Toronto Maple Leafs (28-10-3) at New Jersey Devils (15-24-5) • 7:00 PM ET • Prudential Center • MSG/Listen: DEVILS HOCKEY NET
*Links for Devils Hockey Network can be found on newjerseydevils.com and on Devils’ social media channels.*
Check @NJDevils on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook for Morning Skate Interviews
Pre-Game Availability *subject to change
– 5:00 p.m. (approx.)- Media Availability, Head Coach Lindy Ruff, please contact Devils PR for requests*
*All session media availabilities (practice, skates, post-game) are accessible for all media via the Dropbox folder below:*
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nqlb8rjzqwul010/AAALRLznOEORs_aFHlT0Ob_ca?dl=0
LAST GAME
Jersey’s team logged its fifth consecutive loss in regulation, after Toronto defeated the Devils by a score of 6-4 on Monday at Scotiabank Arena.
GOALS:
TOR: A. Matthews (3G, 1 ENG/PPG), J. Spezza, M. Marner, I. Mikheyev (SHG)
NJD: P. Zacha, J. Boqvist, A. Johnsson, N. Bastian
INJURIES
Miles Wood (Indefinitely) – Lower-body injury (Right hip), I.R.
Tyce Thompson (Injured Reserve) – Upper-body injury, I.R.
Jonathan Bernier (Injured Reserve) – Lower-Body injury, I.R.
Dougie Hamilton (Injured Reserve) – Upper-body injury, I.R.
Mackenzie Blackwood (Injured Reserve) – Lower-body injury (left heel), I.R.
Michael McLeod – (Injured Reserve) – Upper-body injury
Total Man-Games Lost to Injury: 175
Games lost to COVID: 47
RECENT HAPPENINGS
Jan. 15: Akira Schmid removed from COVID protocol & reassigned to Utica (AHL)
Jan. 17: Janne Kuokkanen, Mason Geertsen & Mackenzie Blackwood removed from COVID protocol
Jan. 19: Colton White placed on waivers – intent for Taxi Squad (AHL)
Jan. 20: Colton White cleared waivers
Jan. 22: Ty Smith placed on Injured Reserve (upper-body Inj.)
Colton White recalled from Taxi Squad
Jan. 24: A.J. Greer activated off I.R. & reassigned to Utica (AHL)
Jan. 25: Mackenzie Blackwood placed on I.R.
Akira Schmid recalled from Utica (AHL)
Jan. 27: Ty Smith activated off I.R.
Michael McLeod placed on I.R. (Upper-body Inj.)
TONIGHT’S GAME VS TORONTO
The Devils host Toronto for the first time this season, which also marks the second game of a home-at-home, back-to-back set against the Leafs for 2021-22.
Tonight’s Eastern Conference affair marks the first time that the Devils experience a home-at-home, back-to-back set this season.
New Jersey & Columbus played a home-at-home set on Jan. 6th & Jan. 8th, but it was not a back-to-back set with games played on consecutive days.
The last time that the Devils defeated Toronto was Apr. 5th, 2018, in a 2-1 win at Prudential Center. Jersey’s team is 2-5-2 vs the Leafs since the start of the 2017-18 season.
Jersey’s team suffered its second loss (11-2-0) when scoring four-or-more goals in a game for 2021-22, after Monday’s defeat (last: Dec. 3rd at WPG, 8-4, L).
The Devils logged a 3-9-0 record for January.
Season-series record: 0-1-0…Tonight’s game marks the second of three matchups vs the Leafs.
The Devils’ record on Tuesdays: 2-6-0…2-3-0 at home
Record vs Eastern Conference: 11-13-3 & Record vs Atlantic Division: 4-6-1
Next game vs TOR: Mar. 23, NJD at TOR, 7:00 P.M. E.T.
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
All-Star Break
Monday, Feb. 7: at OTT, 7:00 P.M. E.T.
Tuesday, Feb. 8: at MTL, 7:00 P.M. E.T.
Thursday, Feb. 10: at STL, 8:00 P.M. E.T.
Sunday, Feb. 13: vs PIT, 1:00 P.M. E.T. (Super Bowl Sunday)
Tuesday, Feb. 15: vs TBL, 7:00 P.M. E.T.
New Jersey will face-off with all 31 NHL teams for the 2021-22 campaign and its regular season concludes on Apr. 29 at Prudential Center vs Detroit.
The Devils netted a goal less than 1:00 into a contest for the fourth time this season, after Pavel Zacha opened the scoring 0:47 into Monday night’s game.
Zacha’s 11th tally marked the team’s third fastest goal to start a game this season, while the fastest was Dougie Hamilton’s season-opening goal at 0:17. (Oct. 15th, vs CHI, 4-2 OT-W).
