Thanks to Ottawa and Tampa Bay, the New Jersey Devils can clinch a playoff spot tonight with at least one point earned against the Boston Bruins. A Boston team that has fallen off a cliff since the Devils beat them 5-1 in January. Learn more about that and the matchup with this game preview.
The New Jersey Devils have went 8-5-1 since the 2025 NHL Trade Deadline. They earned 17 points. Not bad, but not great. Right around the middle of the league. Tonight’s opponent, the Boston Bruins, have went 3-9-1 and earned just seven points. They were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on April 5 after being only three points out of a wild card spot on March 7. They have been abysmal. Keep that in the back of your mind as you read this preview.
The Time: 7:00 PM ET
The Broadcast: TV: MSG, NESN; Audio: Devils Hockey Radio
The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils vs. the Boston Bruins
The Last Devils Game: The Devils hosted Our Hated Rivals on Saturday afternoon. The visitors needed points to remain in the wild card race. The Devils correctly and graciously helped the field – and Tampa Bay – instead. The Devils came out well and Nico Hischier was a crossbar away from making it 1-0 in the first. In the second, Our Hated Rivals put up the offensive pressure. Fortunately, Jacob Markstrom was up for it. He would have a marvelous afternoon. Special teams emerged to put the Devils up past halfway through the second period. A Sam Carrick interference call yielded a power play blast by Timo Meier just four seconds into the man advantage. While Dawson Mercer took a lazy tripping penalty on the forecheck against Alexis Lafreniere, the Devils came out ahead from it. Brenden Dillon sprung Nico Hischier for a 2-on-1 rush up ice with Jesper Bratt. Pass, shot, shorthanded goal, 2-0. The Devils held on, forcing zone time to keep Our Hated Rivals honest. Even without many shots on net, they would get a huge insurance goal late in the third. Seamus Casey found Meier for a one-timer blast from a great diagonal pass. The puck was stopped by Igor Shesterkin but it slid in under him over the line for the goal. Down three, Peter Laviolette opted to pull Shesterkin early for an extra skater. Just over a minute later, Nico Hischier cleaned up a Vincent Trochek-denial of a Bratt ENG for one of hisown. The Devils were up 4-0 and could cruise to victory. Which they largely did. The Devils won. Our Hated Rivals were shutout in Newark both times this season. This win felt fantastic as it did for the People Who Matter around the world. It also clinched a playoff spot for Tampa Bay and helped Montreal, the Islanders, Detroit, and Columbus in the wild card. Ian recapped the victory here.
The Last Bruins Game: The Bruins looked to follow up an upset win over Carolina when they went to Buffalo on Sunday evening. They found a way to disappoint. The Bruins went up 2-0 in the first period. Elias Lindholm backhanded a feed from David Pastrnak to open the scoring early. Morgan Geekie scored on a rush created by a Pastrnak steal. But the Sabres hit back in the second period. Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch each scored within 3:30 of each other to make it 2-2 with over 29 minutes left. Boston seemingly stemmed the tide later on in the second. John-Jason Peterka held up Nikita Zadorov and Casey Mittelstadt punished the penalty with a helper from, you guessed it, Pastrnak. However, Buffalo responded with 89 seconds left in the period with a goal from Rasmus Dahlin to make it 3-3 going into the third. There, the Bruins fell apart. Jason Zucker broke the tie early in the period. Thompson scored again minutes later. The score held until Thompson completed his hat trick with an empty net goal. The Sabres put up three in the final frame. Boston lost 6-3 in a game that Elias Lindholm described afterwards, reported here by Gio Rivera of NESN,
“We just weren’t good enough in the second, and in the third, we were just soft,” Elias Lindholm told reporters postgame, per NESN. “It’s not good enough so that’s it. … We’ve been pretty bad in the second period. Usually, we get off to a good start and in the second, we fall apart a little bit. It’s tough to win games when stuff like that happens so it’s something that obviously we can do better.”
Mind you, the Bruins ended the second period tied 3-3.
