G19 New Jersey Devils @ Florida Panthers: A measuring stick game

The Devils have largely played well this season. How will they fare against the defending champs?

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A few notes to get you set for New Jersey vs. Florida:

How do the Devils measure up? 📏

The Devils have gone through some inconsistencies this season but the process has generally been good – especially since Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes returned to the lineup.

The Devils have played nine games with a fully healthy defense. They own a 5-3-2 record in that span and have posted very encouraging underlying metrics, controlling 55.23% of the xG share at 5v5 (5th most).

Sure, you’d like an extra win or two in there but the Devils have deserved better in some of the losses. A 1-0 shutout loss to the Sharks in which the winner came on an own goal was probably the best example of that.

With a healthy defense – and Jack Hughes performing more like Jack Hughes – the Devils sure look like a team ready to live up to expectations and contend this season.

They can’t fully prove it until April but a strong performance against the defending Stanley Cup champions would certainly be a good place to start.

The Panthers have dealt with several key injuries this season (Aleksander Barkov has missed eight games, Matthew Tkachuk has missed five games, etc.) and yet they own an 11-3-1 record and sit atop the Eastern Conference. They are not messing around.

Anything can happen in one game, and I don’t exactly think it’d be time to panic if things don’t go New Jersey’s way, but it’d be great to see the Devils go toe-to-toe with the Panthers and give them a run for their money.

That’s the response you want to see against a team that, sooner or later, the Devils might have to deal with in order to get where they want to go.

Putting out fires 🔥