New Jersey surrendered its eighth shorthanded goal for the season on Monday, which is the most allowed in the NHL (Los Angeles, 7).
On Thursday, Jan. 27th, the Devils faced their second penalty shot for 2021-22 & Jersey’s second penalty shot faced at Tampa for the season. The Devils’ first penalty shot against this season was on Nov. 20th, 2021, at Tampa.
Mackenzie Blackwood denied Brayden Point on Nov. 20th, & Jon Gillies turned away Anthony Cirelli’s penalty shot attempt on Thursday.
It marked the first time in franchise history that the Devils witnessed multiple penalty shots against (them) at the same visiting arena in a single season.
Only one other team has earned more than one penalty shot against the Devils in the same season, which was Columbus on March 19th, 2017, at Prudential Center.
The Blue Jackets earned two penalty shots in that game and converted on both vs Cory Schneider (B. Dubinsky & L. Sedlak).
All-time record vs TOR: 50-64-20-12
All-time home record vs TOR: 29-22-15-5
Patrik Elias is New Jersey’s all-time leading scorer vs Toronto (17g-22a-39 PTS).
Hockey Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur (22-20-7-3) is New Jersey’s all-time wins leader vs the Leafs.
*After the passing of Devils Head Coach Lindy Ruff’s father, Leeson Ruff, on Jan. 28th, New Jersey’s Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine manned the team’s bench for the fourth time on Monday & will again on Tuesday.
* On Tuesday, the Devils announced a multi-year partnership with Jackpocket, the leading lottery app in the U.S. to provide a secure way to order official state lottery tickets. With this partnership, the company becomes the Devils Official Lottery Courier Partner (see more details at devils.nhl.com).
*The NHL announced “a comprehensive update to the 2021-22 regular-season schedule, one that will enable all 32 teams to complete their respective 82-game slates by the regular season’s original closing date of Friday, April 29.”
The Devils have eight contests re-scheduled overall – involving postponements, flipping of games and date changes of future matchups (See Devils.nhl.com for more details).
*Jack Hughes was named New Jersey’s 2022 NHL All-Star. The game is in Vegas on Saturday, Feb. 5th. He’ll become the fourth player in franchise history who earned the honor before turning 21-years-old (Kirk Muller, Joe Cirella & Scott Gomez), per NHL Pr.
*Defenseman Dougie Hamilton received surgery on his jaw on Jan. 5th, & there is no official timetable on his return, but he did practice on Wednesday & traveled with the team.
* NHL Pr announced that Devils forward Jack Hughes was named one of the league’s “Three Stars” of the week (second star) for the week ending Jan. 2.
MUTUAL CONNECTIONS
Toronto’s President & Alternate Governor Brendan Shanahan was New Jersey’s 2nd-overall draft-pick in the 1987 NHL Draft. Shanahan spent his first four NHL seasons with the Devils from 1987-88 to 1990-91 (94g-134a-228 PTS, 315 GP).
Maple Leafs forward Wayne Simmonds skated in 61 games with the Devils in 2019-20 prior being traded to Buffalo.
New Jersey forward Andreas Johnsson was Toronto’s 7th-round draft-pick, 202nd overall, in the 2013 NHL Draft. Johnsson spent parts of three seasons with the Leafs from 2017-18 to 2019-20, while collecting 67 PTS (30g-37a) in 125 GP.
LAST TRADE
The last time the Devils and Toronto executed a trade was Oct. 10th, 2020, when the Devils acquired Andreas Johnsson in exchange for Joey Anderson.
DID YOU KNOW
The Devils eliminated the Maple Leafs in consecutive postseasons in 1999-00 & 2000-01. New Jersey eliminated the Leafs in six games in 2000 & then seven games in 2001 – both matchups were in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
Jesper Boqvist earned his second goal for the 2021-22 campaign and in consecutive games, after Monday’s contest vs Toronto.
While the Swedish native earned his first-career multi-point effort (1g-1a), it was also the fourth time in his career that Boqvist logged points in consecutive games played (last: Apr. 8th to Apr. 9th, 2021, 2g-0a-2 PTS, 2 GP).
Boqvist’s multi-point outing also tied a career-high for points in a season 7 PTS (2g-5a), which was prior earned in 2020-21 (4g-3a-7 PTS).
Andreas Johnsson netted his first goal against his former team since the forward was acquired via trade from Toronto on Oct. 10th, 2020.
Nate Bastian earned a career-high with 11 PTS (9g-2a) in a season on Monday. Bastian’s prior career-high for points in a season was 10 PTS (3g-7a) in 2020-21.
