Some Brief Thoughts Before Game 1

A few minor notes on my mind before 7p ET tonight

We were thinking about doing a podcast on Monday night but there really weren’t any new/notable items to have an interesting/entertaining discussion about, but let me drop some quick thoughts on you before Game 1.

1) Just wanted to re-post some of the 5-on-5 H2H matchup data we combed through on the podcast.

NJ never really used a large sample 3C against NYR this year and same for NYR’s 4C vs. NJ.

2) On our preview podcast the other day, we mentioned the Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko line and what they can do in terms of long-shifting/possession. That may be true over the long 82 by mixing in a lot of bad NHL teams, but I don’t fear them against NJ’s defense. Very small sample, but here’s what they did vs. NJ in ~22 5-on-5 minutes:

Those are objectively HORRIFYING numbers in terms of both gap and volume. I think the combination of Devils forward speed negates them in the NZ and OZ & several of the NJ defenders can neutralize them against the boards with their strength.