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Round 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs continues tomorrow with a frenetic Game 1 between 3rd seed New Jersey Devils and 2nd seed Carolina Hurricanes at 3 PM ET on the dot. Both teams have glory on their mind and will want to initiate the series with a positive result, although it will come down to the best-of-7 series to determine which team moves on in the prestigious playoffs.
Prepare yourself for some exciting hockey later today, but not before analyzing our picks for the game below and deciding whether they are something you want to fade or follow!
The Devils will head to Hurricanes territory tomorrow afternoon after a questionable last five games of the regular season. Starting on April 8, the Devils would surprisingly get crushed 7-2 by the Bruins (knocked out of the playoffs) before beginning a two-game losing streak with a 4-2 defeat dished out by the Penguins on April 11. That losing streak would extend to three, with a narrow 1-0 loss to the Islanders the next day.
While these losses wouldn’t affect New Jersey’s seeding opportunity too badly, they’d still want to finish the regular season strong, bouncing back against the Bruins on April 15 with a close 5-4 OT victory. Their most recent game, however, saw another 5-2 defeat against the Red Wings, leading the Devils to win only one of their final five games as they head into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
One major factor in their last game against the Red Wings was that left-winger Jesper Bratt sat out of the game with a non-COVID-related illness. However, he is expected to return and continue his impressive season heading into the playoffs with 21 goals and 67 assists. While we expect another 1+ assists from Bratt tonight, he can’t go at it alone and will look to center Jack Hughes to help score goals with his regular season stats of 27 goals and 43 assists.
New Jersey center Nico Hischier will also need to play a crucial role for the Devils, coming into this postseason with 35 goals and 34 assists. While ramping up the goal scoring is an absolute necessity for New Jersey, both Devils goalkeepers Jacob Markstrom and Jake Allen head into Game 1 of the playoffs allowing just 2.49 goals per game and 2.66 goals per game. If they can continue these trends, the Devils may find success on the ice.
Regardless of the Devil’s performance heading into this game, the Carolina Hurricanes would hardly pull off a convincing last five games, going 1-4 before reaching Game 1 of the playoffs.
Starting on April 10, the Hurricanes would suffer a 5-4 shootout loss against the Capitals before bouncing back with a convincing 7-3 win against the Rangers. Their next few games would spell trouble for the team, losing 4-1 against the Maple Leafs on April 13, kicking off the start of a 3-game losing streak where the next game saw a 4-2 defeat versus the Canadiens. They’d score 5 in their most recent game against the Senators, yet let in 7 goals to solidify a three-game losing streak as they head into the postseason.
Against the Senators in their most recent game, five different goal scorers hit the back of the net, including Andrei Svechnikov (20 goals in the regular season), Skyler Brind’Amour, Tyson Jost, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jack Roslovic. Still, since trading many of their goalscorers (Martin Necas to the Avalanche, Mikko Rantanen to the Stars), center Sebastian Aho remains the sole point-scoring hope this season heading into the playoffs with 29 goals and 45 assists in 79 regular season games.
However, Seth Jarvis isn’t to be counted out, with his regular season performance, ending with 32 goals and 35 assists for the team. To keep pucks out of the net, only goalkeeper Pyotr Kochetkov will sit inside the crease to continue his solid record of allowing just 2.60 goals per game.
This game will be an eye-opener for both sides, as their ends to the regular season were far from impressive, although it didn’t affect their playoff seedings too badly. Game 1 sees the Devils head to the Hurricanes home stadium of PNC Arena, which could be a deciding factor in this game and we see New Jersey’s Jesper Bratt coming out of this game with at least 1+ assist.
Another regular-season stat to consider is that while the Hurricanes netted 266 goals compared to the Devils’ 242, they allowed 233 compared to New Jersey’s 222. While it’s clear the Hurricanes may edge the Devils in scoring ability, they are prone to letting up more goals than their New Jersey opponents. From all the data considered, we see the Devils taking a crucial win away at the PNC Arena to start their series proper, with at least 1+ assists from Bratt.
Liam has been a major sports fan and soccer player for over a decade, with a particular focus on major top-level soccer leagues, including the EPL, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and MLS. He has written numerous promotional articles for various top sportsbooks and continues to publish historical and factual sports articles covering the NFL, MLS, NHL, MLB, EPL and more.