The NHL season is back upon us following a three-day hiatus for the holiday. Tonight, the Rangers take on the New Jersey Devils in an attempt to make it eight straight wins and put some distance between them and the Caps. It hasn’t all been pretty during this seven game streak, but the Rangers have found ways to get W’s, and tonight will be no different against a New Jersey team in disarray.
Aside from having the oldest team in the NHL, the Devils just fired Pete DeBoer and replaced him with Adam Oates and Scott Stevens. Both coaches will be serving as a multi-headed hydra coach for the Devils. General Manager Lou Lamoriello will be the third head of this hydra. It’s not the oddest coaching change we’ve seen by Lou –he fired Robbie Ftorek in 2000 days before the playoffs and replaced him with Larry Robinson for the Cup run– but it’s certainly up there.
Pete DeBoer had the Devils playing a 1-2-2 forecheck which they would use aggressively in the offensive zone or passively in the neutral zone as a trap depending on game situation. In the defensive zone, Deboer employed a hybrid overload/zone defensive system depending on whether the puck is along the boards or at mid-ice. On special teams, the DeBoer used an umbrella/1-3-1 power play and a box/diamond penalty kill.
I wouldn’t expect much to change in one day, so it’s a good guess that the Devils tonight will look similar to the Devils yesterday. However it’s worth noting that –while in Washington– Adam Oates ran an overload 1-2-2 forecheck and a fairly aggressive overload/low zone collapse in the defensive zone. On special teams, Oates ran a 1-3-1 powerplay and a hyprid PK.
What have they done lately?
Not much of anything. The Devs are 2-6-4 in December against a pretty weak schedule. They sit in second to last in the division and are well on their way towards a lottery pick in the coveted McDavid/Eichel draft. However, the Devils may be a bit unlucky, as their PDO has been under the 100 mark for quite some time now (chart is a rolling five game average, courtesy of war-on-ice):
That said, they aren’t a big puck possession team:
The Devils are what they are: An aging team that always show up against the Rangers.
Rangers lineup (unconfirmed):
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Martin St. Louis
Carl Hagelin-Kevin Hayes-Lee Stempniak
Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Dan Boyle
John Moore-Kevin Klein
Henrik Lundqvist is in net tonight.
Scratches/Injuries: J.T. Miller (healthy), Matt Hunwick (healthy)
Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game.
Game time is 7pm on MSG+2.
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