The Last Devils-Bruins Game: The Devils hosted Boston on January 22, 2025. It was a rough time for the Devils. They entered the game with a four-game winless streak. This was amid a larger post-Christmas slump in January. Boston was a decent team at the time. There was hope that the Devils would put up a strong performance. They were honoring legendary head coach Jacques Lemaire that evening. The Devils went out there after the ceremony and, well, not finished. They out-shot the B’s 11-5 but gave up the game’s first goal to Morgan Geekie before the six minute mark. The Devils did not score. They would get on the board early in the second period when Dawson Mercer put home a loose puck after a block to tie it up.
Disaster then struck. A Curtis Lazar turnover gave Boston a two-on-one rush. A falling Justin Brazeau crashed into Jacob Markstrom on the play. Markstrom would not get up immediately. He needed help to get off the ice. Jake Allen came in relief from that point of the game and onward. This was the game where Markstrom’s knee was injured, something he would come back from in March. Brazeau’s penalty would be punished. Jesper Bratt sent a pass to Dougie Hamilton, who banged in a one-timer for the 2-1 lead. Allen played very well and the Devils pushed further on the scoreboard.
Boston’s lack of discipline would be their undoing. Charlie Coyle hooked Jonathan Kovacevic late in the second period and that was quickly punished by Stefan Noesen. Right on the next shift, Mercer scored again by finishing a pass from Justin Dowling. The Devils were up 4-1. Jeremy Swayman was replaced at intermission by Joonas Korpisalo. The B’s took calls, which only made it easier for NJ to maintain the game. A high-sticking call on Vinni Lettieri yielded a PPG for Nico Hischier with a tip in of a Hamilton shot. That would be the capping point of a 5-1 victory. A costly one as Markstrom would be out until early March. Chris recapped the game here.
The Goal: Take this game seriously and win the matchups without David Pastrnak on the ice. Spoiler for this preview: David Pastrnak is one of the best wingers in the world. When he is on the ice, he is a danger. Even in a 6-3 loss, he had a hand in all three goals scored by his team. Rather than trying to slow him down, the Devils need to show no mercy to the other forward lines. The Devils really should look to win those matchups. Given the state of Boston’s defense and their offense without Pastrnak, this is more than doable. If they can do that and play the Bruins like they are a NHL team, then they can get a result tonight. An important one at that thanks to help around the league.
The Stakes: There are stakes? Yes! After the New Jersey Devils shut out Out Hated Rivals, their magic number for making the playoffs is now 1. One. Just one point. Thanks to Tampa Bay beating Our Hated Rivals yesterday, Ottawa blanking Columbus on Sunday, and Montreal winning on Sunday, the Devils just need one point to clinch a playoff spot. They can get that tonight! Yes, tonight! Clinching a playoff spot alone would make this season a success compared with last season’s disappointment of a season. But I want more than one. Go get that win, Devils!
As for Boston, they have crashed to the bottom of the East and are now in a dogfight with Philadelphia and Buffalo to be the worst in the East. With lottery balls being the only thing they can play for, the Bruins should not want to win this game. Which has been something they have been good at doing in 2025 since the Devils beat them in January.
The Bruins Since the Last Devils-Bruins Game: It has been real, real bad for the B’s. As evidenced by their 3-10-1 record since the trade deadline. Also supported by the fact that, since losing to the Devils, the Bruins went 8-18-3. Yes, they have won just eight games since losing in Newark. They still hung around the wild card picture until early March. Even with that race being as mid as it has been this season, the Bruins fell out of it during this past month. They were not going to make a run. They certainly did not make one. And so Boston management made moves indicative of a team looking to rebuild. A summary from the TSN Trade Tracker:
- An injured Trent Frederic and Max Jones were sent to Edmonton. The Devils helped make this deal happen by taking on 25% of Frederic’s salary and Shane Lachance along with shipping out Petr Hauser.
- Justin Brazeau was sent to Minnesota for Marat Khusnutdinov and a sixth in 2026.
- Charlie Coyle was sent to Colorado for Casey Mittelstadt, William Zellers, and a second round pick in 2025.
