In the middle of a movement of the trade deadline, the New Jersey Devils is still struggling to improve its playoff status in the Eastern Conference.
At the same time, Philadelphia Flyers’ after -season hopes to fade with the team associated with another extended image.
The devils will look to avoid losing four in a row while trying to leave the host aircraft their fourth defeat in a row on Sunday afternoon.
New Jersey, which sits in third place in the Metropolitan Division, is 9-14-3 in its last 26 matches and has been outscored 12-4 during its three-game image.
The devils had no defensive response during Friday’s 6-1 home loss to Winnipeg, who came hours after acquiring veteran forward Cody Glass and Daniel Sprong and established defender Brian Dumoulin and Dennis Cholowski.
“We had a goal to try to add the team, some positions,” said Devils manager Tom Fitzgerald.
“We thought the bottom-6 area was something we could try to add some speed, a little size and a little more depth.”
The depth will be the key for the devils, who recently lost star Jack Hughes (Axel) for the season. Dougie Hamilton (lower bodily injury) will miss “extended time” and colleague Key Blueliner Jonas Siegenthaler (lower bodily injury) is not planned until the playoffs.
“No Jack Hughes, but we’re not a one -man team,” Fitzgerald added. “No Dougie Hamilton, but we’re not a one -man defense crust.
“We are a good team. Our team realizes that when you play a committed, defensive game you give yourself a chance every night.”
New Jersey has dropped three of its last four matches on the road, where it fell 4-2 at Philadelphia on January 27. However, Devils beat Flyers 5-0 at home two days later for his first victory in three matches on the season series.
Dawson Mercer had a goal in that New Jersey victory and also got Friday. Teammate Timo Meier has only four points in 11 matches since he recorded a goal with two assists in the two January matches versus Philadelphia.
Philadelphia merged a 4-0-1 distance that stretched over 4 nations’ facial outages and followed a 1-6-1. Flyers responded to their recent race by being outscored 14-5 in losing three straight matches. These losses opened a seven-game route at home, where Flyers lost the following 4-1 competitions to Winnipeg and Seattle, and also lost 6-3 to Calgary.
“We must continue to work on our game,” said Philadelphia coach John Tortorella. “It goes the wrong direction. When every game has gone, we have worsened, so we just have to keep working on our game. We have another chance (on Sunday).”
Flyer’s captain Sean Couturier regretted the team’s play late in the second period.
“Giving up a goal late in the period is tough, and we gave up two there,” Couturier said. “I think it’s not just that, it’s before that. All play for a long time we gave up a lot of odd man rushes, we were not above the puck. It was ugly.”
Flyer’s beginners forward Matvei Michkov had an assist on Owen Tippett’s goal to increase its score a total of 11 (four goals, seven assists) in their last seven games.
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