Filed under: Zacha-Geekie-Pastrnak Lohrei-McAvoy Ullmark
Well well well. Well. After a December that saw the Devils beat some good teams\u2014including the Bruins\u2014and lose to some of the worst in the NHL, they face Boston coming off the back of a dominant 6-2 victory against the Ottawa Senators in which the Hughes brothers each scored three points.
The Matchup: <\/strong>New Jersey Devils<\/strong><\/a> vs. Boston Bruins<\/strong><\/a>
The Time: <\/strong>7:00 PM EST
The Broadcast: <\/strong>NESN, MSGSN
. . . they overpowered the Bruins in a dominant overtime to secure a 2-1 win.<\/a> As the comments and the gamethread indicate<\/a>, that victory was far from perfect. They allowed the first goal (who would\u2019a thunk?) and largely got outplayed through the first period before fighting back in the second and third, which resulted in an overtime that saw the Devils skate circles around the Bruins\u2019 three-man units.
Notably, Vitek Vanecek played well that game. That\u2019s important because he likely gets the start tonight. Since Nico Daws played against the Senators last night (and looked very good in net), expect Vanecek to get the start against Boston. Though Daws played great yesterday, we\u2019ve all seen what happens when you start a goalie in both games of a back-to-back, especially considering that Daws has only recently returned from hip surgery that kept him from the ice for six months.
A key difference from then<\/em> and now<\/em> is the re-emergence of Timo Meier. In that December 13 recap, I wrote briefly about my frustration with Meier. Against Boston, he controlled the run of play and contributed numerous scoring chances to the scorecard. But he didn\u2019t score\u2014which is ultimately what he\u2019s paid to do. Thankfully, good habits led to good results, and Meier has scored four goals in his last five games.<\/a>
Of course, the Devils played yesterday, which means they\u2019re entering the dreaded second half of the back-to-back, something they\u2019ve become well-acquainted with this season. They played effectively at every end of the ice and were rewarded with a 6-2 victory. But the Devils have been historically terrible in the second part of back-to-backs. I\u2019ll leave Jackson\u2019s quote from yesterday\u2019s summary here:<\/a>
\u201cThe Devils have dropped enough games in regulation in the second half of back-to-backs to this point, including against the lowly San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks. I want at least a point against Boston, I will not be satisfied with yet another regulation loss. Enough is enough, time to figure out back-to-backs. The season depends on it.
They could close out 2023 with a bang. Four wins in four games, one coming against a true contender, would afford them a little breathing room entering 2024.
I won\u2019t go so far as to say that the Devils delivered Boston a blow they won\u2019t recover from, but that 2-1 defeat at New Jersey\u2019s hands began a string of inconsistency that saw the Bruins go 2-4 through the final weeks of December, including two losses to the mediocre (if surging) Minnesota Wild. Three of those games went to overtime or the shootout; two resulted in losses.
Since December 13, the Bruins have returned many of their formerly injured players to their active roster. That includes Pavel Zacha and Charlie McAvoy. Derek Forbort is still on injured reserve, Milan Lucic is away from the team indefinitely, and Matt Grzelcyk is day-to-day with an injury but is practicing full-contact with the team.<\/a>
The Bruins haven\u2019t played since December 27, when they drubbed the Sabres 4-1. They practiced yesterday with the following lines, per Fluto Shinzawa:
Prax lines:<\/p>\n
Marchand-Coyle-DeBrusk
Van Riemsdyk-Merkulov-Frederic
Lauko-Beecher-Heinen
Steen<\/p>\n
Lindholm-Carlo
Wotherspoon-Shattenkirk
Grzelcyk-Mitchell<\/p>\n
Swayman
Notably, Morgan Geekie retains the center position on the top line as Zacha moves to the left wing. With Grzelcyk taking line rushes on the extra fourth pairing, I don\u2019t expect he\u2019ll return against the Devils. Georgii Merkulov, billed as a \u201cwell-rounded 200-foot game\u201d kind of player by Jim McBride of the Boston Globe<\/a>, will make his NHL debut against the Devils on their third line. The 23-year-old led the Providence Bruins last season in scoring with 55 points. In McBride\u2019s article, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said this of Merkulov:
\u201cThe reason he got called up is because of his 200-foot game, not because he\u2019s scoring a lot, because on our team we have guys that are paid a lot of money to score goals, right? And he\u2019s got to come and support that and be part of what we\u2019re trying to build as a team.
Merkulov credited Jesper Boqvist with helping him build his game in AHL Providence. While it seems like Montgomery is counting on Merkulov to play responsible, defensive hockey to better enable players like Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak to go score, Merkulov does have a scoring touch of his own. He\u2019s registered 14 goals and 30 points in 31 AHL games this season.<\/a>
Though the Bruins have struggled since losing to the Devils in early December, I wouldn\u2019t count on them being easy marks tonight. They\u2019ve returned several of their injured players to the roster, still have stellar goaltending whether its Swayman or Ullmark in the net, and pushed several of their recent losses to overtime or a shootout. Had the coin flipped another way in any of those contests, their recent \u2018struggles\u2019 hardly seem as such. They\u2019re also rested. The Devils are not.
If New Jersey wins this game, I\u2019ll expect to feel rightfully impressed. If they lose, however, my interpretation will entirely rely on the manner of their loss moreso than past games. I want the Devils to fight and stay with the Bruins through the entire game, no matter how tired they are. If they do that, I\u2019ll be happy at the end of the day. (Probably.)
Will Vitek repeat his earlier performance, or will the Bruins out-goalie and out-work the Devils? Let us know in the comments below, and thanks for reading. Onward.
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