The New Jersey Devils, without their biggest star, will take on a Pittsburgh Penguins team who are not likely to make the playoffs on network television. At least both teams are coming into this one hot. Learn more about the matchup with this preview.
Two hot teams in this past week of hockey face off on national television. One is missing its top star. The other is missing the playoffs. It is still two points in the standings all the same.
The Time: 3:00 PM ET
The Broadcast: TV: ABC, Streaming: ESPN+; Audio: Devils Hockey Radio
The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils at the Pittsburgh Penguins
The Last Devils Game: On Thursday, the Devils hosted Edmonton. The game was fast. Both teams skated as quickly as they could and sometimes the play even went with them. After a goal-less first, the Devils struck first. Stuart Skinner mishandled a puck and it ended up being put in the back of the net by a streaking Brett Pesce. The Oilers would tie it up after a poor defensive zone shift yielding Leon Draisaitl to get around Luke Hughes, fire a shot before a diving Pesce, and beat Jake Allen short side. The 1-1 score held until the third period. Edmonton crushed the Devils’ structure to start the third. It took over four minutes but they broke through with a long shot by Evan Bouchard beating the traffic and Allen to make it 1-2. The Devils needed to attack instead of just, well, not doing so. Jesper Bratt emerged. In what was perhaps the second time the Devils were in Edmonton’s zone for the third period, Bratt fired a shot from above the high slot through traffic to beat Skinner and make it 2-2. Less than two minutes later, Bratt set up Simon Nemec for a shot from the center point. This shot went through traffic as well and got in. Nemec’s first of the season made it 3-2. The Devils had to hold on and thanks to Allen and a lot of important interventions in front of his crease, the Devils did. They withstood 19 shots from the Oilers in the third period. They withstood shifts against Draisaitl and Connor McDavid at the same time. They withstood to prevail for their third straight victory. Chris wrote up the victory here.
The Last Penguins Game: On that very same night, the Penguins hosted St. Louis. They got off to a surprising 1-0 lead thanks to Ryan Graves’ first goal of the season over two minutes in. The Blues worked hard to respond but Tristan Jarry kept out all 15 shots in the first period. Early in the second period, Connor Timmins doubled the lead for Pittsburgh. However, Timmins would go to the box much later for a high-sticking penalty. Zac Bolduc punished that to make it a 2-1 game. The Pens got a late lift from Connor Dewar’s first of the season to go into the third up 3-1. However again, the Penguins went into the third shorthanded. Kris Letang took a cross-checking call with eight seconds left in the period. St. Louis would convert the power play almost 90 seconds into the third thanks to Dylan Holloway. It was a one-shot game yet again. This meant Bryan Rust’s re-direction of a Rickard Rakell shot to make it 4-2 over five minutes later was important. It was until Alexey Toropchenko scored less than two minutes later to make it 4-3. Jarry would lock it down from then on and the Penguins did limit St. Louis’ offense for the remainder of the third. The home fans could breathe easier when Rakell scored an empty netter by the end of the game. The Penguins won their third straight at 5-3.
The Last Devils-Penguins Game: Way back on February 4, the Devils visited Pittsburgh. Nico Daws got the start for New Jersey and he would be sensational. As was The Big Deal. He opened the scoring late in the first by touching in a loose puck from a Jesper Bratt shovel to the net to beat Alex Nedeljkovic. Close to halfway through the second, he scored on a slapshot to make it 2-0. All seemed good. But the Penguins would claw their way back into the game. Rakell beat Daws on a wraparound. Bigger chances emerged, but Kevin Hayes would finish a feed from Pierre-Oliver Joseph in front to tie up the game. Daws kept making stops and the game needed overtime. After four minutes of concern and one minute of craziness – it ended with a Hughes breakaway – a shootout was needed. What transpired was a seven-round affair. Rakell and Paul Cotter scored in the first round. In the fourth round, Anthony Beauvillier scored as did Dougie Hamilton. Saves only added to the tension. After Cody Glass was stopped, Timo Meier beat Nedeljkovic to give the Devils their first shootout win since the 2022-23 season, 3-2. Ian wrote up the victory here at AAtJ.