Janne Kuokkanen earned an assist on Boqvist’s goal, which marked the second time this season that the winger recorded at least one point in consecutive games (last: Dec. 31st, 2021 to Jan. 2nd, 2022, 1g-1a-2 PTS).
On Monday, blueliner Ryan Graves earned his first point since logging a career-high three assists in a game vs Carolina on Jan. 22nd, which snapped a four-game drought without recording a point.
Damon Severson logged over 29:00 of TOI for the fourth time in his career (29:12), & led the Devils for TOI in seven consecutive games. Severson’s career-high for TOI in a game is 29:52 which was logged on Jan. 2nd, 2022, vs Washington – the last time the Devils earned a road victory.
COACH’S CORNER
“Every team that’s down two goals is going to come at you, so it was more about us & doing the little things you need to do to win games…right now we’re finding ways to lose games, as oppose to putting teams away & finding ways to win games.”
– Assistant coach Alain Nasreddine via Monday’s postgame
Akira Schmid recorded his fourth-career NHL start & with Jersey, but logged his fourth loss for the season.
TONIGHT’S PLAYER TO WATCH
Jesper Boqvist aims for a career-high three-game point streak, after New Jersey’s 2nd-round draft-pick, 36th overall selection, recorded goals in consecutive games.
UPCOMING MILESTONES
| Player | Needs | Milestone |
| Nico Hischier | 31 games played | 300 |
| Vesey | 6 games played | 400 |
| Sharangovich | 8 games played | 100 |
| Graves | 12 games played | 200 |
| Zacha | 3 assists | 100 |
| Bratt | 28 games played | 300 |
| Subban | 2 games played | 800 |
| Jaros | 6 games played | 100 |
| Hughes | 22 PTS | 100 |
| Tatar | 6 PTS | 400 |
MILESTONES ACHIEVED
| Player | Milestone | Achieved |
| Dawson Mercer | 1st career NHL goal | Oct. 19 vs SEA |
| Colton White | 1st career NHL point | Oct. 19 vs SEA |
| Mason Geertsen | 1st career NHL game | Oct. 19 vs SEA |
| Nico Daws | 1st NHL Win & start | Oct. 23 vs BUF |
| Alexander Holtz | 1st career NHL game | Nov. 5 at LAK |
| 1st career NHL point | Nov. 9 vs FLA | |
| Mackenzie Blackwood | 100th career NHL start | Nov. 5 at LAK |
| Jonathan Bernier | 400th career game played | Nov. 13 vs BOS |
| Dougie Hamilton | 350th career NHL point | Nov. 14 at NYR |
| Michael McLeod | 100th career NHL game | Nov. 18 at FLA |
| Damon Severson | 500th career NHL game | Nov. 18 at FLA |
| Fabian Zetterlund | 1st career NHL game | Nov. 18 at FLA |
| Nico Hischier | 100th career NHL assist | Nov. 30 vs SJS |
| Jesper Bratt | 100th career NHL assist | Dec. 6 vs OTT |
| Akira Schmid | 1st career NHL start | Dec. 11 at NYI |
| Damon Severson | 200th career NHL point | Jan. 22nd vs CAR |
| Janne Kuokkanen | 100th career NHL game | Jan. 25th vs DAL |
HOW THEY WERE BUILT
In the System:
Nate Bastian (2016, 2nd round, 41st overall)
Mackenzie Blackwood (2015, 2nd round, 42nd overall)
Jesper Boqvist (2017, 2nd round, 36th overall)
Jesper Bratt (2016, 6th round, 162nd overall)
Nico Hischier (2017, 1st round, 1st, overall)
Jack Hughes (2019, 1st round, 1st overall)
Michael McLeod (2016, 1st round, 12th overall)
Dawson Mercer (2020, 1st round, 18th overall)
Akira Schmid (2018, 5th round, 136th overall)
Damon Severson (2012, 2nd round, 60th overall)
Yegor Sharangovich (2018, 5th round, 141st overall)
Ty Smith (2018, 1st round, 17th overall)
Marian Studenic (2017, 5th round, 143rd overall)
Tyce Thompson (2019, 4th round, 96th overall)
Miles Wood (2013, 4th round, 100th overall)
Pavel Zacha (2015, 1st round, 6th overall)
UFA: Jonathan Bernier, Dougie Hamilton, Tomas Tatar, Jimmy Vesey
Trade: Ryan Graves, Janne Kuokkanen, Jonas Siegenthaler, P.K. Subban, Jon Gillies
Waivers: Nate Bastain (Re-acquired), Mason Geertsen
UTICA REPORT
New Jersey’s AHL affiliate, Utica Comets, sit in 1st place for the AHL’s North Division (25-5-5).
(Follow the New Jersey Devils on Twitter @NJDEVILS & visit DevilsMedia.wordpress.com)
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