The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (6-1-0) vs. San Jose Sharks (1-4-2)
The Time: 7:00pm ET
The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio
Last Devils Game
On Wednesday, the Devils played the second half of a back-to-back against
the Minnesota Wild at The Rock. Arseny Gritsyuk scored his first career goal, Nico Daws made his season debut, and New Jersey pushed their winning streak to six with a 4-1 victory.
Last Sharks Game
San Jose visited Madison Square Garden last night to battle the Rangers. In an absolute barnburner, Macklin Celebrini scored a hat trick and produced five total points as the Sharks defeated the Rangers in overtime, 6-5. It was the Sharks’ first win of their season.
Bratt’s Point Streak
Everything is coming up Devils lately, so I feel as though this has flown under the radar. I have to raise my hand on this as well, as I haven’t mentioned it until now either, but I can no longer ignore the great Jesper Bratt. Through New Jersey’s first seven games, Bratt has registered a point in every single one of them. He’s been a model of consistency for New Jersey over the past few seasons, and he continues to be one early on in 2025-26.
In case you’re wondering, the Devils record for point streak to start a season is 11…in 2022-23…by Jesper Bratt.
Can Bratt catch his own record? We have four games to go until he gets there. In the meantime, Bratt is up to 11 points (four goals, seven assists) through seven games. He is on pace for about 129 points. As much as I love Bratt, I seriously doubt he will reach that lofty number. But for now, Bratt has been as important as anybody in carrying the offense through New Jersey’s winning streak.
Glass’ Status
Cody Glass did not play in Wednesday’s game. According to head coach Sheldon Keefe in his postgame presser, Glass suffered an upper-body injury in Tuesday’s game in Toronto, and while he grinded through it to finish that contest, he couldn’t go on Wednesday. New Jersey did not practice yesterday, nor did Keefe address the media, so we didn’t get any indication on Glass’ status for tonight.
I hope it was just a matter of being cautious during the second half of a back-to-back. It’s not like Glass has been amazing to start the season, but he’s been good, and has certainly done his part in shutting down depth competition on a nightly basis. If Glass can’t play this evening, expect Dawson Mercer to once again center the third line. Mercer did very well as the 3C against Minnesota, finishing with two assists while centering Paul Cotter and Connor Brown. Even if Mercer can hold down the third line in Glass’ absence, I would still love to see Glass return sooner rather than later.
Hischier’s Case For The Selke (Or Hart)
On Monday, I took a look at the line of Nico Hischier, Timo Meier, and Dawson Mercer and their deployment and results against elite competition. It was a fun exercise to do, and maybe I’ll keep track of this through the season as a little pet project. With the Florida Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov out for the season, the race for the Selke Trophy is wide open, and Hischier has emerged as an early favorite to claim the award in Barkov’s absence. If Hischier and his line continue to get fed brutal competition on a nightly basis, and more importantly, if they continue to win those brutal matchups, Hischier should be in great shape to win the Selke. There won’t be many in the national media pounding the table for Hischier and the Devils, so we might have to start pushing the Hischier agenda here!
Anyway, since I wrote that piece on Monday, New Jersey has played two more games. On Tuesday in Toronto, Hischier drew the dreaded Auston Matthews assignment. Matthews centered the Maple Leafs’ top line of Matthew Knies and Max Domi, and the numbers, quite frankly, are silly. At 5-on-5, Meier-Hischier-Mercer played 10:16 together. They won the shot attempts battle 10-4, and the Expected Goals battle by posting a ludicrous 94.74% xGF%. Hischier played 6:31 against Matthews specifically, and in that time, Hischier’s xGF% was 95.00%. In fact, Hischier posted an xGF% of at least 88% against Matthews, Knies, Domi, John Tavares, and William Nylander. That is a mind-bending level of domination against some of the toughest deployment a player can be saddled with.
Wednesday, on the other hand, did not go as well. Back home against Kirill Kaprizov (and Matt Boldy and Joel Eriksson Ek), the Hischier line (this time with Gritsyuk in for Mercer) posted an xGF% of 28.49% in 11:34 of 5-on-5 ice time. In 10:18 against Kaprizov specifically, Hischier did a little better, registering an xGF% of 40.33%. So this was certainly a loss for Hischier and pals. Perhaps playing against a rested Wild team while skating in the second half of a back-to-back in which you had to travel between games played a part. Either way, Hischier has had one amazing game and one bad game so far this week.
Expect Hischier and his line to get hard-matched against the Sharks’ wunderkind Macklin Celebrini tonight. That should be a fun matchup.
Celebrini And The Young Guns
When discussing the San Jose Sharks, the conversation must begin with Macklin Celebrini. The first overall pick in last year’s draft had an incredibly promising rookie season in 2024-25, and while his team has disappointed so far this year, he has not. Celebrini entered last night’s Sharks game with six points…he exited with 11 points. A hat trick and two assists is superstar stuff, and while Celebrini might not be a superstar yet, he’s getting there.
Then again, the raw point total is masking some pretty hideous underlying numbers. According to Natural Stat Trick, at 5-on-5, Celebrini is rocking an xGF% just over 34%. The rest of his big advanced stats are in the same range. Yes, it’s very early, and yes, the team around him is terrible, but those are still jaw-droppingly bad numbers. Still, he’s outscoring his opponents at 5-on-5, and sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. I have no doubt the process numbers will come for Celebrini.
He’s not the only young stud the Devils have to worry about though. His primary running mate, Will Smith, also had a big night at MSG on Thursday. He scored two goals (including the OT winner), added two assists, and is now up to eight points in seven games on the young season. William Eklund recorded three assists last night and enters with five points in seven games. Michael Misa, the second overall pick in this summer’s draft, made the club and has two assists in four games. Sam Dickinson didn’t play last night, but he’s looked great himself, because while he doesn’t have a point through five games, his underlying metrics are actually really good (an xGF% just above 55% will certainly play).
San Jose has a ton of talent. They’re young and raw, and they’re all learning how to win in this league together, so while they are a little less than the sum of their parts right now, it won’t be long before the Sharks are a capital “P” Problem for the rest of the league.
It’s A Trap!
Not only is this the second half of a back-to-back for the Sharks, but their game last night went to overtime. It was an emotional game too, as they picked up their first win of the season after going winless in their first six contests. Meanwhile the Devils have the rest advantage, are riding a six-game winning streak, and now play a bad team after beating up on some of the better teams in the league. They also have a big home-and-home with another elite team, the Colorado Avalanche, coming up right after this game against the Sharks.
In other words, this is the Trappiest Trap Game that has ever Trapped.
New Jersey somehow lost both games against San Jose last season. They got absolutely goalie’d by old pal Mackenzie Blackwood at The Rock, then they failed to show up in a close loss in San Jose later in the season. I sure hope the Devils get themselves ready to play tonight. They cannot afford to treat this like a pushover game. If they do, San Jose will beat them. Plain and simple.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about this being a classic trap game, but at the same time, I’ve reached the point where I trust this team to show up. I hope they prove me right.
Potential Lineup
You can find how the Sharks lined up last night here. Expect much the same this evening.
Your Take
What do you make of tonight’s game? Do you trust the Devils not to fall for the trap game? Are you excited to watch Macklin Celebrini play? Who else of the Sharks’ young guns interests you? As always, thanks for reading!