The Goal: Do not force so many shots. One of the issues from the win over Edmonton was how many of the Devils’ attempts did not even make it to Stuart Skinner. The Devils put up 57 shot attempts in all situations compared with Edmonton’s 61. But Edmonton’s offense was more worrisome in part because the Oilers put 33 of those attempts on frame. Allen had to stop just over half of those attempts. The Devils only had 22 shots on net out of their 57 tries. Those who watched the game closely knew why. The Devils were often trying to shoot through defending players, trying to thread a needle to the net; or they were trying to shoot into traffic. While it did hit paydirt for two of the team’s three goals, more often than not, it does not lead to anything. An end to the attack, a lost puck to the other team, needing to work hard to get the puck back, etc. The effort was certainly there against Edmonton. However, if they try to do the same thing today against Pittsburgh, the results may not happen again. I am confident of that because of the last time the Devils played the Penguins. On February 4, the Devils put up 56 shot attempts to Pittsburgh’s 58 – but only 21 made it to the net. Two went in and the guy who scored them will not play today. I am more than fine with the Devils playing with the same pace and attitude from Thursday. I would like them to take better shots instead.
The Big Three Remains in Pittsburgh: The Devils’ injury list remains more significant than most in the league. The Big Deal, Dougie Hamilton, and Jonas Siegenthaler are out for the season. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, has four guys at day-to-day at PuckPedia: Joel Blomqvist, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Thomas Novak, and Ryan Shea. No disrespect to those four but it is not a comparable list. What this means is that the core Penguin trio for this generation are intact and they will go up against Jesper Bratt, Nico Hischier, and, I guess, Timo Meier as the third best Devil? Is Jacob Markstrom a bigger name?
That trio is Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang. All three remain very important to the 2024-25 Penguins. In their win over St. Louis, Letang played over 24 minutes with Malkin and Crosby contributing over 18 minutes of work. Crosby is still a machine on offense with 72 points to lead the team as well as be tied for 13th in NHL scoring. Evgeni Malkin has been limited to 58 games but the 13 goals and 30 assists he has to go with 101 shots means he still means business. Letang leads the team in average ice time at 23:36 while providing 26 points in 61 games. Even if you want to argue that Letang and Malkin have taken steps back based on production and their non-dominant 5-on-5 on-ice rates, they are still serious players for this squad. Crosby is still Crosby and needs to be treated in the same way anyone else would treat a generational talent who still drives play quite well.
The Other Big Players Remain in Pittsburgh: While it was debated back and forth as to whether the Penguins were going to have a fire sale, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Matt Grzelcyk, and Erik Karlsson all remained with Pittsburgh after last Friday’s deadline. Whether GM Kyle Dubas jacked up the prices so much to essentially tell others to back off, or he did not like the offers so he pretended to jack up the prices is up to you to decide. Either way, they are Penguins and they are players the Devils need to be mindful for today.
Rakell and Rust have been second and third on the team in scoring for points behind Crosby. Rakell is the team’s leading goal scorer with 30. Rust has fallen off a bit in terms of 5-on-5 on ice rates, but he is still getting on the scoresheet as he has done for the last seven or so seasons in Pittsburgh. As for Rakell, he is having a great season. He has a real chance of setting a career high in goals (34) and the on-ice rates for Pittsburgh are quite good when he is on the ice. Both Rakell and Rust play a lot with Crosby. That only makes that unit more of a threat. It also means Malkin and others can exploit other matchups even if Penguins coach Mike Sullivan lets a unit like the Nico Hischier line match up with Crosby.
As for Grzelcyk and Karlsson, both are defensemen of two very different types. Karlsson is the offensive dynamo. 48 points in 68 games is still excellent (a top ten amount of points among defensemen in the NHL) and his 164 shots on the team is third to Crosby and Rakell. While he may have the reputation of not being so responsible defensively, the numbers do back that up. His on-ice rates for shots against (30.3 per 60) and expected goals against (2.86 per 60) are among the worst on a Penguins team that has went through a lot of blueliners (13) this season. The 34-year old still has a lot left in the tank but the way to limit his damage is to make him play defense.
On the other hand, that is what Matt Grzelcyk tries to do best. He is a no-nonsense defensive-minded defenseman. He joins Letang and Karlsson as the only defensemen with over 60 games played with Pittsburgh this season. Is he effective at it? Not really? His on-ice rates are not much better than Karlsson’s. At least he can produce, Grzelcyk, not so much. That said, a reason those rates are not so much better is because he has played mostly with Karlsson this season. His second most common defensive partner has been Letang and that combination has been worse in 5-on-5. The Devils should be able to force him back, but they will need to be mindful of his work in his own zone.
With this game being in Pittsburgh, Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe will not get the preferred matchups he may want. I would think he would want to have Nico Hischier and his line (likely Hischier, Meier and Stefan Noesen again) against Crosby as much as he can. Hischier has been a go-to guy for power-for-power matchups this season. He may still try for it. But it will be on others to repel their attacks. Which, again, will have Crosby flanked by Rust and Rakell. Good luck to the Devils’ depth.
