Match Overview

This afternoon the New Jersey Devils face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins for the third game in a row. Both of the team’s previous two meetings were at the Prudential Center in New Jersey. This will be their first game of the season at PPG Paints Arena. The Devils won the first matchup 3-2, with the Penguins taking the second one yesterday afternoon 3-1. The Devils are looking to rebound and possibly collect their first week over hockey-.500 since 1/18-1/25.

Projected Devils’ Lines

Check our social media pages closer to game time for full lineups.

Projected Penguins’ Lines

Forwards:

Guentzel – Crosby – Rust

Rodrigues – McCann – Kapanen

Aston-Reese – Jankowski – Lafferty

Sceviour – Gaudreau – Angello

Defense:

Dumoulin – Letang

Matheson – Ceci

Pettersson – Marino

Goalies:

Jarry

DeSmith

What/Who to Watch

• Penguins forward Brian Rust is coming into this afternoon’s game with goals in both games against New Jersey. This includes the game winner yesterday. Rust currently has 11 goals and 22 total points on the season. The forward has been playing on a very successful line recently with Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel. The line has a combined four goals and three assists for seven points over the pair in games in New Jersey.

• With Nathan Bastian potentially out long term, Nick Merkley looks to become a more permanent fixture in the lineup. Merkley is a solid and hard-working, bottom-six forward. The 23-year old currently has three points in six games with New Jersey and had three points in five games with Binghamton (AHL). Merkley was acquired in the trade that saw former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall sent to Arizona. Advanced stats check out, as his 50.88 corsi-for percentage (CF%) and 50.34 expected goals percentage (xG%) both are respectable. Merkley also passes in the eye test category.

• The Devils had a very strong third period yesterday. The team dominated posting a 74.19% CF% and a 65.56% xG%. Despite not scoring, the team technically did put the puck in the net. However, the referee blew his whistle too early and the goal was disallowed. Overall, if the Devils are going to win they need to be better offensively five-on-five. The first figure above is the heat map for the Devils winning effort of Thursday and figure two below is the heat map from their loss yesterday.

All statistics and figures are courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com