Game Preview: Devils Host the Islanders in Fifth Preseason Matchup

The New Jersey Devils welcome the New York Islanders to The Rock for their first meeting of the preseason. Here’s what you need to know when the Devils host the Islanders tonight.

Time: 7:00 PM      Watch: MSG/MSGSN      Listen: DEVILS HOCKEY NET

Last Game

The Devils visited the Philadelphia Flyers, topping the Broad Street Bullies in overtime. Tyce Thompson continued his strong preseason pouncing on a loose puck in the neutral zone and driving a 2on1 with Curtis Lazar, feeding the veteran forward for an easy tap-in. Late in the first period, Timo Meier and Alexander Holtz connected on Holtz’s second goal of the preseason to give the Devils a 2-1 lead. The middle frame and most of the third period went scoreless until Rhett Gardner tied the game late in the third period. In overtime, Dawson Mercer gained the offensive zone and dropped the puck to Erik Haula who beat Carter Hart glove side for the OT winner. Vitek Vanecek played the full 60-plus minutes, stopping 29 of 31 shots faced.

Projected Devils Lines

Tyler Toffoli-Jack Hughes-Jesper Bratt

Tomas Nosek-Michael McLeod-Nathan Bastian

Chris Tierney-Curtis Lazar-Tyce Thompson

Max Willman-Justin Dowling- Graeme Clarke

Kevin Bahl-John Marino

Luke Hughes-Colin Miller

Daniil Misyul-Simon Nemec

Akira Schmid

Vitek Vanecek

Projected Islanders Lines

Simon Holmstrom-Bo Horvat-Mathew Barzal

Pierre Engvall-Brock Nelson-Julien Gauthier

Anders Lee-J.G Pageau-Oliver Wahlstrom

Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck

Adam Pelech-Noah Dobson

Alexander Romanov-RyanPulock

Sebastian Aho-Scott Mayfield

Ilya Sorokin

Semyon Varlamov

Devils/Islanders

According to the game notes via Devils PR, “Jersey’s team inked a 1-2-0 record against the Islanders last season and were outscored 12-9. The last time that the Devils won a regular-season series against the orange and blue was in 2017-18 (3-0-1).

Nico Hischier (2g-2a) and Jesper Bratt (0g-4a) led the Devils with four points against the Isles in 2022-23.

Ondrej Palat earned two multi-goal efforts last season, and one of those multi-goal contests was against New York on
Oct. 20, 2022, at UBS Arena (2g-0a).

Speaking of Oct. 20, the Devils didn’t surrender a shot on goal to the Islanders until 16:53 into the first period on that date.
That contest marked New Jersey’s lone victory (4-1) vs. New York last season, and the longest stretch without allowing a shot
against in a single period.

Akira Schmid and Vitek Vanecek both played against the Isles last season, but both netminders posted a 0-1-0 record
against the team’s division rivals.

2023-24 Regular Season Matchups vs. NYI

Oct. 20 at NYI, 7:30 P.M.
Nov. 28 vs NYI, 7:00 P.M.
Mar. 24 at NYI, 5:00 P.M.
April 15 vs NYI, 7:00 P.M.

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