The New Jersey Devils had a rough October, but a win vs Philly would kick off November with a bang and perhaps get them on a run.
The New Jersey Devils had a less than ideal October. They only picked up two wins and seven points in their first ten games. It is the exact opposite of the previous year, where they started off great in October and fell apart the rest of the season. Hopefully, they are able to turn it around from November on and do what they need to do to win games. This has been a really rough start, but winning their next game over the Philadelphia Flyers would go a long way.
They are coming off of a horrible loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning only had 23 shots on goal, but they still managed to score seven goals. That is not a good enough performance by goaltender Cory Schneider. Everyone likes to blame the defense, but keeping the highly-skilled Tampa Bay Lightning to 23 goals is not a bad thing. The goalie had a .696 save percentage in the game. He needs to be better or else they are going to continue to get creamed. You can probably expect to see MacKenzie Blackwood start for New Jersey Friday night.
They may have found something with the line of Pavel Zacha – Nico Hischier – Jesper Bratt. That is a line that might have the ability to become one of the more underrated lines in the league. They can play well in all three zones, provide pressure on the power play, and score goals. Hischier is obviously the one who drives the line in all three zones and they played really well against the Lightning. Expect them to continue their great play in this game against the Flyers.
Taylor Hall had some comments about the team being booed after their last game and there was some backlash over it. The bottom line is that Taylor is the best player on the team and they need him. This could be a game where the fans lift him up and he puts the team on his back to win the game. You should expect Hall to have a huge game tonight. He will be on a line with Jack Hughes and Kyle Palmieri and that line has lots of different high-level skill sets that can beat you in any way.
If a guy like P.K. Subban can have a bounceback game, Hall and Hischier can drive their lines to success, and they get some good goaltending, they should be able to win this game. This is a huge game because if they can get a big win over a rival to kick off the month, it could kickstart a big stretch of winning.