Match Overview
Tonight the New Jersey Devils face off against the Pittsburgh Penguins for the fifth time this season. The Devils have won two of the previous four meetings, with one coming in their home barn. Mackenzie Blackwood, who is projected to start tonight, played lights out against the Penguins in his first game versus them this season. However, he had a rough game when he started on Friday. Although you could argue almost none of the goals were really on him.
Projected Devils’ Lines
Check social media’s closer to game time for full lineups.
Projected Penguins’ Lines
Forwards
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Zucker – McCann – Rodrigues
Aston-Reese – Gaudreau – Lafferty
Zohorna – Jankowski – Sceviour
Defense
Dumoulin – Letang
Matheson – Ceci
Pettersson – Marino
Goalies
Jarry
DeSmith
What/Who to Watch
- With the Penguins having to deal with some injury problems, their younger bottom-six guys have had to step it up. Jared McCann was out for a large chunk of the season, but when he came back Evegni Malkin was injured so he had to fill that role. Luckily for Pittsburgh, he’s thrived with a 0.39 goals per game and a 0.71 points per game. Both of those being the highest of his career thus far.
- With the trade deadline tomorrow, we could be watching some of these players last games as Devils tonight. Ryan Murray, Sami Vatanen, Dimitry Kulikov, Scott Wedgewood and Aaron Dell are all expiring unrestricted-free agents and could be traded before 3:00 PM ET tomorrow. The forward core should stay mostly the same for the rest of the season, unless the Devils make a surprise move before the deadline.
- Marian Studenic was the 143rd pick by NJ in the 2017 NHL draft. In his third season in the AHL, he’s having arguably his best one yet with three goals and seven points in 19 games. This is following his 15 points in 25 games in the top Slovak league. Overall, he’s played well, I’m just not sure he deserves a callup over other guys like Nolan Foote or even Graeme Clarke.
Tonight’s Devils game is on MSG+2 at 7 PM EST.