DEVILS vs FLAMES | PRE-SCOUT | GAME #25

Hey, everyone!

We have a big weekend of hockey ahead of us, as the Devils are in Alberta for back-to-back CGY/EDM games at 4 PM! Hopefully, NJD can come out of it with a four-game win streak and make it 7 Ws in the last 8 GP.

As far as today’s game goes, the Devils will be tasked with an 11-12-3 Flames team that is coming off a 3-2 regulation W vs. CAR; our old friends Yegor Sharangovich and Blake Coleman connecting for the shorthanded GWG. I’ll dive deeper into CGY as a team in my Pre-Scout section at the bottom of this article, but for now, let's talk about the Devils.Take a deep breath, Devils Fans, you got a game from your tendy!
Whether it’s Vitek or Akira today, hopefully, the goaltenders continue to find their groove during the conclusion of this road trip. Starting Akira on both halves of the back-to-back last weekend didn’t lead to good results (5 goals on 17 shots in 6-3 L vs. SJS), so it’s probably fair to assume they'll split the set this weekend. Possibly, coach Ruff will turn to Vitek today and give Akira the more high-powered offense tomorrow. Note that VV, if the starter today, has won both of his 2 career games in CGY and is an all-time 3-0-0 in his 3 starts against the Flames.Nemec’s first three career games have been quite impressive, especially for a 19-year-old defenseman. It is no head-scratcher as to why coach Ruff has trusted him with so much ice time since his debut, considering the confidence and poise he’s exuded at the blue line since his very first shift. In a small sample set so far, it's evident that the Devils are more than satisfied with their internal long-term replacement to fill Dougie's void on the right side.
I joked about Nemec’s unorthodox first career point and the way he’ll twist the story when he’s older, but I'm glad to say that will not be the case for his first career goal! I’ll break it all down during this afternoon’s pregame show, but Nemec found the soft ice in Seattle and buried a beautiful GWG for his first of many to come in the black and red.One of the biggest issues with the Devils in the early goings of the season was that the team simply could not start on time. I talked about it; they talked about it; the fans talked about it — we all had no answers for why nothing was changing!

The Devils conceded the first goal in a league-high 15 of their first 18 games, but the team has finally turned the tide here around the quarterly mark of the season.
So, yes, the Devils can attribute a lot of their success in the recent stretch to their first periods. In the last 6 GP alone, they've scored the first goal (4) more times than they did in the entire first 18 GP combined; and have won all 4 of those games. Hopefully, the Devils can keep this trend rolling tonight against a Flames team that is 7-9-1 when conceding first.CGY is playing much better hockey as of late (5-4-1 in their last 10 GP), but, are still underperforming as a whole this season in terms of their offense and scoring below expected. They’re generating a high volume of shot attempts, however, they’re not doing a good job of executing their plays and getting inside relative to the rest of the league, as they're currently generating the 6th lowest rate of shots from the slot per game.Although most of CGY's defensive ranks are mediocre for the season, this is a team that has seen dramatic improvement over the last five games in essentially every defensive category. Most noticeably, their forecheck chances against are down over 83%, which likely means that defending the forecheck has been an area of focus in practice and is certainly paying off.CGY’s power play has not been very good this season, operating at the 5th worst rate in the league so far. They don’t generate many shots from the slot and are not too dangerous as a whole. Seeing they are down almost 8% in PP% from where they finished last season, I will say that it is an interesting coincidence to see CGY’s PP struggling and NJD’s thriving since Toffoli was traded to New Jersey ;). In all seriousness, it will be awesome to see Toffoli welcomed back to Calgary tonight. During our pregame show, Erika and I will feature his seamless fit with the Devils so far and how he is the perfect mentor for Alex Holtz.

Conversely to the Devils, the Flames' special teams strength is in their penalty kill. What is interesting here is that the Flames are conceding the NHL's highest rate of slot shots in the league per 2 min, yet are inside the top 10 of PK efficiency as a whole. This points to their goaltenders doing an exceptional job when shorthanded and getting the job done for the Flames' penalty-killers, as their team SV% on the PK (.900) is #6 best in the league so far.
With Markstrom out, it appears the Devils may face Dan Vladar between the pipes tonight, who is a career 1-0-0 against NJD. It hasn't been an easy year for Vladar, so don't make tonight any easier if he gets the nod!
-Sal