Game Preview: Devils (13-5-1) at Florida Panthers (10-8-1)

Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images

The Devils continue their road trip, and the next stop features the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions. It will be the second matchup of the season between the two clubs, with the first serving as the Devils' home opener, a 3-1 win for New Jersey. If there is a team that is ahead of the Devils in the injury department, it might just be the Panthers. Captain Alexander Barkov is out for the entirety of the season, and Matthew Tkachuk has yet to lace up the skates. Both teams are also missing a player due to a non-hockey injury, interestingly enough. You know the Devils are without Jack Hughes, but news dropped this week when Panthers' coach Paul Maurice told the media that Eetu Luostarinen will be out week to week after suffering burns in a "barbecue accident."

The Panthers have been a back-and-forth team in the young season and have been flirting with the line of .500 for most of the year. It's not just their record (10-8-1) that reflects close to .500, it's also in their advanced stats. They're averaging exactly 3.00 goals per game and allowing 3.05 goals per game, which puts their overall goal differential at -1. Despite the back-and-forth play, they are coming off an offensive explosion on Monday, an 8-5 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Led by future Hall of Famer Brad Marchand and other key contributors to their Stanley Cup success, like Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett, the Devils must be ready for a difficult and physical game in a hostile environment.

For the second straight game, the Devils will face a future Hall of Famer in net, in Sergei Bobrovsky. After only managing to score one goal on Andrei Vasilevskiy on Tuesday, a flukey one at that, the Devils will have to get bodies in front of the net and make Bobrovsky's night difficult. The Devils will look to take advantage of a Panther penalty kill that ranks in the bottom-10 in the league and surely misses Alexander Barkov.

In Devils news, per Sam Kasan, Dougie Hamilton took a maintenance day yesterday at practice as he tries to work his way back to full health. He is expected to be in the lineup. It was also revealed that Jacob Markstrom tweaked something during a poor performance in Tampa, so he'll serve as the backup tonight to Jake Allen. A tweak or not, this is likely in the best interest of the Devils to give the net to Allen.

Expected Lineup for New Jersey:

Gritsyuk - Hischier - Bratt

Meier - Mercer - Brown

Palat - Lammiko - Dadonov

Cotter - Glendening - Noesen

Siegenthaler - Nemec

Dillon - Hughes

Chowlowksi - Hamilton

Allen

Markstrom

Key to the Game

Match the Panthers' physicality and win a game in regulation. The Devils are without a regulation win since November 1st in Los Angeles. Although they've had four wins after regulation since then, you want to see this team have a dominant effort against a tough team and win in 60 minutes.