7:00 PM ET, Prudential Center
Newark, New Jersey
TV: Fox Sports Detroit, MSG+
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Devils Blog: All About The Jersey (RIP In Lou We Trust)
Remember back-to-back games? The NHL schedule makers remember, and they’ve cooked up another one for Detroit. This time, the Wings will travel to Newark for the first of three matchups with the Devils in the span of about a month.
The Wings are coming off a victory over the Canadiens last night, a 3-2 win that saw Darren Helm score 2 goals in his best game of the year. Despite the victory, the power play continues to be a question mark, getting their only goal on a lucky deflection off Justin Abdelkader’s skate.
Speaking of Abby, the man is on fire, notching 5 goals in the last 5 games. Abby’s 10 goals gives the Wings 4 players with that many already this season, as he joined Dylan Larkin, Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar.
Jeff Blashill was non-committal last night about any potential line changes, but it’s worth noting that neither goalie has started both halves of a back-to-back this year, and Petr Mrazek was very sharp against Montreal last night. Brendan Smith has been playing better of late, but had a tough game last night and might see the bench for Jakub Kindl.
On the other side, the Devils have been a surprise this year, starting off 14-10-4 to remain in the thick of the Metropolitan Division playoff picture. The Devils were supposed to be pretty bad, but Mike Cammalleri has been brilliant to begin the season, and has 30 points already. Unfortunately, New Jersey will be without their top two centers, Travis Zajac and Adam Henrique, so the Wings might be catching the Devils at just the right time.
One area the Devils really succeed in is special teams. They have a top-10 power play and penalty kill, while the Wings have struggled to score with a man advantage all year. Detroit should try to keep the game at 5v5 as much as possible to give themselves the best opportunity to win.
In net, Cory Schneider has been great, posting a 12-7-4 record with a 2.10 GAA and .926 SV%. The Devils play a pretty low-event style of hockey, ranking 30th in SF/G and 23rd in SA/G. If this were the first month of the season, I would say expect a pretty boring game, unless you like seeing 2-1 games with less than 40 shots on goal total, but I have a feeling it’s going to be pretty fun to watch. The Wings have struggled this year in the 2nd half of back-to-backs, and would like to see that 12 game point streak get extended.
Line Combinations
Red Wings‘ Lineup
Forwards
| Dylan Larkin | Henrik Zetterberg | Justin Abdelkader |
| Darren Helm | Pavel Datsyuk | Brad Richards |
| Gustav Nyquist | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Tatar |
| Joakim Andersson | Luke Glendening | Tomas Jurco |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Mike Green |
| Danny DeKeyser | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Brendan Smith | Alexey Marchenko |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Injuries: Johan Franzen, Kyle Quincey, Drew Miller, Teemu Pulkkinen
Devils’ Lineup
Forwards
| Mike Cammalleri | Jacob Josefson | Lee Stempniak |
| Jiri Tlusty | Joe Blandisi | Kyle Palmieri |
| Patrik Elias | Sergey Kalinin | Tyler Kennedy |
| Brian O’Neill | Stephen Gionta | Jordin Tootoo |
Defensemen
| Andy Greene | Adam Larsson |
| John Moore | Damon Severson |
| Jon Merrill | David Schlemko |
Goaltenders
| Cory Schneider |
| Keith Kinkaid |
| DEVILS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 14-10-4 (4th in Atlantic, 32 pts) | Record | 16-8-5 (2nd in Atlantic, 37 pts) |
| 2.46 (21st in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.59 (17th in NHL) |
| 2.36 (8th in NHL) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.52 (13th in NHL) |
| 21.2% (8th in NHL) | Power Play % | 17% (24th in NHL) |
| 83.5% (9th in NHL) | Penalty Kill % | 81.4% (12th in NHL) |
| Adam Henrique (13 goals) | Goal Leader | Dylan Larkin (11 goals) |
| Mike Cammalleri (30 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (22 points) |
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Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you’re in luck, because here’s your opportunity. Here’s how it works.
Make your game predictions on the winning team, final score, and who the Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated in the questions. If you don’t use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. All other submissions after that will be disregarded. Only one submission per person, please. POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 2 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct you’ll receive 15 points.
