Match-up - New Jersey Devils (22-21-11) @ Dallas Stars (24-21-5)
Road/Home records - 10-14-5 -------------- 13-9-5
TV - MSG Plus, FS-SW
Puck drop - 8:30 p.m. ET
Season series - Devils lead 1-0
Last 10: Devils 5-3-2 / Stars 4-5-1
Projected starting goalies - Cory Schneider vs Kari Lehtonen



Projected lines for the Stars:

Jamie Benn - Tyler Seguin - Valeri Nichushkin
Antoine Roussel - Cody Eakin - Ryan Garbutt
Ray Whitney - Vern Fiddler - Erik Cole
Rich Peverley - Shawn Horcoff - Alex Chiasson

Alex Goligoski - Trevor Daley
Jordie Benn - Brendan Dillon
Aaron Rome - Sergei Gonchar

Projected lines for the Devils:

* double shifted center

Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr
Patrik Elias - Stephen Gionta - Damien Brunner
Ryan Clowe - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder
Ryan Carter - * - Steve Bernier

Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Jon Merrill - Marek Zidlicky
Bryce Salvador - Anton Volchenkov
Eric Gelinas

Injuries: Pete Harrold.

Game notes:

- The Stars have one of the best 5 vs 5 offenses in the NHL and have consistently found ways to put the puck in the net all season long. The two issues for them have been a) they can't keep the puck out of their net during 5 vs 5 and; b) their special teams have been bad.

They don't have many puck-moving defenseman that are effective on the power play and their penalty kill unit has struggled as well. Special teams are always important and the Devils should have an edge on the power play and penalty kill, so the Devils should be able to take advantage of that tonight.

- New Jersey has struggled against teams with a lot of speed lately and Dallas is another team that may be able to take advantage of them. The Devils will need to be wary of pinching in the offensive zone and watch their gaps, because if they stop moving their feet or turn it over, the Stars will burn them.

- I've defended Pete DeBoer and his personnel decisions a fair bit this season, but I'd like to see Eric Gelinas get some more power play time. I know he's a rookie defenseman and DeBoer doesn't want to put too much on him, but he's been the best power play (5 vs 4) defenseman in the league this season.



- After an excellent stretch of hockey, Michael Ryder has gone pointless in his last four games. He's had at least three shots in two of the four games, though, so as long as he keeps shooting he shouldn't be stuck in a slump for too long.

- Dainius Zubrus and Bryce Salvador have both been awful of late, so any type of contribution would be good from them tonight.

- Jamie Benn is on a four-game point streak and has eight points in that span. The Devils will need to stick to him like glue tonight and make sure they play him physical. If the Devils defense allow him to set up shop in front of the net and push them around in the corners, he'll probably make them pay.

- Cory Schneider is 5-2-2 with a 1.26 goals against average and .954 save percentage in his last nine starts and shutout the Stars last time they met. If he starts, as expected, I'd say he's a pretty good bet to have a quality start.

- The Devils have scored one goal or less in 12 of Schneider's 26 starts this season. They need to figure out a way to get him some goal support, because if the Devils want to go anywhere this season Schneider will be the guy that leads them. The Devils need to give him more support.

**

- Why the Devils may soon be in the market for a top-6 left winger

- I recently posted my midseason rankings for the top-30 first-year NHL draft eligible players from the OHL. You can view that here.

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