New Jersey Devils: Boston Bruins Present Big Challenge On Day One

The Boston Bruins present a big challenge to the New Jersey Devils on day one.

It is finally that day. The day you have been waiting to see for over 300 days. It is New Jersey Devils gameday! Tonight, they will take on the Boston Bruins in their first game since the COVID-19 pause in the middle of March 2020. It has been a long time coming for the Devils, who are one of the seven teams that were not invited to the return-to-play playoff bubble. They aren’t expected to be world beaters this year, but it would be nice to see some young player development.

Their first game is certainly not going to be easy. It is the Boston Bruins, who are probably the best team on paper in the new East Division. David Pastrnak is going to miss the game due to injury, but they will have pretty much all of their other stars ready to go. There are a few familiar names that are gone now as Torey Krug is off to the St. Louis Blues and Zdeno Chara is a member of the Washington Capitals.

They have as balanced of a forward attack as any team in the league. A young man named Jack Studnika will take Pastrnak’s role with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand until he returns. If he plays well, there is a chance he stays there while Pastrnak will move down to play with David Krejci. Krejci will go against the Devils with Jake DeBrusk and Ondrej Kase on his wings. Other great players like Sean Kuraly and Charlie Coyle will make up their bottom six, rounding out a balanced attack.

Without Chara or Krug, some other young guys will take on bigger roles for the Bruins. They need big contributions from guys like Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, and Brandon Carlo. Of course, Tuukka Rask will be in net for this one. This is the first of two straight against the Bruins so we can expect to see Jaroslav Halak in the second game on Saturday afternoon.

This is a huge game for New Jersey. Jesper Bratt and Sami Vatanen are still waiting to get to North America and Nico Hischier is still working back from an injury. In the meantime, we will hope to see great things from guys like Jack Hughes, Nikita Gusev, and Kyle Palmieri amongst others. These guys are going to be the leaders of the team so it would be nice to see them get it done offensively on a nightly basis.

There is also excitement surrounding players like Yegor Sharangovich and Ty Smith who will both make their NHL debuts. There are some other players on the Taxi Squad like Nick Merkley and Nolan Foote to be excited about but we might have to wait a while to see those guys. There are also NHL veterans like Andreas Johnsson and Ryan Murray looking to make their Devils debuts. You can expect Mackenzie Blackwood to make his season debut in net for the Devils.