Tonight, the New Jersey Devils will host the Montreal Canadiens in the first half of a back-to-back.
The Devils, coming off a 7-3 drubbing of the Washington Capitals, have been rolling offensively since the Olympic break, scoring the ninth-most all-situations goals in that span.
Montreal, meanwhile, is entering the night on a seven-game win streak, pushing for first place in the Atlantic Division in the process.
Let’s talk about a few things to keep your eyes on tonight:
Despite the box score against the Capitals, the reality is that Washington’s goaltender let them down more than the Devils dominated the run of play.
At 5v5, New Jersey was out-xG’d 2.90-2.03, out-attempted 53-47, outshot 25-23, and out-chanced 27-19. Washington was the “better” team outside of the actual results.
With that, there were subpar performances throughout the lineup. Outside of the Jack Hughes and Cody Glass lines and the Jonas Siegenthaler-Dougie Hamilton pairing, the Devils’ lineup was caved in with some consistency.
Included in that group is New Jersey’s top line of Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and Dawson Mercer, who ended the night with an expected goal share (xGF%) of 23.6% at 5v5 against the Caps.
They’re more than likely going to be deployed in the exorbitantly difficult assignment of shutting down the Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Juraj Slafkovsky line, who have sported an xGF% of 55.7% in their 455 minutes together this season.
Caufield is closing in on 50 goals for the season, Suzuki is nearing 100 points, and Slafkovsky has been on a tear with 22 points since the Olympic break. The three of them have carried the Canadiens’ offense tremendously.
So, to expect the Hischier line to rebound to, say, a 60% xG share or so may be unrealistic. However, I would be shocked if they had another sub-25% night.
Though, given Caufield’s goal-scoring surge of late, where he has potted 17 goals in his last 17 games, perhaps just keeping him from finding the back of the net is a resounding success.
The Devils’ fourth line has long been an issue this season, and it was no different with Paul Cotter getting center duties against the Capitals. He, Maxim Tsyplakov, and Evgenii Dadonov touted an astoundingly poor xGF% of 5.3% in their last game. You read that correctly: five point three percent.
Not so coincidentally, Brian Halonen and Marc McLaughlin were both recalled from Utica this morning, and are likely to draw into the lineup.
On defense, Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec, who drive their pairing’s results for the most part, had pretty poor outings against the Capitals.
No. 43 ended the night with a 38.1% xGF% and his counterpart ended with a 36.1%. Both of them have been playing pretty excellent hockey since the break, so I would be astounded if either played that poorly two games in a row.