Coming off a strong win in Utah the night before, New Jersey looks to make it two in a row against the Golden Knights
The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (33-22-6) @ Vegas Golden Knights (35-18-6)
The Time: 8:00pm ET
The Broadcast: MSGSN, SCRIPPS, Devils Radio Network
Last Devils Game
Last night, New Jersey played their first ever game in Utah. Nico Hischier, Timo Meier (yes, really), and Curtis Lazar (YES, REALLY) scored, and Nico Daws was excellent in a 3-1 win.
Last Golden Knights Game
On Thursday, Vegas played the hapless Chicago Blackhawks, and skated away with a wild 7-5 victory. A five-goal first period keyed the Golden Knights’ win, as did Ivan Barbashev’s two-goal, two-assist night.
Last Devils-Golden Knights Game
It happened on February 6th, and it was a pathetic 3-1 loss in Newark. Ondrej Palat scored the lone goal for New Jersey, a garbage time tally deep into the third period when the game was already decided. The Devils got outshot 40-15 in that embarrassing contest.
A Few Notes On Last Night
It’s a quick turnaround for the Devils, with this being the second half of a back-to-back (more on that shortly). So there’s not a whole lot of news to report that Ian and Chris did not cover in their preview and recap respectively. So in the interest of not being too redundant, I’ll just add a few notes and observations of my own from last night’s game:
- Luke Hughes’ injury scare last night (in case you missed it, he left the ice in the second period clutching his chest ominously, but returned for the third period and looked good as new) put something in perspective for me: It’s amazing how thin the Devils’ blueline has already become. In the 2024 portion of this season, we were all talking about what an embarrassment of riches the Devils’ defense corps was with Dougie Hamilton returning as an offensive juggernaut, Jonas Siegenthaler and Johnathan Kovacevic forming an elite shutdown pairing, and Hughes and Brett Pesce combining as an all-zones force of nature. Meanwhile Simon Nemec and Seamus Casey were blue chip prospects waiting in the wings, and Anton Silayev was (and still is) a tantalizing option down the road as well. But in the present day, Siegenthaler is injured, Kovacevic doesn’t look the same without him, and Nemec and to a lesser extent Casey have looked alarmingly lost out there. A Hughes injury would’ve really pushed this blueline to the brink of disaster.
- Nico Daws was terrific last night, and he has been so good overall this season. He’s only played five games, but he’s got three wins and a Save% hovering around .975%. Obviously he won’t keep that up, but in Jacob Markstrom’s absence, Daws has provided quality play in net. Thanks to him, Markstrom, and Jake Allen, the position has been a strength this season, which is a huge reversal of most of the last decade or so.
- Despite Lazar finding the back of the net for the first time since the Bronze Age, I still didn’t think it was a particularly good night for his line or the bottom-6 in general. The Paul Cotter-Erik Haula-Stefan Noesen line that experienced a great deal of success early in the season was reunited, but according to Natural Stat Trick, in 8:49 of 5-on-5 time together, that trio put up a meager 43.81% Expected Goals For%. Lazar’s line with Tomas Tatar and Nate Bastian fared even worse at 31.51% xGF%. Hischier’s line was underwater too, but at least they scored two of the three goals last night. It was amazing seeing Lazar score again, but the bottom-6 continues to be a puck possession black hole.
- Jack Hughes continues his meteoric rise to the top of the league. His line with Jesper Bratt and Ondrej Palat was the only unit that was above breakeven in 5-on-5 xGF% last night per NST, clocking in at a phenomenal 81.24% in 10:37 of ice time together. He added an assist and is now up to 70 points on the season. The Devils can’t rely entirely on Hughes to carry the offensive load (and thankfully they didn’t need him to last night), but it’s nice knowing that, more often than not, Hughes is up to the task.
Back-To-Back Tracker
Oh boy, it’s another back-to-back for the Devils. Over the last two seasons, the second halves of back-to-backs have been a complete disaster for New Jersey. Last season, they were 3-11-2 in such situations, good for eight of a possible 32 points.
A .250% points percentage. Pathetic.
Have they improved this season? Only by the slimmest of margins. Entering tonight, the Devils are 2-6-1 in the second half of back-to-backs. Five out of 18 points, a .278% points percentage.
