Game Preview #14: New Jersey Devils @ Calgary Flames

Following their emphatic victory against the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday, the Devils look to keep the good times rolling in a matchup with the Flames

The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (7-4-2) @ Calgary Flames (5-4-1)

The Time: 9:00pm ET

The Broadcast: MSGSN2, Devils Hockey Network

Last Devils Game

New Jersey kicked off their western Canada road trip with a game in Vancouver on Wednesday, and they absolutely pummeled the Canucks in a 6-0 win. Nico Hischier remained raging hot, scoring a goal and adding two more assists, while Jacob Markstrom pitched a shutout, stopping all 20 shots he faced.

Last Flames Game

Calgary was also in action on Wednesday, dropping a 5-1 decision in Utah to The Hockey Club. Anthony Mantha scored the lone goal for the Flames.

The Unstoppable Force

Nico Hischier has been on a rampage to begin the season. He currently leads the NHL with 10 goals, and has 15 total points in 13 games thus far. Interestingly to me, Hischier is also averaging 20:13 Time On Ice per game, which is a career high. In fact the captain has never averaged 20 or more minutes of ice time in any season of his career, though he has come close. The past three seasons, Hischier’s average TOI has been in the 19-minute range, with his career high coming last year at 19:29. Head coach Sheldon Keefe is trusting Hischier to deliver, and deliver he has.

Entering tonight’s game, Hischier is rocking a shooting percentage of 22.7% in all situations. His career mark is 12.8%, so clearly this scoring binge will not last. It’s fair to expect a decrease in goal scoring, but perhaps an increase in assists as the season wears on. But even beyond the point totals, Hischier is providing value all over the ice. He frequently gets matched up with other teams’ top lines, he provides tremendous defensive value, and he’s been winning 54.6% of his faceoffs so far.

Perhaps most encouraging (which is saying something!) is how much Hischier has seemingly elevated the game of those around him. Timo Meier and Dawson Mercer, much like the team as a whole, had deeply disappointing seasons last year. If the Devils were to get back to the heights of 2022-23, Meier and Mercer were going to have to bounce back to some degree. Well since Keefe assembled the line of Meier-Hischier-Mercer, those two bounce back candidates have done just that. According to Natural Stat Trick, In seven games and 74:24 minutes together at 5-on-5, that trio has produced an Expected Goals For% of 61.10%. Going by raw point totals, Meier is at five goals and 12 points in 13 games, and Mercer is up to three goals and seven points in 13 games. Meier in particular being a point-per-game player is very encouraging, as he is certainly part of the core four forwards along with Hischier, Jack Hughes, and Jesper Bratt.

At the end of the day, Hischier has been the engine for this team through 13 contests. He’s led by example, elevated his teammates, and been the biggest reason for New Jersey’s solid start to the season.

Clean Sheet(s)

In 82 games last season, the Devils put up one lonely shutout (by Kaapo Kahkonen of all goalies). Through 13 games thus far, New Jersey has already eclipsed that thanks to Jacob Markstrom’s shutout on Wednesday. Jake Allen blanked the Utah Hockey Club a few weeks ago for the first shutout of the season, and now Markstrom joined the party earlier this week. Funnily enough, both shutouts only required 20 saves.

The goaltending duo of Markstrom and Allen had put together a few really bad games in a row, which had many of us flashing back to…well, take your pick of any given season aside from 2022-23 from the past decade or so. But a strong outing from Markstrom against Anaheim on Sunday, and now against the Canucks is promising. Granted Markstrom had a very light workload in Vancouver, having to face only 20 shots. But that could also be spun into a positive by pointing out how stellar of a defensive effort New Jersey put forth.

In any case, it’s amazing to me that the Devils now have more shutouts through 13 games than they had all of last season. It just goes to show how terribly 2023-24 went, and also how much potential a Markstrom-Allen tandem has despite some early hiccups.

Up In Flames

In 2021-22, the Calgary Flames romped their way to 111 points, the most in franchise history since the Cup-winning 1988-89 team finished the regular season with 117 points. Since then, the Flames have been on a steady decline. They of course traded Matthew Tkachuk to the Florida Panthers for Jonathan Huberdeau and Mackenzie Weegar, they let Johnny Gaudreau walk in free agency, and since the beginning of last season, these are some of the players they have traded away:

Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, Noah Hanifin, Andrew Mangiapane, and of course Jacob Markstrom.

That is a ton of talent walking out the door. Related to all this, the Flames fired longtime general manager Brad Treliving in April of 2023, replacing him with Craig Conroy. The point is, after a period of time in which the Flames looked at themselves as legit contenders, the full rebuild appears to be on in Calgary.

The Flames were looked at as one of the weaker teams heading into the season, but they actually got off to a very strong start, winning their first four games and five of their first six. Since then, however, Calgary has lost four in a row, getting outscored 19-6 in the process. For as amazing as the start was, this last stretch has been a nightmare.

So who is actually left in Calgary? Well believe it or not their leading scorer is defenseman Rasmus Andersson with four goals and 10 points. His four goals is tied for the team lead with Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri. Andersson is also leading the way as far as ice time goes, clocking in at 23:59 per game. Weegar is the only other player on the team above 23 minutes per game (23:19) so expect to see a lot of those two this evening.

Meanwhile in the crease, Calgary is playing their tandem to a 50/50 split. Dustin Wolf is one of the more promising goalie prospects in the sport, and so far this season he’s put up decent numbers. In five games, Wolf is 3-2-0 with a .907 SV% and a 3.19 Goals Against Average. His runningmate, Dan Vladar has also played five games this season. He currently sits at 2-2-1 with a SV% of .895% and a GAA of 3.18. Wolf got the start on Wednesday against Da Club, so we might be seeing Vladar in net tonight.

Projected Lineup

Here’s how the Flames lined up on Wednesday:

Between Blake Coleman, Yegor Sharangovich, and apparent first-pairing defenseman(!) Kevin Bahl, it’s going to feel like a family reunion tonight.

Your Take

What do you make of tonight’s game? Who on the Devils do you expect a big game out of? Who will you be watching closely on the Flames? Who among Coleman, Sharangovich, and Bahl do you miss the most? As always, thanks for reading!