The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (28-26-2) versus the New York Islanders (31-21-5)
Yesterday afternoon, the New Jersey Devils acquired Nick Bjugstad from the St. Louis Blues for AHLer Thomas Bordeleau and a fourth-round pick (expected to be the Dallas pick). I actually had a positive take on the trade, but feel that it’s about two or three months too late. Still, Nick Bjugstad coming in means Juho Lammikko goes to Utica, and Sheldon Keefe is now free to keep one of Luke Glendening, Evgenii Dadonov, or Paul Cotter out of the lineup on a nightly basis.
With the Devils’ active roster, I expect Nick Bjugstad to play third-line center tonight. Jack Hughes is still out of the lineup, so the team has recently run Paul Cotter and Luke Glendening as their third and fourth-line centers. The team could certainly slide Dawson Mercer to center to use Bjugstad on the fourth line, but I am not expecting that. Until Jack returns from injury (after the Olympic break), I expected Bjugstad to be on the third line.
This season, Bjugstad has six goals and an assist in 35 games. There is a chance he could do a little better than that, but I do not expect him to regain his 20-goal scoring form that he showed a couple seasons ago. Still, the Devils needed another center who can handle five-on-five minutes without his line getting blown out of the water. On top of Jack’s injury, Nico Hischier is still fighting through an illness, which has reportedly caused him to lose 10 pounds. From the previously linked update on Jack:
Keefe on Hischier: “Nico is still recovering from the illness that he had. It hit him pretty hard. He’s down 10 pounds, so we’re trying to get that back on him. We felt keeping him off the ice was a prudent thing to do to let him build himself back up.”
From my look into what Bjugstad is still good at at age 33, it would be best to pair him with a playmaking winger and someone who can crash the net. If he’s on the third line, a winger duo like Bratt and Brown or Meier and Mercer could be good for him. Bjugstad will create rebounds and get into position to deflect shots, so he needs guys to finish his offensive volume and rebounds created. I would envision the lines something like the below:
Gritsyuk-Hischier-Hameenaho
Bratt-Glass-Brown
Meier-Bjugstad-Mercer
Dadonov-Cotter-Tsyplakov
Cody Glass has continued to play pretty well with Meier and Brown of late, but I think having a big third line, led in transition by Timo Meier, with Dawson Mercer hunting for rebounds created by Meier and Bjugstad, might actually be a productive venture. We will see.
The Devils are far out of the playoffs now. With only 26 games to play, they are nine points behind the New York Islanders with a game in hand. Tonight is not just a must-win, but it would be brutal to get anything other than a regulation win, holding the Islanders back from gaining any points in the standings. They have to catch the Islanders if they want a chance to make the playoffs, as they are even farther (11 points) from the second Wild Card. The Islanders are only 5-5-0 in their last 10 games, so it’s not impossible to win today.
But the playoff hopes? They’re nearly dust at this point.
What do you think of tonight’s game? How do you think the Bjugstad addition might affect the team? Do you think they can win tonight? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