- Brandon Carlo was sent to Toronto for Fraser Minten, a conditional first round pick in 2026 (top five protected), and a fourth in 2025.
- They got Henri Jokiharju from Buffalo for a fourth in 2026. That was their one addition by the deadline that did not involve sending an established player away.
- Their captain, the Rat-Faced Thug, and seemingly lifelong Bruin-in-wait Brad Marchand was sent to Florida for a conditional second in 2027. This was apparently a result of Boston asking Marchand about a trade and Marchand insisting he would only waive his clause to go to Florida. Hence, the minimal return.
That is a total of five forwards including two long-time Bruins in Coyle and Marchand and two defensemen for returns of young players and picks. That is what a rebuilding team opts to do. A far cry from what anyone expected at the start of this season. Why did Bruins management decide to start tearing it down? Once again, they won just seven games since they lost to the Devils and they won just two since the deadline – meaning they won just five games between those two points of time I chose. They knew the team was not good enough and improvement was not on its way.
And why would they expect that? Injuries have hurt the blueline. Top defenseman Charlie McAvoy remains out with a shoulder injury. Hampus Lindholm is likely out for the season with a kneecap injury. Offense has not been helped by a power play, which has put up a 20% conversion rate since January 23. Is that not bad? Sure, but it is also 21st in the NHL, so it is not that impressive either. Goaltending has been a pain point for the Bruins outside of 5-on-5 play. The team chose Jeremy Swayman over Linus Ullmark ahead of this season. Boston signed Swayman to a huge $66 million deal over eight seasons. Swayman has an overall save percentage of 89.5% this season. Backup Korpisalo, acquired from Ottawa in the deal that sent Ullmark there, has not been much better at 89.1%. The power play was not going to start to click to help punch up an offense beyond whatever David Pastrnak and Marchand could do. The defense was lacking in depth. The goaltenders tended to have more bad nights than not. Little about the 2024-25 Bruins showed that they could hang in the postseason. And they already fired a super-talented head coach in Jim Montgomery for reasons. He is now bossing St. Louis to great success, by the way,
As a result, GM Don Sweeney, presumably with support from his own staff and team President Cam Neely, decided to opt for bailing on this season and try to recharge for next season. With the contracts they handed to Sweeney, McAvoy, Lindholm, and especially David Pastrnak, they may not be in a position to do a full-on rebuild. Given how some of those have gone in their own division – looking at you Buffalo and Detroit – they may not want to try it for that reason alone.
Team Stats Since January 23: The record alone says a lot. What do other numbers say? Here is an overview since the Devils last played Boston from Natural Stat Trick for 5-on-5 numbers and NHL.com for special teams:
- 5-on-5 Corsi: 53.12 CF/60, 61.63 CA/60, 46.49% CF%. 29th in CF%, Devils are 19th with 49.05 CF%
- 5-on-5 Shots: 22.76 SF/60, 27.88 SA/60, 44.94% SF%. 30th in SF%, Devils are 27th with 47.48 SF%
- 5-on-5 Scoring Chances: 23.67 SCF/60, 27.59 SCA/60, 46.17% SCF%. 30th in SCF%, Devils are 19th with 48.60 SCF%
- 5-on-5 High Danger Chances: 8.76 HDCF/60, 11.44 HDCA/60, 43.35% HDCF%. 31st in HDCF%, Devils are 29th with 44.44% HDCF%
- 5-on-5 Expected Goals: 2.16 xGF/60, 2.68 xGA/60, 44.64% xGF%. 31st in xGF%, Devils are 30th with 45.25 xGF%
- 5-on-5 Actual Goals: 2.07 GF/60, 2.81 GA/60, 42.37% GF%. 29th in GF%, Devils are 20th with 48.04 GF%
- 5-on-5 Shooting Percentage: 8.97%, 16th. Devils are 18th with 8.83%
- 5-on-5 Save Percentage: 90.2%, 21st. Devils are 13th with 91.37%
- Power Play Success Rate: 20% (13 for 65), 20th. Devils are 7th with 26.2% (17 for 65)
- Penalty Kill Success Rate: 80.3% (15 PPGA out of 76), 10th. Devils are 6th with 82.2% (13 PPGA out of 73)
I did not expect the Devils own numbers in 5-on-5 to be that bad since the Devils beat the Bruins. That was an unexpected result of writing all of this out. Devils have been playing like a team that needed offensive help by the deadline and, well, did not really get it. Even as bad as the Devils have been in 5-on-5 play, the Bruins have been generally worse. Worse goaltending, worse defense, worse offense. This Boston team, as a whole, does not get a lot of on net, they concede more than they create, and they have been outscored by a hefty margin. Opponents have been beating the Bruins in 5-on-5 play on a regular basis. It is a source of their 8-18-3 record since the last Devils-Bruins game. In other words: It’s been real bad for the B’s for the past couple of months.
