NJ v Car Preview

Chris (00:00)
Good morning, Devil fans. So it is Thursday. Big game tonight. I kind of feel like it's like a good news, bad news kind of thing. Like the good news is that as a Devil fan, we finally get hockey again since the last game we played was Saturday. The bad news is though, it's against the Canes who are just red hot right now and they've been since the season started, but...

We're gonna break it down. are coming off tonight will be the second night of a back-to-back. They beat the Flyers last night 4-1. So some of my stats might be one game off. just so The Canes are playing at the Rock tonight. It's at 7 p.m. drop now. This is game number 22 for New Jersey sitting at 26 points. This is gonna be game number 18, I believe for the

after last night's game against the Flyers. So now the Canes are 14-4-0. That would give them 28 points. So they're above us. They have a better win percentage than us. They have a 765 winning percentage. That's good for second in the NHL. New Jersey's win percentage is 619. That's 10th in the NHL. Let's do some comparable stats and see where these teams...

Almost 20 games into the season, well past 20 for New Jersey, but almost 20 games into the season. We'll just use that as a roundabout metric. Goals for the Carolina Hurricanes had 68. That's good for fifth in the NHL. The New Jersey Devils had 72. That's good for third. Goals against 41. That's second for the Hurricanes. It's 56 and 13th in goals against for New Jersey.

Their gold differential is a plus 27, that's good for third in the NHL. The Devil's gold differential is a plus 16, that's good for sixth in the NHL. It does kind of, putting up the comparables side by side, it does kind of give the impression that this is going to be a pretty good game tonight, or at least it should be. On the power play.

This season Carolina is shooting at, clicking at 23.7%. That's eighth in the NHL. New Jersey's power play is 28.6 % and that's fifth in the NHL. So they both have, you know, top 10 power plays. New Jersey's got a top five power play. Penalty kill 85 % even for, like I said, this does not include the Flyer games last night. It's only seven o'clock in the morning, so I didn't go through last night's numbers.

PK 85 % that's good for fifth in the NHL where RPK is 84.5 % that's sixth. So these special teams are, you know, they're right there. Average shots per game. The Carolina Hurricanes are first in the league on getting the puck on net at 34, basically a little over 34.06 shots per game where New Jersey is 13th in shots per game at 30.05.

shots against, they're 30th the Hurricanes at 23.35, New Jersey is 26th at 27.57. So they both play, put a lot of pucks on net and they both play pretty solid defense. Save percentages, eighth for Carolina at 905 and ninth for New Jersey at a 903 percentage. this is, you know, they're pretty even in a lot of ways.

Carolina just has a way of winning games. don't lose. are seen. They've just always been that team, especially the last five or six years under under Rod Brindlemore. You know, real quick, it's I was listening to one of the NHL Network shows yesterday and they were having a debate on culture and what culture means. And it was mostly about the Boston Bruins. And as they were going on about, you know,

what it is what it means and you know how does the team get it and whatever like carolina just they are the epitome of culture when you see how they play how they played when robert no more one a cup with them or robert no more coaching them who is the captain of them and now he's leading the team it's the same way it's it's just that

Hard nose, keep your mouth shut, head down, do your job. There's no superstars here. We're all gonna do it together and this is the way we're gonna do it. And New Jersey has a little bit of that this year that I've seen. They've gotta just, you know, get a little bit more consistent. Keynes have some guys, like I said, they don't really have superstars. They normally don't, but this year, know, Marty Nacius is going off and we gotta give him his props. This guy, again, before the flyer win last night.

11 goals, 19 assists and 30 points is a plus 10. Marty Natchez is having a year. I mean this dude is just playing phenomenal hockey. Shvetznikov has got 6 goals and 10 assists for 16 points and Sebastian Aho is sitting on 4 goals, 11 assists, 15 points. We're New Jersey is led by our big 3, Jesper Bratt 8 goals, 16 assists. Jack Hughes 8 goals, 14 assists. Our captain, Nico Heescher 10 goals, 10 assists.

such a nice little tidy stat line there and and then we got to step on the nation in there is that nine gold seven sister sixteen points is playing fantastic now this is the second time that will be playing these guys the first team the first game didn't go well for new jersey carolina one four two in raleigh

Couple things to kind of watch for right like stephan nason has played with other hockey teams before coming to carolina. You know couple years ago and playing for rod bryndamore now he's in new jersey this will be the second game since leaving last year that he's playing against carolina so i mean that's okay play for him last year i don't see a big deal in it.

