Happy New Year! And happy halfway point of the season!
The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (24-13-3) at the Los Angeles Kings (21-10-5).
The Time: 6:00 PM EST; 3:00 PM local
The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN, FanDuel Sports Network West, NHL Network; Audio: Devils Hockey Radio
No Excuses
It’s easy to punt the second game of a back-to-back when your team is across the continent, expected to play their backup goalie, and going up against a playoff team on New Year’s Day. But after the Devils lost to a bottom team in the NHL in the Anaheim Ducks last night, they do not have the luxury of taking it easy today. The Devils started yesterday’s game off right, but they gave up too many chances when they fell behind and started trying to claw back.
The Kings are 21-10-5 without Drew Doughty, who is still out with an ankle injury. They recently won both ends of a back-to-back, against Edmonton and Philadelphia. If the Devils are going to be a better team in 2025, they need to work hard in the system that won them so many games in December.
Need a Fourth Line Tonight
I did not have too much of a problem with dressing Kurtis MacDermid over Tomas Tatar last night, but I do not think Sheldon Keefe can keep the same lineup in tonight. The MacDermid-Lazar-Bastian line was only on the ice together for three minutes and 34 seconds, which led to Bastian — who was actually buzzing — taking shifts with other lines. To try to get the fourth line over 10 minutes, I think Keefe should roll Tatar and Dowling out on the ice tonight.
Selke Match
While it remains to be seen how Jim Hiller will deploy his lines with the last change, Anze Kopitar and Nico Hischier should be facing off against each other at least a few times tonight. While Kopitar is likely to get Selke consideration — he has not won the award since 2018 — he is showing the signs of age. Right now, Nico Hischier is sixth in the league among forwards in expected goals percentage, while Anze Kopitar is 60th, despite some Kings, such as Alex Laferriere (7th), being near the top of the league. Kopitar is slowing down offensively, generating just 1.28 shots on goal per game, down from 1.65 in 2023-24, 2.06 in 2022-23, and 2.59 in 2021-22. This sharp decline in shot production has not sunk his goal-scoring yet, though, as he still has 12 goals on the season — and he looks to set a career high in shot percentage for a third straight year (16.6 -> 19.5 -> currently 26.1). Given the crooked number he is shooting at right now, though, I do not expect this to last forever for Kopitar. So, unless Kopitar magically starts playing like he’s five years younger, I only expect him to get Selke votes on reputation. Just don’t tell the LA Kings’ announcers that.
Jake Allen
With Markstrom having lost to a red-hot Lukas Dostal last night, the Devils are likely to start Jake Allen tonight. Allen is unfortunately in a four-game losing streak with 16 goals given up over those games, though the first of those starts stretches all the way back to November. I would have liked to see Allen go against the weaker team on shorter rest to build some rhythm back, but instead he’ll see the well-rested Kings, who don’t have to worry about having less than two days off after a game until January 10. So, the Kings can pretty much play this game as hard and fast as they want, and the Devils are managing cross-country travel and a back-to-back. NHL schedulers should all find new jobs.
But anyway, Allen has not been good since October and mid-November. At 5-6-1 on the season, with an .897 save percentage, he needs to step up. He is on track to play just 26 games with his start tonight, and his save percentage has not improved that much since he was a platoon goalie with a heavier workload in Montreal. I think Allen needs to reverse that trend a bit so Tom Fitzgerald doesn’t start considering backup goalie to be a trade deadline position of need, but I have hopes that the guy with two shutouts in 12 games can even out and be more reliable over the next several weeks.
He will have to stop a good, and occasionally very lucky LA team. Adrian Kempe (1) and Anze Kopitar (4) are both top-five in the league in goals for percentage because of their ridiculous shooting percentages, Allen’s counterpart on the other end should be Darcy Kuemper, who is on a seven-game point streak with a 5-0-2 record and .919 save percentage since December 7, when he returned from an injury that made him nearly miss a month. Keumper last played on the 28th, while his backup, David Rittich, won the second half of their back-to-back a day later against the Flyers. Rittich has an .887 save percentage in 20 games this season, though he has already played nearly as much as last season due to Kuemper’s injury in November.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of tonight’s game? What do you think of the goalie matchup? What about the top centers in question? What do you think of the Kings as a whole? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.