On Thursday, Oct. 30, the New Jersey Devils will take on the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center. Just six days prior, the two teams met at Prudential Center to play the first game of the season series. The Devils won 3-1 and are now hunting to close out the season series with a sweep.
In the Devils’ last game on Tuesday, Oct. 28, they lost 8-4 to the Colorado Avalanche. This game ended their eight-game winning streak. Now, New Jersey will be looking to get back into the win column.
Related: 3 Takeaways From the Devils’ Streak-Snapping Loss in Colorado
The Sharks are about to play their second game of a four-game homestand. They also lost on Tuesday to the Los Angeles Kings.
Devils Storylines
Jacob Markstrom returned to the team on Tuesday after dealing with injury and had a less than stellar performance. However, not all the blame can be put on him. The entire team did not play well to start the game, and it cost them. Whether it is to rest Markstrom or to try to ensure a victory, the Devils will start Jake Allen tonight in San Jose.
Although the Devils had a rough go in Colorado, the team battled back hard and scored four unanswered goals in the second period to try and make a comeback. In the end, it wasn’t enough to get them the win. However, the Devils looked strong within this four-minute span. They need to play like they did there for a full 60 minutes.
Seamus Casey played his first game with the Devils this season after he was called up to the team following Brett Pesce’s injury. He had a rough performance against Colorado, including a pass to Victor Olofsson which resulted in his third goal of the game. Hopefully Casey shakes off the rust and has a better defensive game against San Jose.
The player to watch in this game is Dawson Mercer, who is back on the second line alongside Timo Meier and Nico Hischier after playing a few games on the third line. He scored the third goal against Colorado and has been having a great start to the season thus far, currently sitting in fourth place on the Devils’ points leaderboard.
Team Stats
New Jersey Devils
Season Record: 8-2-0
Top Scorers:
- Jack Hughes – 9 goals (G), 5 assists (A), 14 points (P)
- Jesper Bratt – 4 G, 8 A, 12 P
- Nico Hischier – 2 G, 8 A, 10 P
- Dawson Mercer – 4 G, 5 A, 9 P
- Timo Meier – 3 G, 6 A, 9 P
Goalie Stats:
- Jake Allen – 5-0-0, 1.93 goals-against average (GAA), .923 save percentage (SV%)
- Jacob Markstrom – 2-2-0, 5.13 GAA, .830 SV%
- Nico Daws – 1-0-0, 1.00, .968 SV%
San Jose Sharks
Season Record: 2-6-2
Top Scorers:
- Macklin Celebrini – 6 G, 10 A, 16 P
- William Eklund – 4 G, 6 A, 10 P
- Will Smith – 3 G, 6 A, 9 P
- Dmitry Orlov – 0 G, 8 A, 8 P
- Jeff Skinner – 3 G, 2 A, 5 P
Goalie Stats:
- Yaroslav Askarov – 1-4-1, 4.69 GAA, .844 SV%
- Alex Nedeljkovic – 1-2-1, 4.00 GAA, .875 SV%
Projected Lineups
(Subject to change before puck drop)
As per The Hockey Writers’ projected lineup article.
New Jersey Devils
Ondrej Palat — Jack Hughes — Jesper Bratt
Timo Meier — Nico Hischier — Dawson Mercer
Arseni Gritsyuk — Juho Lammikko — Connor Brown
Paul Cotter — Luke Glendening — Stefan Noesen
Luke Hughes — Dougie Hamilton
Jonas Siegenthaler — Simon Nemec
Brenden Dillon — Seamus Casey
Jake Allen
Jacob Markstrom
Scratched: Brian Halonen, Dennis Cholowski
Injured: Brett Pesce, Cody Glass, Marc Mclaughlin, Evgenii Dadonov, Zack MacEwen, Johnathan Kovacevic
San Jose Sharks
Tyler Toffoli — Macklin Celebrini — Will Smith
William Eklund — Alex Wennberg — Philipp Kurashev
Collin Graf — Michael Misa — Jeff Skinner
Barclay Goodrow — Ty Dellandrea — Ryan Reaves
Dmitry Orlov — Timothy Liljegren
Mario Ferraro — John Klingberg
Sam Dickinson — Vincent Desharnais
Alex Nedeljkovic
Yaroslav Askarov
Scratched: Vincent Iorio, Patrick Giles
Injured: Adam Gaudette, Nick Leddy, Shakir Mukhamadullin, Ryan Ellis
Devils Continue Their Trip Through California
After this contest, the Devils will continue their road trip and take on the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday, Nov. 1.
