The New Jersey Devils enter Saturday’s back half of a back-to-back set in Boston with a 16-11-1 record and currently sit outside of the playoff picture for the first time all season. The Bruins are 16-13 this season, sitting second in the Atlantic Division.
Overview
After another 3-0 shutout loss Friday night, the Devils find themselves right back on the ice Saturday to face the Boston Bruins (16-13-0). If the Devils are looking to get back into the win column, they’re going to have to break the two game goalless streak. Boston has given up 15 goals in their last four games, so they may be just what the Devils need right now to get on the scoreboard and back in the win column.
Lines and Pairings
Devils –
Forwards
Meier – Hischier – Noesen
Palat – Mercer – Bratt
Gritsyuk – Glass – Brown
Cotter – Glendening – Crookshank
Defense
Siegenthaler – Hamilton
Dillon – Hughes
White – Nemec
Goaltenders
Allen
Markstrom
Boston –
Forwards
Steeves – Lindholm – Geekie
Mittelstadt – Zacha – Arvidsson
Jeannot – Minten – Kastelic
Khusnutdinov – Kuraly – Eyssimont
Defense
Lindholm – Peeke
Zadorov – Aspirot
Lohrei – Soderstrom
Goaltenders
Swayman
Korpisalo
Keys to the Game
Jesper Bratt
With all of the focus being on the lack of depth scoring, it’s time for the big guns to show up and carry the offense to a victory. Prior to the back-to-back shutouts, Bratt had two straight multi-assist games and still continues to create chances on a nightly basis.
However, he has not scored a goal in quite a while. Thus far, Bratt is sitting with a shooting percentage of 8.7%. For what it’s worth, Bratt hasn’t had a sub 10% shooting percentage since the 2020-21 season when he only played 46 games, so expect some positive regression in the near future.
Nico Hischier
Another top player in need of carrying the offense. Prior to the shutout games, Hischier was riding a six-game point streak (six goals, six assists). With Hughes on the shelf, Hischier clearly is one of the main cogs in the offense and needs to get back on the stat-sheet.
Hischier does have some decent success against Boston, posting seven points in his last five games against the Bruins, and hopefully adding a few more points to that total Saturday night.
Where To Watch
You can watch Saturday night’s game starting at 7:00 pm ET on MSG.