As the New Jersey Devils prepare for a home date against the Montreal Canadiens tonight, a couple Devil lineup notes to pass your way. First of all the bad, as perhaps their best defensive-defenceman Brett Pesce will be out with an injury. Today, the club placed him on the injured reserve. Conversely, in a bout of good news, they activated Cody Glass off the IR.
Devils Defenceman Brett Pesce Injury
In terms of tonight’s matchup, it will, perhaps surprisingly, feature two of the best from the Eastern Conference. The teams are 1-2 in the conference standings, with a slight edge to Montreal. The Devils not having their best defensive d-man, would tip the scales in Montreal’s favour.
Part of the reason the Devils have been hot this year, is consistent defenceman pairings. When healthy, their three main pairings have been, Luke Hughes with Pesce, Dougie Hamilton paired with Jonas Siegenthaler, and finally, Brenden Dillon and Simon Nemec. According to moneypuck’s expected goal percentage, the Hughes and Pesce pairing leads the way at 60.2%. Pesce has proven to be a great complement to the young Hughes flair for the dynamic offence. It has helped contribute to a sustained Devil attack, in particular on the backend. Three Devil blueliners, Nemec, Hughes, and Hamilton are tied with seven points each.
Dillon will likely be paired with Hughes. Also, Dennis Cholowski has been drawing into the lineup in Pesce’s absence.
The Details
Pesce sustained the injury in the October 26th contest against the Colorado Avalanche. He has missed the club’s past four games. On the year, he has three assists through nine games in 19:39 of average ice time. Furthermore, the injury is listed as upper-body, but there’s not a great sense of timetable at this time.
On the other hand, activating Cody Glass will help boost the lineup. He missed the last seven games, but is penciled in for tonight’s game. He had two goals in six games before the injury.
Main Photo Credit: John Jones-IMAGN Images
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