Match Overview

Fresh off a 5-4 shootout victory, the Devils return to the ice to take on a struggling Detroit Red Wings team. The Red wings got off to a good start in the early part of the season, but have struggled since then and are 3-6-1 in their last ten games. For years, they’ve been able to dominate at even-strength, but have struggled mightily this season, especially with Pavel Datsyuk out of the picture. They rank dead last in possession at 45.4% and are averaging 46.9 shot attempts per 60 as opposed to 56.4 shot attempts against per 60, a big disparity.

Projected Lines

New Jersey

Cammalleri/Zajac/Lappin
Zacha/Henrique/Parenteau
Boucher/Josefson/Bennett
Kalinin/Fiddler/DSP

Greene/Severson
Auvitu/Lovejoy
Moore/Quincey

Schneider

Detroit

Abdelkader/Zetterberg/Mantha
Tatar/Nielsen/Glendening
Nyquist/Larkin/Vanek
Sheahan/Ott/Bertuzzi

DeKeyser/Green
Kronwall/Smith
Ericsson/Sproul

Howard

What to Watch

• The Zajac line was just dominant at even-strength Wednesday night. As mentioned above, Detroit has struggled at great length at 5v5. With the Devils still having trouble to find secondary scoring, they’ll need this line at the top of their game until guys like Adam Henrique and Kyle Palmieri get going.

• Nick Lappin has continued to play well for the Devils. He’s one of their better possession players up front at 51.1%, but its been against weaker competition. He did find himself on the top line in the final third of Wednesday’s game and was there in today’s morning skate. This is a good chance for him to produce with New Jersey’s top players.

• After skating yesterday and today, Kyle Palmieri said he expects to return to the lineup tonight. He wasn’t a part of line rushes this morning, so it’s unclear if he’ll draw back in. If he does, the Devils will get another offensive weapon back to help pick up the void left by Taylor Hall.

• Detroit has been uncharacteristically bad at even-strength this season. The Devils are generally a low-event team, but Detroit doesn’t generate a lot on offense and they also give up a fair bit defensively. New Jersey should find themselves able to produce enough at even-strength, especially if the Zajac line dominates as they did against Toronto.

• Despite Detroit’s struggles this season, they have gotten exceptional goaltending from Jimmy Howard. Howard is only 5-5-0 on the year, but he has a .943 save percentage and 1.76 goals against average. Detroit is only averaging 1.60 goals a game in Howard’s starts, so if the Devils can keep Detroit’s offense in check, they should be fine.

Tonight’s game can be seen on MSG+ at 7:30 PM