Devils at Coyotes preview

DEVILS (15-17-7) at COYOTES (17-21-2)
9 p.m. ET; FS-A Plus, MSG+, NHL.TV

Mackenzie Blackwood is expected to make his fifth straight start for the Devils, who have scored at least at least four goals four times in their past six games (4-2-0). New Jersey is 4-13-3 on the road, tying them with the Ottawa Senators for the fewest road wins in the NHL.
The Coyotes have lost their past two games and are 4-10-0 in their past 14 games, scoring one goal or fewer in seven of their past 11 games. They are 7-12-1 at home, tying them with the Philadelphia Flyers for the fewest home wins in the League.

Players to watch

Devils forward Travis Zajac had two assists in a 5-4 loss to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday and has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 13 games against the Coyotes.
Coyotes forward Clayton Keller, chosen for the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Game, has six assists in his past six games. He hasn't scored a goal in 15 games and has three goals in his past 30 games.

They said it

"We definitely need a better start. That's something our focus has to be on. The last couple of games offensively, we just haven't been aggressive enough or created enough zone time where we put some teams on their heels, and that's something we'll focus on (against Arizona)."-- Devils forward Travis Zajac
"There's a long way for me to go this year. I've been having some good practices lately and putting pucks in the back of the net. When you're getting chances in games, you've got to score on some of those chances, and I think that sort of kick starts things. Once you get one, they start to go in."-- Coyotes forward Clayton Keller

Devils projected lineup

Jesper Bratt -- Nico Hischier -- Kyle Palmieri
Miles Wood -- Travis Zajac -- Blake Coleman
Blake Pietila -- Pavel Zacha -- Stefan Noesen
Brian Boyle -- Brett Seney -- Drew Stafford
Andy Greene -- Damon Severson
Sami Vatanen -- Steven Santini
Will Butcher -- Ben Lovejoy
Mackenzie Blackwood
Keith Kinkaid
Scratched:John Quenneville, Mirco Mueller, Egor Yakovlev
Injured: Joey Anderson (ankle), Taylor Hall (lower body), Marcus Johansson (upper body), Cory Schneider (abdominal strain)

Coyotes projected lineup

Alex Galchenyuk -- Derek Stepan -- Clayton Keller
Richard Panik -- Brad Richardson -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Lawson Crouse -- Nick Cousins -- Josh Archibald
Conor Garland -- Mario Kempe -- Christian Fischer
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Jordan Oesterle -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Darcy Kuemper
Adin Hill
Scratched: Laurent Dauphin
Injured: Alex Goligoski (illness), Nick Schmaltz (lower body), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Jason Demers (lower body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Michael Grabner (upper body), Kevin Connauton (undisclosed)

Status report

Pietila is expected to play for the first time this season. He played in 19 games for New Jersey the previous three seasons. … Goligoski returns after missing one game with an illness. … Schmaltz is week to week. ... Stafford is expected to play in his 800th NHL game.

Stat pack

Blackwood is 3-1-0 with a 1.76 goals-against average in his past four starts. … Hischier has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past four games. ... Ekman-Larsson has three points (one goal, two assists) in his past three games. … Galchenyuk has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past six games.