In the wake of another key injury, the New Jersey Devils are switching up the forward group against the Los Angeles Kings.
Connor Brown is unavailable with an undisclosed injury. He’s considered day-to-day, and did not practice with the Devils on Friday, nor skate on Saturday morning.
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As a result, head coach Sheldon Keefe is forced to change up the Devils’ lines. Following back-to-back losses, Keefe opted for a drastic shake-up.
Devils Lines
Forwards
Stefan Noesen—Jack Hughes—Jesper Bratt
Ondrej Palat—Nico Hischier—Arseny Gritsyuk
Timo Meier—Juho Lammikko—Dawson Mercer
Paul Cotter—Luke Glendening—Brian Halonen
Defensemen
Jonas Siegenthaler—Dougie Hamilton
Brenden Dillon—Luke Hughes
Dennis Cholowski—Simon Nemec
Goaltenders
Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen
Brown’s absence is another key loss to the Devils in all aspects of the game. However, it’s a crucial blow to the Devils’ penalty kill as they’re already missing one of their best PKers in Brett Pesce.
Through 11 games thus far, Brown has provided five goals and six points. He’s been a key addition from general manager Tom Fitzgerald this summer, who stated he wished to strengthen the Devils’ depth.
The Devils go into tonight’s tilt with 57 Total Man-Games Lost. In addition to Brown and Pesce, the Devils are also missing key forwards Evgenii Dadonov and Cody Glass. Johnathan Kovacevic has not yet played this season after offseason surgery.
Brown signed a four-year, $16 million contract with the Devils this summer via free agency, after going to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals with the Edmonton Oilers.
After the Devils defeated the Oilers earlier this season, Devils superstar Jack Hughes advocated for Brown, explaining how big of an impact he’s made in New Jersey so far this season.
“I think me, personally, I’ve really enjoyed having Brown here,” Hughes said. “I know our group loves his game. We needed a guy like that. For him to come in and score against his old team, a nice goal, too. I’m pumped for him that he did that.”
