Devils Look to Bounce Back at MSG | PREVIEW

New Jersey completes back-to-back games with a visit to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.

You can watch on TNT/MAX or listen on the Devils Hockey Network.

Read below for your game preview and pre-game story below, presented by Eleven Sports Media.

PRE-GAME STORY

NEW YORK, NY - The Devils did not hold a morning skate ahead of facing the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden Wednesday night due to playing on back-to-back nights. Interim head coach Travis Green met with the media prior to the game. Here are key takeaways from the availability.

Lineup Notes

Devils forward Kurtis MacDermid will be back in the lineup for the club. He’s missed the past four games with a lower-body injury.

That could lend to some intrigue as the last time these two clubs met in this building MacDermid was determined to fight New York’s Matt Rempe for a hit against Nate Bastian in a previous game. Rempe declined the first-period challenge. But that didn’t stop him from throwing an elbow in Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler in the third period that led to his ejection and suspension.

With MacDermid back in the fold, there is likely going to be another challenge.

“That’s part of the game. It’s a physical game. I expect emotions to be high tonight,” Green said. “The Rangers-Devils rivalry. It will be a fun game to play.”

As far as the rest of the team, the Devils will need to find the balance between playing with emotion while channeling it the right way.

“It’s always an emotional game when you’re playing the Rangers. It’s a fun place to play,” Green said. “These are games you have to enjoy as a team, look forward to whenever you come to a building where there is a lot of emotion in the game whether at home or on the road. Those are games that you have to be excited to play, but also stay composed and keep your emotional composure to play a game, and not let your emotions get the best of you.”

Rebound

The Devils are coming off a 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh last night. New Jersey had a 3-1 lead entering the third period after dominating the Penguins in the opening two frames. But Pittsburgh scored five unanswered goals in the third period for the victory.

Green addressed the issue with his game.

“For me, it was a good morning to talk to our team about getting a game back under control and keeping our confidence when a game doesn’t go the way you want,” he said. “But also, being honest about the first two periods, that’s exactly the way we wanted to play.”

--Sam Kasan, Devils Beat Reporter

PREVIEW

DEVILS (36-35-4) at RANGERS (50-21-4)

Head-to-Head

This is the fourth and final meeting of the season between the Devils and Rangers. The Rangers won the previous three meetings, 5-3 at Prudential Center on November 18, 5-1 in Newark on February 22 and 3-1 at MSG on March 11.

Jack Hughes leads the Devils with two goals and four points in three games against the Rangers. On the New York side, Vincent Trocheck has two goals and six points in three games to pace the Rangers and Artemi Panarin has two goals and five points in three contests.

Devils Team Scope:

The Devils are coming off a tough 6-3 loss at home to the Penguins on Tuesday night. The loss meant the team missed out on a chance to move within four points of a playoff spot and now there's five teams between the Devils and a wild card playoff spot. Devils have 76 points, second wild card team Washington has 82.

Timo Meier continued his hot streak on Tuesday with a goal. Since March 1, he has more goals than any other player in the NHL with 14 in 16 games.

Rangers Team Scope:

With 104 points, the Rangers have more points than any other team in the NHL. They're coming off a 5-2 loss to the Penguins on Monday night. Prior to that, they had won five in a row and seven out of eight games.

In his last five games, Panarin has 8 assists and 11 points to lead the Rangers. Alexis Lafreniere has five goals in that time and was named the NHL's Third Star of the Week last week.

By the Numbers:

The Rangers have not lost two in a row in regulation since January 18-20 when they dropped a pair of games against Vegas and Los Angeles on the road. ... Jesper Bratt has seven points in his last five games to pace the Devils. ... Panarin has 26 points in 15 games since March 1 to rank third in the NHL since March 1 with only Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon ahead of him. 

Injuries:

Devils

Hamilton – torn pectoral muscle, LTIR
Bastian - lower-body, IR
Foote – undisclosed, out
MacDermid – lower-body, out

Rangers

Gustafsson - upper-body, Day-to-Day
Wheeler - lower-body, IR
Chytill - upper body, IR