We guys remember that Brett Pesci who was out of the lineup with injury the first time that these two teams played each other this will be the first time that he's taken the ice against his former team a team that he played 627 games for over his nine year career well it's 10 now nine in Carolina I mean he is

627 games played for the Hurricanes 39 goals 159 assists 198 points overall plus 92 and 227 penalty minutes That's his stat line in nine years playing on a solid blue line This dude was one of the main reasons why that team's blue line was always so Difficult to play against Brett Pesci now is a devil

Is that gonna affect this team this tonight and we're gonna maybe have a different result? This is a big time measuring stick game. This is right there with the Florida games.

Devils have been shut out their last three losses, we've talked about this a lot, most recently by the Lightning on Saturday. After, you know, New Jersey showed in those two games against the Panthers that they can hang with anybody. When they play their game and they're on, they're a very dominant team. Kane's coming off a second down tonight, it's the second night of a back-to-back. I don't even know who was in goal last night.

I would gather that it was Piotr Kachekov. Excuse me. And if that's the case, is he going to run back to back or are they going to have Martin in because they are dealing with a major injury with Freddie Anderson? So he's out and we don't know when he's coming back. And if we are seeing Kachekov again, he's now played 11 games. had this is again. I know he played last night.

Pretty sure he played last night. So probably these numbers are probably it's probably 12 games play a 10 and 2 His save percentage before game last night was 904 and he's had a 2.42 goals against they also have Martin up and he's got a one-in-one He's got an eight ninety one save percentage and a 2.8 goals against average if we are seeing Martin tonight Well, I think if we're seeing who whatever goalie we're seeing the the key to this game win I mean you gotta play the way you played against

Florida you you know even the losses that devils have had they've they've maintained their style of play they maintain their system i think very well keep that going. Devils about absolutely brutal schedule they finally got a little lax in that schedule is that gonna help them you you've had you've been off since saturday. And you're playing a team that played last night. Devil should win this game just on that you know but.

We know how that works and we also know how second half of back to backs kind of go well for other teams and they don't necessarily go well for the Devils. So it's at home tonight. This is a huge game because I honestly think in the end, these are the two teams that the Metro is going to come down to. I had said for the longest time last summer, it's a two dog race. It's the Rangers. It's the Devils.

I don't know anymore I think the devils can get there but I carolina's gonna be that team that you're gonna have to do battle with and it might be a four dog race and you know between washington the rangers to cap I mean the the devils and the canes so it's gonna be interesting that's why these points the other division points yes it's a four point game but it's even more than that it's wins its losses and division this is a game that

Unlike the Florida games and the Tampa game I believe this is a game that you know can come back and bite you in the ass big time come April when seating is is being laid out for the playoffs. I don't know what to expect I'm really hoping for a good game I'm hoping that Markstrom has a strong performance that you know the Devils have brought a bunch of guys up.

We now know that either Nolan footers Shane Bowers will probably be inserted into that fourth line today which i think is a very good idea like to see that fourth line actually start getting some major not major minutes but you know there on four five minutes a game i'd like to see that you know maybe double eight to ten minutes a game and take just a little bit of slack off of the top three.

And think Nolan foot and Shane Bowers can play so I'm excited to see these guys contribute I don't just think there's just gonna be competent bodies on the ice. I think they can contribute I think they could be good players for this team. I'm excited to see what that fourth line looks like tonight. It's simple follow the hurricane game plan if you have the puck you throw it on net plain and simple put everything on net Devils always have

you know games where they try and get a little too cute and it's always the ticky-tack passes and this and now just fire everything on that the goals will come you know this is two or four this is the second of four meetings do what you've been doing against really good teams i like the devil's team i like the way that they play i'm super excited to see brett pesci get back and play his former team super excited about how the fourth line looks tonight

And I think it's gonna be a good game. I'd love to think that the Devils are gonna walk away with a big dub. I don't know. know, Canes are a good team, but you know how they play. You played them once, you're arrested. They're not. They're gonna be running their third goaltender, it looks like. We're gonna be running our first. Advantage Devils? We'll see.

Let us know what you guys think, drop us a line, we are the Uncle Puckers, we just had a new show drop yesterday and we will have a new one dropping tomorrow where we're gonna talk about this game, but this is just a little preview video, let us know what you guys think, we appreciate you all and we'll see you when we see you.