The Secret to Pittsburgh’s Streak is Tristan Jarry?: Yes! Tristan Jarry was exiled to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in January after a truly awful 88.6% save percentage in 22 appearances for the team. Jarry was recalled after the deadline, though. He has been wonderful for the Penguins in the three games he has played in since then. On March 9 against Minnesota, he stopped 29 out of 30 shots for a win. On March 11 at home to Las Vegas, he stopped 35 out of 37 for an overtime win. On March 13 against St. Louis, while he conceded three, he stopped 32 in the process for another win. Jarry has allowed exactly six goals out of 102 shots in the last three games. Not a great sign for the Penguins’ team defense, but fantastic for a goalie who was sent to have his contract buried in the AHL.
I do not think it is an accident that Jarry’s play is a big reason why the Penguins are going into this game with a three-game winning streak. Devils fans should relate. While they did comeback against Edmonton and dropped a five-spot on Columbus, Jake Allen and Jacob Markstrom had to combine to allow just six goals themselves over the last three games. Even a good but not great goaltending performance could have sank one of those games as it could have for Pittsburgh. The difference is that Allen and Markstrom have demonstrated multiple times that they can carry a heavy load for a victory. Before his recall in March, Jarry had one (1) full game where he stopped over 90% of the shots in it and that was way back on January 3.
Presuming Jarry starts this game, the Devils will essentially need to give Jarry a heat check. I can already imagine some of the comments from the People Who Matter. “Oh, the Devils can’t score on Jarry. They can’t finish against a guy buried in the AHL, woe is us” and so forth. Again, Jarry has been hot since his recall. As hot as Devils’ goaltending has collectively been this week. Jarry alone may make this afternoon more frustrating than one may want. How to give him that heat check? Putting more than 22 shots on net would likely help. As would not just settling for firing through bodies hoping and praying the puck gets by them to the net – which I explained in The Goal section.
Sprong for Haula: The Devils skated on Friday and Amanda Stein confirmed that there will be a lineup change: Erik Haula will go out for Daniel Sprong. On X, Stein quoted Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe at length about the decision. Of note, Keefe admitted he is still trying to figure out how to best use Sprong and Cody Glass. Given Cody Glass’ strong start to being a Devil, I think he should leave him be for the most part. Glass has it figured out at the moment. With Glass lined up next to Jesper Bratt in practice, I think Keefe does too and he is being coy about it.
By the way, Chris noted this in the Edmonton recap, but credit to Keefe for moving Bratt around as needed for offensive pushes. He did this with The Big Deal and Bratt before whenever a certain useless forward was in the lineup or the bench was shortened. Good to see that he will continue to do this as needed down the final stretch of games.
Sprong has been a stranger omission. He seemed OK against Philly and then was a healthy scratch against Columbus and Edmonton. A scratch made odder given how not-well Nathan Bastian and Curtis Lazar have performed even in recent games. Haula has certainly earned a scratch earlier in this season. Doing so after some OK games rings a little odd to me, but it is not the worst decision given that his season overall has been poor. Personally, I would have saved that for another game. I would have instead sat Lazar or Bastian for Sprong and slide Haula to center. Yet, the added depth means depth has to be rotated and so it shall be done. If nothing else, a line of Sprong, Bratt, and Glass should be a quick one to give some of Pittsburgh’s slower players a problem.
The scratch also means that Dawson Mercer is definitely going to play center again. Keefe seems insistent on trying to make that work. We shall see.
One Final Note: For the Devils, stay out of the box. For all of their issues, Pittsburgh has maintained a top-ten conversion rate in the NHL at 24.2%. That has not gone quiet in their winning streak. Over the last three games, they are 2-for-6. It will be important for the likes of Brenden Dillon, Timo Meier, Paul Cotter, Johnathan Kovacevic, Brian Dumoulin, etc. to stay away from penalties. While the Devils’ penalty kill has been solid, there is no need to hand more zone time and space to Crosby, Rust, Rakell, Karlsson, and Kevin Hayes.
Your Take: The Devils are set to play on a national stage against a team with barely a remote chance of making the postseason. At least both teams are coming into this one in good form and it should make for an entertaining game. Now that you know what I think should be expected in this game, I want to know what you think. Will the Devils be able to keep the Penguins’ top players at bay? Can the Devils get more pucks on net? Can they beat a hot Jarry? Who will win this game? Please leave your answers and other thoughts about this game in the comments. Thank you for reading.