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New Jersey Devils: Toronto Maple Leafs Bring Battle Of First Picks

By Vincent Parise

TORONTO, ON- OCTOBER 11 - Two number one overalls face-off, New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier (13) faces-off against Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) as the Toronto Maple Leafs play the New Jersey Devils in Toronto. October 11, 2017. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON- OCTOBER 11 - Two number one overalls face-off, New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier (13) faces-off against Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) as the Toronto Maple Leafs play the New Jersey Devils in Toronto. October 11, 2017. (Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images) /
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The New Jersey Devils are going to have another difficult tilt as they visit the Toronto Maple Leafs in the battle of first overall picks.

The New Jersey Devils are in the middle of a very tough stretch of games. They have fared pretty well so far, beating the Boston Bruins, New York Islanders, Washington Capitals, and Tampa Bay Lightning. They have fired both their head coach and general manager, and also traded away their former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall. Things don’t lighten up any time soon as they head up north to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Maple Leafs fired their head coach as well back in November. Since firing Mike Babcock, things have been great for them. They are a deep team with a good goalie, so they will be right there when predicting who wins the Stanley Cup come April. For now, the Devils have to try to compete with them in this January regular-season game. The Devils gave them all they could handle a few weeks ago in Newark before Damon Severson scored an own goal in overtime to give the Leafs the win.

This is a matchup that features four players who were taken with the first-overall pick. Auston Matthews went to the Maple Leafs first overall in 2016 while John Tavares was an Islanders’ first-overall pick in 2009. Tavares signed as a free agent with the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2018. The Devils selected Nico Hischier with the first-overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft and Jack Hughes first overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. Rarely does a game see this many first-overall picks, but it lines up a very fun matchup.

Matthews is a lot farther along in his development than both Hischier and Hughes and Tavares is a veteran at this point. The Leafs have the advantage, but Nico and Jack are well on their way to being that good themselves. The good news is that hockey is a team game so the Devils need to have an extraordinary effort to keep up with this Maple Leafs team.

The Devils might need to win the special teams battle to win this game. The Leafs have so many gifted offensive players so taking too many penalties is a bad idea. The Devils have a great penalty kill so they need to be good if the Devils take any at the wrong time. It would also be nice to see the Devils get going on the power play. If they outwork them in the offensive and defensive zone, then the Devils have proven they can beat good teams that way.

Firing Ray Shero was a strange move. light. Trending

Louis Domingue started both legs of their weekend back to back against the Capital and Lightning so it will be interesting to see if the coach goes back to him or if Cory Schneider will see NHL action for the first time since being demoted to the Binghamton Devils. Either way, the Devils need to put forth a strong effort against this high flying Maple Leafs team.

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