Who Should I Worry About on the Bruins in This Game?: As a general point, the worry is for the Devils to look past the Bruins and get stunned when that goes poorly. The Bruins may have lacked wins and could be looking for lottery balls. But this remains a league where not taking your opponent seriously enough ends badly. The Devils need to play the Bruins with the same respect they would give to any other competitive opponent. If you need an example: Boston beat Carolina 5-1. Yes, Carolina. Jeremy Swayman stood on his head while two Bruins you should worry about (among others) got on the scoresheet.
The main Bruin players you, the Person Who Matters, need to worry about in this game are simple: David Pastrnak, David Pastrnak, if the goalie has a good night, Morgan Geekie, and David Pastrnak.
Pastrnak is an ace. A stud. A star among, well, the rest of the Bruins. He is legitimately one of the best wingers in the entire NHL. Points alone are not a great measure of a player but this is a rare case where it alone can tell you how much of a standout he is among these Bruins. David Pastrnak has 40 goals and 94 points. The second highest point scorer on the Bruins is Morgan Geekie with 50. Pastrnak also leads this team in shots with 309. The second most prolific shooter on the B’s this season is still Brad Marchand with 175. Among current Bruins, Elias Lindholm has 138. There is even a massive gap in power play points between Pastrnak’s 22 and the field, led by defenseman Mason Lohrei with 15. Again, he’s head and shoulders above his teammates.
What about in 5-on-5 situations? Let us go to Natural Stat Trick. Pastrnak has 59 points in 5-on-5 play. He leads the league as of the morning of April 7. Likewise, Pastrnak has 201 shots for the third most in 5-on-5 play. Only Zach Werenski and Nathan MacKinnon has more with 209 and 221, respectively. Pastrnak’s 396 shooting attempts have yielded 16.63 expected goals in 5-on-5 play. That is a top-20 number in the league and Pastrnak has exceeded that with 22 and counting. And in terms of on-ice rates, Pastrnak is one of the few Bruins to have an on-ice percentage above 50% in attempts, shots, expected goals, scoring chances, and actual goals. He is only below it for high-danger chance percentage, and he is below 50% just by a little bit. Pastrnak is one of the players in the league where it is just that obvious he is his team’s best player. Opponents cannot just “stop” Pastrnak. They can only try to limit the damage he could do.
I did mention another name in that list of Bruins to worry about: Morgan Geekie. Geekie has 29 goals, second most on the team. The two Bruins to follow him are no longer ruins in Marchand (21) and Charlie Coyle (15). The Bruins have had just three other players with at least 10 goals this late into the season and one of them was Justin Brazeau, also no longer a Bruin. This makes Geekie even more of a standout. He has been shooting ridiculously hot this season with a 20.7% shooting percentage in all situations. Only four of those 28 goals have been on the power play; Geekie’s 23 goals in 5-on-5 play ties him with six other players for third most in the NHL as of the morning of April 7. Yes, Geekie has one more 5-on-5 goal than Pastrnak. He is Boston’s leader in high-danger chances in 5-on-5 so look out for him in close. Worse, his most common teammate is Pastrnak so opponents like the Devils will need to focus on someone else other than the Bruin star. Which helps the star get some space if not Geekie himself. (And for those who lament ex-Devils, Pavel Zacha has been a common center for them.) While I doubt Geekie will shoot at 20% for another season, he is doing it in this season and so he has to be respected.
