Devils at Maple Leafs
With one win in their last five road games, the New Jersey Devils will visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday for the first time this season. The Devils haven’t won since goaltender Martin Brodeur suffered a back injury. Johan Hedberg has yielded 19 goals in his last five starts (0-4-1). New Jersey doesn’t have the offense to compensate for poor goaltending, either. David Clarkson leads the team with 10 goals, but the Devils are near the bottom of the Eastern Conference with only 52 goals.
The Maple Leafs recovered from a lackluster 5-2 home loss to Montreal on Wednesday with a 5-4 overtime win at the Islanders on Thursday. Their home record is just 4-5-0 on the season. Nazem Kadri recorded his first career hat trick on Thursday and James Reimer was unspectacular in his first start since returning from a strained MCL. Reimer and Ben Scrivens will likely split starts for Toronto, which sits fourth in the very competitive Northeast Division and sixth in the conference.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG Plus, Sportsnet Ontario
ABOUT THE DEVILS (10-6-5): Andrei Loktionov, who was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings last month in exchange for a fifth-round pick in the 2013 draft, has a point in each of his last five games. Patrik Elias leads the team with 22 points and Ilya Kovalchuk has 18. Adam Henrique scored his first goal in 10 games in Saturday's 4-3 shootout loss to Buffalo. New Jersey hasn’t scored with the man advantage in four games.
ABOUT THE MAPLE LEAFS (13-9-0): Kadri leads the team with 21 points and James van Riemsdyk has a team-leading 12 goals. Phil Kessel has one goal in his last six games and was minus-6 over his last two. Kessel leads the team with 81 shots. Leo Komarov leads the team with 88 hits. Scrivens has a 2.41 goals-against average and .923 save percentage in 12 starts, slightly better than Reimer’s marks of 2.48 and .922 in 10 starts. Reimer is 7-3-0 while Scrivens is 6-6-0 this season.
OVERTIME
1. The Devils have won their last three visits to Toronto, all in overtime.
2. Toronto's Matt Frattin, who has seven goals in 10 games this season, could return from a knee injury on Monday.
3. Kovalchuk has 38 points in 39 career games against the Maple Leafs.
PREDICTION: Maple Leafs 4, Devils 2