The good news is that the Devils won their most recent game under these circumstances, a 5-0 drubbing of Nashville one week ago.
There are only two more back-to-backs after tonight, March 28-29, and the last two games of the season, April 15-16. If the Devils fail to secure home ice in the first round of the playoffs, or dare I say miss the playoffs altogether, we might be looking back at their continued ineptitude in the second half of back-to-backs as a prime reason why.
Vegas Righting The Ship
The Golden Knights come into this game having won four of their last five games (the first of those being the aforementioned win against the Devils back on February 6th). That’s good for them considering prior to that, they had lost 11 of their previous 14 contests, a stretch that included a pair of four-game losing streaks. Vegas had been one on the top teams in the entire league prior to that point, but that cold spell dropped them back to the pack in the Western Conference and Pacific Division races. They still lead their division, but the edge is razor thin over Edmonton and Los Angeles.
Overall, this is a very balanced team, entering this game 6th in the NHL in goals scored per game (3.32) and 7th in goals against per game (2.78). According to Natural Stat Trick, the Golden Knights are top-10 in all the major 5-on-5 analytic stats: Corsi For% (51.16%), Scoring Chances For% (52.10%), High Danger Corsi For% (52.03%), and Expected Goals For% (52.52%). As if that weren’t enough, Vegas also boasts the league’s 4th-best power play, converting at 27.9%. If they have one weakness, it might be their penalty kill, which ranks 21st in the NHL at 76.9%.
They might have one more weakness though, but we’ll get to that in a bit.
Jack Of All Trades
Since the trade that brought him to Sin City from Buffalo, Jack Eichel has been everything the Golden Knights could have hoped for. He helped lead the franchise to its first Stanley Cup title in 2022-23, and this season he’s been an absolute stud.
Eichel enters with 19 goals and 70 points in 58 games. That’s elite production that places him top-10 in the NHL in scoring. According to Natural Stat Trick, Eichel has driven play quite well too, with a 5-on-5 CF%, SCF%, HDCF%, and xGF% all in the low- to mid-50’s. He leads all Vegas forwards in average time on ice per game at 21:03, far and away ahead of second place Mark Stone’s 19:45.
Eichel is a machine that imposes his will on every game he plays. If the Devils are to win this game, they need to find a way to shut him down, or at the very least slow him down.
Over The Hill?
Ok, now to that one other potential weakness: The Vegas goaltending.
The Golden Knights boast a team save% of 89.46%, which is just below the league median. Not a major source of pain, but for a team that has just about everything else going for them, it’s a notable Achilles heel.
Adin Hill has been the 1A in Vegas this season. After backstopping the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023, Hill only played in 35 games last season, partially due to some injuries he dealt with throughout the campaign. He posted a solid .909 Save%, but wasn’t at the top of his game, and only played three games in the playoffs as Vegas bowed out in the first round to the Dallas Stars.
This season, Hill has already matched his 35 games played from 2023-24. His numbers are a little worse, coming in with a .903 Save%. Expect to see Hill tonight since the Golden Knights’ 1B, Ilya Samsonov, played in Vegas’ last game on Thursday. Samsonov has been pretty bad for the Knights in 2024-25, putting up a dismal .887 Save% in 24 games played. His performance is a big reason why Vegas’ overall goaltending numbers look as mediocre as they do. Hill hasn’t set the world on fire himself this season, but Vegas could certainly use a lot more from Samsonov. You might disagree with categorizing Vegas’ goaltending as a weakness, but it sure hasn’t been a strength this year either.
Hello, Old Friend(s)
This past offseason, general manager Tom Fitzgerald traded Alexander Holtz and Akira Schmid to Vegas for Paul Cotter. Cotter got off to a hot and unsustainable start, and has since cooled off and settled in as a decent bottom-6 player. Meanwhile, Schmid has only played one game at the NHL level this season, and Holtz has only three goals and 11 assists in 49 games played himself. It’s such a shame that Holtz never worked out for the Devils, if he reached his full potential he could’ve been the elite triggerman this team is so desperate for now. But in the end, he was shipped off to Vegas, and if he is destined to blossom at the NHL level, it hasn’t happened yet.
Your Take
What do you make of tonight’s game? Do you think this will be more back-to-back pain? What are you expecting out of the Golden Knights? Who will you be keeping a close eye on? As always, thanks for reading!