Follow me on Twitter @ToddCordell
Here are five things to watch when the New Jersey Devils take on the Colorado Avalanche:
1. David vs Goliath
Heading into the season the Avalanche were billed by many as the new kid on the block most likely to take the next step and contend for a Stanley Cup. That certainly looks to be the case. Despite dealing with an abundance of injuries to key players – including 10+ game absences from Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen – the Avs are tied for 3rd in the NHL with 20 wins, and they own the best 5v5 goal differential in the league. They’re insanely good.
The Devils? Not so much. They’ve won just nine times in 30 games, their underlying numbers suck across the board at 5v5, and their 2nd power play unit hasn’t chipped in a goal since last season. Sadly, that’s not an exaggeration.
Given how things have played out thus far, it’s nearly impossible to find a bigger mismatch.
Alain Nasreddine has talked about wanting to bounce back and show a lot more fight. If they don’t do that tonight, the Devils will not only lose – they’ll be blown out.
Let’s see if they can pull a rabbit out of their hat and get Nasreddine his first victory. By all accounts, it sounds as if the guys love playing for him. It’s time to show it.
2. Up close and personal
Taylor Hall is going to be traded. Likely sooner than later, and likely to the Colorado Avalanche. While a single game is not going to drastically sway the organization’s opinion of Hall one way or the other – they’re a very smart, analytically inclined group – it certainly wouldn’t hurt for him to put forth a Grade A performance tonight.
Hearing about Hall’s speed, skill, and ability to take over a game is one thing. Seeing it – against your team, and a great one at that – is another. A vintage performance could give the Avs the extra push needed to say to themselves “OK, let’s do this” and meet the high asking price surely put in place by GM Ray Shero.
3. The best goalie nobody knows about
You know what makes great teams, well, great? Obviously you need high-end talent, but you also need quality depth players to step up when injuries, illnesses, and the like hit. The Avalanche have that.
Philipp Grubauer has been in and out of the lineup of late and it hasn’t mattered. Why? The Avs have Pavel Francouz to spell him whenever necessary. The common fan might not know who Francouz is (yet) but he’s doing everything he can to change that.
Francouz owns a .934 save percentage at 5v5 this season, good for 10th among 50 eligible goaltenders (500+ minutes played). That’s a better number than Ben Bishop, Pekka Rinne, Frederik Andersen, Henrik Lundqvist, John Gibson, and many of the game’s objectively elite.
It’s not like the Avalanche have made it easy on Francouz. He faces an average of 35.37 shots on goal per 60 minutes at 5v5. That’s 2nd only to Robin Lehner, who plays behind a laughably bad Chicago defense.
Francouz has been nothing short of spectacular so the Devils certainly have their work cut out for them tonight (I’m sure they’ll score five or six and make me look like an idiot).
4. The return of Nico
After a three-game illness – what did the guy have?!? – Nico Hischier draws back into the lineup tonight. I know his overall outputs don’t pop off the page (thanks PP2) but Hischier is matching Jeff Skinner with 1.89 points per 60 at 5v5, and he has been more efficient than Tomas Hertl, Brock Boeser, Alex DeBrincat, John Tavares, Tyler Seguin and Claude Giroux, to name but a few. Nico has accomplished this while playing for a team *almost* as inept as Detroit, which is really saying something.
Hischier’s speed and two-way prowess will most definitely be welcomed against an Avalanche team that routinely skates its opponents into the ground.
5. Move. Your. Feet.
The following teams have spent more time on the power play this season than Colorado:
…
Oh, that’s right. Nobody has. This team is loaded with high-end talents and speedsters. They like to attack, attack, and attack. The combination of that mindset and their personnel makes them very difficult to keep up with, and opponents routinely have to clutch, grab, slash, and hook them as a result.
The Devils have a few guys – Miles Wood, Blake Coleman, etc. – who are prone to doing so. If that doesn’t change tonight, they could get into quite a bit of penalty trouble; a recipe for disaster against this Avs team.
Here are the projected lineups:
New Jersey
Taylor Hall - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri
Blake Coleman - Travis Zajac - Nikita Gusev
Jesper Boqvist - Jack Hughes - Wayne Simmonds
Miles Wood - Pavel Zacha - Jesper Bratt
Andy Greene - P.K. Subban
Will Butcher - Sami Vatanen
Mirco Mueller - Damon Severson
Mackenzie Blackwood
Colorado
Joonas Donskoi - Nathan MacKinnon - Andre Burakovsky
Gabriel Landeskog - Nazem Kadri - Mikko Rantanen
Matt Calvert - P.E. Bellemare - Valeri Nichushkin
Matt Nieto - J.T. Compher - Tyson Jost
Nikita Zadorov - Sam Girard
Ryan Graves - Ian Cole
Calle Rosen - Mark Barberio
Pavel Francouz
Puck drop is just after 9 p.m. eastern on MSG+ and ALT.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com
Recent Posts
Report: Miles Wood is on the trade block
Turning the page
My choices for the Devils’ three stars of the month in November
New Jersey Devils Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»