The New Jersey Devils are coming off a disappointing loss to the Anaheim Ducks on New Year’s Eve. The Devils were outplayed by the young Ducks and a brilliant game by goalie Jacob Markstrom was overshadowed by poor defensive play and an offense that couldn’t seem to get its footing.
Tonight’s game is a much bigger challenge for the Devils. They will face the playoff bound LA Kings who are second in the Pacific Division with 47 points. It was supposed to be a year the Kings took a step back but instead they are putting forth a strong balanced team that is strong on both sides of the red line.
The Devils enter the game on a two-game losing streak and are 0-2 on this six-game road trip. With less than 24 hours between games, the Devils need to quickly adjust and fix the glaring mistakes of the last two games. The Devils need to get back to basics and return to the reasons they have 52 points on the season. A stingy defensive game, a clogged neutral zone, and set up in the offensive zone. The last two games the Devils attempted to run and gun the opposition with poor results. Even when making a comeback in the game versus the Ducks the Devils allowed Anaheim’s offense to dominate shortly after and retake the game.
The Devils won the previous meeting against the Kings at the Prudential Center on December 12. They beat the Kings 3-1 with Brett Pesce scoring his first goal of the season and Jack Hughes and Ondrej Palat adding two additional goals. All time the two teams have played 114 times with the Kings owning a 61-37-11-5 record. The Devils have the second-best power play, and the seventh-best penalty kill. The Kings’ power play is 25th with a Penalty Kill ranked 13th.
Brandt Clark and Andrian Kempe are the players to watch for the Kings. Nico Hischier should play a major role in this game to rally his team back to their winning ways. Swiss teammate Kevin Fiala makes this a Swiss event game between the teams.
At this point last season, the Devils were 19-14-2. This season the Devils are 24-13-3. Last season’s January was when the Devils began to show the cracks that led to the firing of Head Coach Lindy Ruff and the sell-off at the trade deadline. This year the Devils seem confident in their team being led by new Head Coach Sheldon Keefe. Hischier leads the Devils with 18 goals and Jesper Bratt has 33 assists. Johnathan Kovavevic leads the team in plus-minus with +16. The team is the sixth-ranked team in the NHL with points percentage. They rank 4fourth in goals for and sixth in goals allowed.
The game starts at 6:00 p.m. on the NHL Network and MSGSN.
