksgiving | Devils | Mammoth |
| Record | 15-7-1 (3rd) | 12-9-3 (18th) |
| 5v5 Corsi-For Percentage (CF%) | 50.66% (13th) | 53.47% (6th) |
| 5v5 Expected Goals Percentage (xG%) | 48.00% (22nd) | 53.79% (5th) |
| Save Percentage (SV%) | .893 (18th) | .876 (26th) |
| Shooting Percentage (S%) | 10.31% (22nd) | 10.63% (19th) |
| Post-Thanksgiving | Devils | Mammoth |
| Record | 6-10-1 (27th) | 7-10-0 (26th) |
| 5v5 Corsi-For Percentage (CF%) | 50.59% (11th) | 52.65% (6th) |
| 5v5 Expected Goals Percentage (xG%) | 49.23% (18th) | 53.02% (8th) |
| Save Percentage (SV%) | .900 (13th) | .897 (14th) |
| Shooting Percentage (S%) | 7.1% (32nd) | 11.11% (13th) |
While both teams have struggled post-Thanksgiving, the Devils have a very clear cause. Their 7.1 S% is dead last by over a full percent since the last week of November. The Devils offense will hopefully start to show its face again as the forward group gets healthier. Utah is missing just one piece, but it’s a key one in Logan Cooley. As a whole though, the Mammoth’s fall off has been puzzling. Their team SV% and S% have gone up while their 5v5 possession metrics have stayed relatively the same.
Lines and Pairings
Devils
Forwards
Hughes-Hischier-Bratt
Gritsyuk-Mercer-Meier
Palat-Glass-Brown
Lammikko-Glendening-Noesen
Defense
Hughes-Pesce
Siegenthaler-Hamilton
Dillon-White
Goalies
Allen
Markstrom
Mammoth
Forwards
Keller-Schmaltz-Peterka
Crouse-Hayton-Guenther
Carcone-McBain-But
O’Brien-Stenlund-Kerfoot
Defense
Sergachev-Durzi
Schmidt-Marino
Cole-DeSimone
Goalies
Vejmelka
Vanecek
Keys to the Game
Olympians
While these are two teams that are struggling as of right now, that doesn’t mean they don’t have their fair share of Olympic talent. The Devils are likely to have eight players competing in Milan a month from now, seven of which are expected to dress in Saturday’s game.
Jesper Bratt and Jacob Markström were named to team Sweden Friday. Meanwhile, Jack Hughes, and fellow American on the Mammoth Clayton Keller, were named to Team USA. Along with the three Devils announced to be on rosters earlier this week, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, Simon Nemec, Ondrej Palat, and Jonas Siegenthaler were all previously named. The other Olympian on Utah is defenseman Olli Maatta who will be suiting up for team Finland.
Undefeated Against Utah
The Devils are currently 3-0-0 all-time against the Utah Mammoth, being one of just six teams to have not lost against them, and one of just three teams to not even surrender a point to them. New Jersey will look to keep that streak alive in an important home matinee.
Where to Watch:
Puck drop for Saturday’s game is set for 3:00 pm ET and can be found on MSG SportsNet.