G52 New Jersey Devils @ Philadelphia Flyers: Gain ground

The Devils can tie the Hurricanes in points with another victory tonight.

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The New Jersey Devils will look to extend their winning streak to three games, and match the Carolina Hurricanes in points, with another victory in Philadelphia.

Here are a few notes to get you set for the game:

No-event hockey 📉

The Devils have largely played a slow-methodical brand of hockey under Sheldon Keefe. There is much less run-and-gun, and more grind-it-out play, than we saw in previous years under Lindy Ruff.

The Flyers play that brand of hockey on steroids. They are an even lower-event team that tries to suck the life out of each and every game they play in.

Unsurprisingly, these two teams clashing made for a rather uneventful game in the previous meeting. Forget chances; shots came few and far between in a contest that featured just 31 combined.

I don’t think this matchup will be as tame – it’s a low bar to clear, I know – but we’re likely heading for another low-event evening.

Patience is going to be very important for the Devils as they are not going to get much room to breathe throughout the night. Flyers will be contesting every inch and leaving very few openings.

What the Devils have to do is play smart and wait for those openings to, well, open. The Flyers won’t play a perfect game. There will be the occasional blown assignment, there will be someone late to their spot at the end of a long shift, there will be a bad change, and so forth.

The Devils need to wait for those opportunities and bank on their skill making the most of them.

If the Devils get impatient, and try to make hero plays against an in-structure defense, they’re going to play right into the Flyers’ hands.

Foot on the gas ⛽️