Preview: New Jersey Devils Take on Skidding Philadelphia Flyers

The Devils celebrate a shutout victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. (Photo Credit: Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)
The New Jersey Devils will play the team’s first of eight against the Philadelphia Flyers tonight. (Photo Credit: Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images)

Matchup Overview

The New Jersey Devils look to continue their hot start as they take on the rival Philadelphia Flyers. New Jersey comes into this game fresh off one of their best defensive performances of the season. This in a 2-0 shutout against the New York Islanders. The Philadelphia Flyers are coming in off two losses to Boston, the last one being a 6-1 blowout. Tensions should be high in this one, expect some fireworks.

Projected Lines

New Jersey Devils

Forwards:

Yegor Sharangovich – Jack Hughes – Kyle Palmieri

Miles Wood – Travis Zajac – Janne Kuokkanen

Nicholas Merkley – Pavel Zacha – Nikita Gusev

Andreas Johnsson – Michael McLeod – Nathan Bastian

Defense:

Ryan Murray – P.K. Subban

Dmitry Kulikov – Damon Severson

Ty Smith – Matt Tennyson

Goalies:

Scott Wedgewood

Eric Comrie

Philadelphia Flyers

Forwards:

James Van Riemsdyk – Kevin Hayes – Jakub Voracek

Oskar Lindblom – Scott Laughton – Joel Farabee

Claude Giroux – Nolan Patrick – Travis Konecny

Michael Raffl – Connor Bunnaman – Nicolas Aubekubel

Defense:

Ivan Provorov – Shayne Gostisbehere

Travis Sanheim – Mark Friedman

Robert Hagg – Justin Braun

Goalies:

Brian Elliott

Carter Hart

What to Watch

Forward Michael McLeod has had a nice start to the season. (Photo by David Kirouac/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Michael McLeod

Michael McLeod has looked solid to start the season. This despite the results on the scoresheet not showing yet. He is currently boasting a solid Corsi For % (CF%) of 50.60, which is one of the better numbers on the team.

McLeod has also been part of a fourth line that has been great at creating pressure and flipping momentum. In a game that is expected to be a hard-fought, grind it out type of contest, a dirty goal seems almost guaranteed. Now, I’m not guaranteeing a McLeod goal tonight, but I do think he finally finds his way onto the score sheet.

Jakub Voracek

Jakub Voracek always seems to be a thorn in the Devils’ side. Unfortunately for the Devils, he’s off to a hot start. Voracek currently has seven points in his first six games, totaling one goal and six assists.

With his vision and passing being on display early, the Devils can ill-afford to forget about how dangerous he also is as a shooter. Look for him to be involved early and often in driving the play and creating opportunities. More specifically, on the powerplay.

Prediction

As mentioned above, these rivalry games are always hard fought, grind it out type of games. The Devils are going to have to put on another strong defensive performance in this one if they want to come away with the win. Additionally, if the starter, Scott Wedgewood will have to be on his game.

Special teams will also, more than likely, play a big part in this one as they always seem to do. Unfortunately, for the Devils, this has been one of the team’s bigger weakness so far.

In a tough matchup, I think the Devils find a way to squeak out a 3-2 victory.

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