The New Jersey Devils prepare to take on the Boston Bruins on Saturday, December 6. This game marks the second of a back-to-back for New Jersey and the first of two straight games. The Devils lost at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday. They were eliminated in a 3–0 defeat. To kick off the road trip, the Devils will look to earn their first win since Friday, November 28.
Related: 3 takeaways from Devils’ uninspired 3-0 loss to Golden Knights
This game is the second of two home games for the Bruins. They just defeated the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Thursday, December 4. Before hitting the road, Boston will look to secure one more home win at the TD Garden in front of all their fans.
Devilish storylines
In the Devils’ last two games, they have gone six periods without a goal. The last Devil to score was Timo Meier with one power play goal in the middle of the third period on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. They’re gone now 128 minutes without scoring. This entire homestand was a flop, as they lost all four games at the Prudential Center.
The devils home record is better than their away record, but not yet. They have a home record of 9-4-1 and an away record of 7-7-0. They received them first loss of the season when they played the Colorado Avalanche at home on October 28. A full month later on November 29, they received their first regular season loss at home. 5-3 against the Philadelphia Flyers. Since then, they have gone on a four-game losing streak. Let’s see if they can fix this in Boston.
The player to watch in this game is Meier. He is currently tied with Nico Hischier, Dawson Mercer and Jack Hughes for the team lead in goals this season with 10. He is finding success with Hischier and Jesper Bratt on the top line while Hughes is recovering from injury. This top line needs to dig deep and find that success again.
Team stats
Devils from New Jersey
Season record: 11/16/1
Top scorers:
- Jesper Bratt – 5 goals (G), 21 assists (A), 26 points (P)
- Nico Hischier – 10 G, 15 A, 25 P
- Timo Meier – 10 G, 12 A, 22 P
- Dawson Mercer – 10 G, 11 A, 21 P
- Jack Hughes – 10 G, 10 A, 20 P
Goalkeeper statistics:
- Jake Allen – 8-5-0, 2.48 goals against average (GAA), 0.911 save percentage (SV%)
- Jacob Markstrom – 7-6-1, 3.51 GAA, 0.876 SV%
- Nico Daws – 1-0-0, 1.00 GAA, 0.968 SV%
Boston Bruins
Season record: 16-13-0
Top scorers:
- Morgan Geekie – 21 G, 10 A, 31 P
- David Pastrnak – 11 G, 18 A, 29 P
- Pavel Zacha – 7 G, 13 A, 20 P
- Elias Lindholm – 4 G, 12 A, 16 P
- Charlie McAvoy – 0 G, 14 A, 14 P
Goalkeeper statistics:
- Jeremy Swagman – 11-7-0, 2.80 GAA, 0.910 SV%
- Joonas Korpisalo – 5-6-0, 3.38 GAA, 0.888 SV%
Projected lineups
(Subject to change before puck drop)
According to The Hockey Writers’ expected lineup article.
Devils from New Jersey
Timo Meier – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt
Ondrej Palat – Dawson Mercer – Arseni Gritsyuk
Paul Cotter-Cody Glass-Connor Brown
Angus Crookshank-Luke Glendening-Stefan Noesen
Jonas Siegenthaler-Dougie Hamitlon
Brenden Dillon-Luke Hughes
Colton White – Simon German
Jake Allen
Jacob Markstrom
Scratched: Juho Lammikko, Dennis Cholowski
Injured: Evgenii Dadonov, Jack Hughes, Johnathan Kovacevic, Zack MacEwen, Marc McLaughlin, Brett Pesce
Boston Bruins
Alex Steeves – Elias Lindholm – Morgan Geekie
Casey Mittelstadt – Pavel Zacha – Viktor Arvidsson
Tanner Jeannot-Fraser Minton-Mark Kastelic
Marat Khusnutdinov – Sean Kuraly – Michael Eyssimont
Hampus Lindholm-Andrew Peeke
Nikita Zadorov – Jonathan Aspirot
Mason Lohrei-Victor Soderstrom
Joonas Korpisalo
Jeremy Swagman
Scratched: Jeffrey Much
Injured: David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Henri Jokiharju, Michael Callahan, Matej Blumel, Jordan Harris
Next step for the Devils
The Devils will continue their journey north to Canada to take on the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday, December 9.
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