G9 New Jersey Devils vs. Tampa Bay Lightning: Looking for a pulse

The Devils have moved Ondrej Palat to the top offensive unit. Can he take advantage against his former team?

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Here are a few notes to get you set for New Jersey vs. Tampa Bay:

Push the pace 💨

The Lightning play a slow, methodical brand of hockey. They much prefer to grind out possessions down low and create in-zone as opposed to opening things up and trading rush chances.

The Lightning rank 30th in 5v5 pace and would no doubt prefer to keep things tight playing in the latter half of a road back-to-back and their third game in four nights.

While the Devils are less of a rush team than in recent years, they still play fairly fast and high-event hockey. They rank 15th in 5v5 pace through eight games.

If I’m Sheldon Keefe, I want my guys putting the pedal through the floor in this one and skating the Lightning into the ground. That doesn’t necessarily mean throwing caution to the wind and turning the game into a track meet, either.

Suffocate puck carries a la Carolina, use your excess speed to close and cause turnovers high up the ice, and turn defense to offense in transition as quickly as possible.

The Lightning are not a team that likes that style at the best of times and a 3-in-4 situation will only make it harder to keep up.

Allen gets the net 🥅