The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (8-1-0) at the Colorado Avalanche (5-1-4). Avs blog: Mile High Hockey.
The Time: 9:00 PM ET (7:00 PM MT)
The Broadcast: TV — MSGSN, Radio — Devils Hockey Network
Late Night Rematch, West Coast Trip
After playing Sunday’s game in the early afternoon in Newark, Devils fans will have to wait until a bit later at night to watch the rematch: this is our first late night game of the season. This kicks off the first western road trip of 2025, which thankfully only features one 10:00 game (Thursday against San Jose). The trip comes at an interesting time for the Devils. They are in the midst of an eight-game winning streak, and I imagine they want to keep that going to create more distance between them and some of the other Eastern Conference Teams. Back in 2022-23, when they had their 13-game winning streak, they did win three games on a western Canada trip in addition to one game at home facing Colorado. It will be a little tougher to match that streak having to beat the Avalanche twice, regardless of the other three games on this trip.
Mix-em-up Matchups
The Devils were able to survive last game by keeping the Hischier line hard matched against Nathan MacKinnon. They split that matchup with goals by Gritsyuk and MacKinnon (though MacKinnon’s was on a rather lucky bounce for Colorado). There is a fair question, though, of whether Jared Bednar will let that matchup continue to play out as much with Colorado having the last change tonight. If it turns out that Bednar continually wants to get the MacKinnon line out against, say, the third line of Paul Cotter, Dawson Mercer, and Connor Brown, Sheldon Keefe may be left with no choice but to mix up his lines.
This could be even more important after the injury to Brett Pesce. Pesce left Sunday’s game with an upper-body injury (whether hand, face, or something else is difficult to say). After he left, Keefe took a while to shake out the defense, first trying Hughes with Nemec (which was not great) before keeping Hughes with mostly Hamilton and Siegenthaler in the third period (which was much better). With Seamus Casey joining the Devils in Denver, Keefe has two choices: he can spread out his best two defensemen in Hamilton and Hughes by running a lefty-lefty top pairing and righty-righty bottom pairing in Siegenthaler-Hughes and Casey-Nemec, or he can run Luke Hughes out on the top pairing with Dougie as his most likely right-handed partner.
Keefe’s work will be cut out for him unless Simon Nemec plays like he did in the playoff round against the Carolina Hurricanes some months ago. Nemec showed signs of being his better self with three primary assists in the win on Sunday, but he still has to work on his defensive game and some of his decisions in the defensive zone. I would have a hard time seeing him next to Luke tonight. As for Seamus Casey, this is the big chance he has been preparing for. Brett Pesce will not play any of these four western games. Casey, who is just returning from an injury that held him out of the end of camp and the start of the AHL season, comes to the Devils having put up one assist in one game in Utica. I think he would be best fit as a partner to Brenden Dillon on the third pair, but we will see how Keefe doles out his minutes.
1:55 edit: Indeed, it seems some changes are coming. Dawson Mercer will move up to Hischier’s right as Juho Lammikko enters the lineup as a third-line center (though I am not sure how well Lammikko can play that high in the lineup). Brian Halonen will sit tonight. The defensive pairings are as I was hoping.
The Return of Markstrom
Jacob Markstrom is expected to start tonight against Scott Wedgewood, returning from a short-term injury that forced Jake Allen into the starter’s net for most of the beginning of the season. While Allen has been excellent, I am happy to see Markstrom back, as I do not think it is in anyone’s best interest to be loading up games for older goaltenders. Yes, Markstrom did not play his best in his first couple starts, but maybe the team just had not settled in yet. They are settled now, and I want to see Markstrom get his third win of the season tonight. Of course, Markstrom will have to be very careful of the Colorado attack, which tried to set up deflections on point shots pretty much all afternoon on Sunday. Since long-range shots seem to be Markstrom’s bane, the Devils might want to make more of a point to have a forward pressuring the blueline, perhaps giving faster guys like Jesper Bratt, Arseny Gritsyuk, and Connor Brown a job of not giving too much ice for Cale Makar to work with. If the Devils give Makar and Burns as much space as they did on Sunday, this game might not go well for Markstrom.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the game tonight? Will you be watching? Are you hoping for nine? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.