Game 35: Another Sunday date against the Devils

AP Photo/Kathy Willens

For the second straight Sunday, the Rangers and Devils are facing off at MSG. Last week, the Rangers steamrolled the Devils to a 5-0 win. Don’t expect the same results this time though. The Devils have a great goaltender, which gives them a shot to win every game. However the rest of the team is mediocre at best as they rebuild.

As for the Rangers, they’ve won five of six while scoring fewer than three goals in four of those five wins. The team defense is coming around, and Henrik Lundqvist seems to have gotten past his early season struggles. With the Penguins and Blue Jackets breathing down their necks, the Rangers could use the two points to keep up.

Devils Systems

John Hynes has his club running a 1-2-2 forecheck, a low zone collapse, an umbrealla powerplay and a hybrid penalty kill. These are standard systems across the board, and are not very aggressive in nature. The Devils will look to sit and force turnovers in the neutral zone on the forecheck, then collapse to block shots and defend the high priced real estate in the defensive zone. Considering the team, conservative is probably his best bet.

For more on these systems, check out our Hockey Systems page.

Devils Lines

Taylor Hall-Travis Zajac-Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood-Adam Henrique-Mike Cammalleri
Sergey Kalinin-Jacob Josefson-Nick Lappin
Luke Gazdic-Vernon Fiddler-Devante Smith-Pelley

Andy Greene-Ben Lovejoy
Jon Merrill-Damon Severson
John Moore-Kyle Quincey

PP1: Henrique-Zajac-Hall-Palmieri-Severson
PP2: DSP-Bennett-Parenteau-Cammalleri-Merrill

Corey Schneider gets the start.

Rangers Lines:

Chris Kreider –Derek Stepan –Mats Zuccarello
Rick Nash–Kevin Hayes–J.T. Miller
Jimmy Vesey–Oscar Lindberg–Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner–Marek Hrivik–Brandon Pirri