Game Preview: Devils at Lightning

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (38-27-8) vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning (51-19-4 SBNation: Raw Charge)

The Time: 7:00 PM EST

The Broadcast: MSG+2

The Atlantic’s Best: Here come the Lightning, a team the Devils have (surprisingly) beat in both meetings this year. The Lightning are scary offensively, with Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos leading the charge. Both have over a point per game, and are carrying the Lightning to a possible franchise best season. Next is Brayden Point, the star sophomore player that every team passed on twice. It’s easy to say that retrospect is key in the draft, but Brayden Point was a player that was projected to go in the late first round, and had incredible skill, but every team chose to pass on. In fact, our very own Devils passed on him 3(!) times, instead choosing John Quenneville (Who is a fair prospect), Josh Jacobs (Another decent prospect), and Connor Chatham (Ugh). Tangent aside, the Lightning have made some incredible choices. Yanni Gourde is the come out of nowhere rookie, and Victor Hedman is the stud defenseman. This team is good.

Devilish Devils: Taylor Hall now has a two game point streak again! He’s now on a three game point streak! Fan favorite Jesper Bratt is struggling, and he recently put in a -3 performance against the Penguins. He’s a very skilled player, so his struggles can probably just be attributed to the long season. Hischier has an outside chance for 20 goals, so we can watch out for that. This Devils team is also good, but very inconsistent in their play. Bless Keith Kinkaid though.

So... Short preview, but good game against the Penguins right? The season’s coming to a close, so we can root for our beloved Devils! Take care, and have a good day.

Oh Yeah: Let’s go Coyotes! Beat the Panthers!