The final name to worry about would be the goaltender. I am presuming that will be Swayman since Korpisalo got wrecked in Buffalo on Sunday. As poor as Swayman’s numbers have been, he still has the talent to bust out a great performance. Carolina found that out on Saturday night in a 5-1 loss to them. Believe it or not, but Swayman has a respectable 91.2% save percentage in 5-on-5 play this season. Even a positive goals saved above average at 1.55 compared with the league. Korpisalo has been poorer but not a disaster with a 90.5% save percentage in 5-on-5 play. The penalty kill has been that brutal for each goalie: 81.5% for Swayman and 84.7% for Korpisalo. Still, the goalies are not total paper tigers. This is not to say the Devils need to treat either like Igor Shesterkin and look for backdoor or cross-ice plays for shots to a fault. They can fire away at them. Just do not be totally shocked if they make some stops.
But, most of all, worry about David Pastrnak.
What Should the Devils Do in More Detail?: They need to pound this defense over and over and over and over. Without McAvoy, Lindholm, and Carlo, this blueline is a mix of unimpressive guys and unknowns. Even if they beat Carolina, it was because Swayman played great. The crew that gave up 40 shots to them were: Jokiharju, Nikita Zadorov, Lohrei, Ian Mitchell, Parker Wotherspoon, and Andrew Peeke. This is not a blueline that will be a challenge to beat provided the Devils do not get in their own way. Which has been a problem for the Devils given that their rate of attempts has been decent and their rate of shots on net has been terrible since January 22. But if they can string passes together and play with the kind of pace we have seen against Our Hated Rivals, Minnesota, and Columbus in past home games, then they should be fine.
I stated this in The Goal section, but I will reiterate that the Devils also need to win the matchups against the lines that do not have Pasrtnak on it. Just look at the 5-on-5 results from their loss to Buffalo. Cole Koepke, John Beecher, and Jakub Lauko need to see a lot of either Timo Meier, Nico Hischier, or Jesper Bratt tonight. Ditto for Marat Khusnutdinov, Fraser Minten, and Vinni Lettieri. The Devils have home ice. Sheldon Keefe and his staff should absolutely pound it. And if Devils like Dawson Mercer, Ondrej Palat, Paul Cotter, or Cody Glass (among others not in the top six) want to step up, then this is a game where they can do it. This way the scoring is not all on the backs of Hischier, Bratt, and/or Meier.
Should We Expect Any Changes from the Devils?: No. Based on Amanda Stein’s report from Monday’s practice on X, the team used the same forward lines and defense pairings from Saturday’s win. That is usually a good sign for what to expect is tonight’s lineup. That would mean another start for Jacob Markstrom to continue being in good form. That would mean another game for Seamus Casey to improve in (Aside: yes, he had an assist but he was pretty well beaten outside of it on Saturday). That would mean another chance for Daniel Sprong and Justin Dowling to perform. The team did prevail and play well in blanking Our Hated Rivals. I am not opposed to running the same roster back for this game.
One Last Thought: It is WWE Night at the Rock tonight. The World Heavyweight Champion Gunther will be there. Please respect the Ring General. He holds that the mat is sacred. His presence is intimidating. For the unaware, please watch this when he held the Intercontinental Championship, and why he is insistent on beating a man currently best known for yelling “YEET.”
Your Take: The Devils have a chance to clinch a playoff spot tonight! Go out there and take it, Devils! In the meantime, I want to know your take on this matchup. Do you know understand how elite David Pastrnak is? Do you know of any other Bruins one should be aware of tonight? Did you know it has been that bad for Boston since January 22? What should the Devils do to score more goals than the B’s tonight? Please leave your answers and other thoughts about tonight’s game in the comments. Thank you for reading.