Devils at Flames preview

DEVILS (25-35-9) at FLAMES (42-20-7)
9 p.m. ET; SNW, MSG+, NHL.TV

The Flames trail the San Jose Sharks, who visit the Winnipeg Jets, by one point. They ended a four-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday but have scored two goals or fewer in seven of their past nine games.
The Devils, who trail the Columbus Blue Jackets by 20 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, are on a season-long six-game losing streak (0-5-1). A seven-game skid would be their longest since losing 10 in a row (0-8-2) from Feb. 19-March 11, 2017.

Players to watch

Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood has a 1.71 goals-against average and .950 save percentage in his past three starts.
Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"It's a lot of new faces every night and I think that's tough on a team, but the effort's been there every night. Every guy in this room is working hard to try to win." -- Devils forward Kyle Palmieri
"Our goal is to win the division, but you can't look at the schedule and say, 'This is a game you can win.' Tonight, we're playing a team that hasn't had the year they've wanted, but all the young guys will be battling, and they'll be trying to show the coaches and management over there that they deserve to be in the NHL."-- Flames defenseman Mark Giordano

Devils projected lineup

Blake Coleman -- Travis Zajac -- Kyle Palmieri
Kenny Agostino -- Kevin Rooney -- Drew Stafford
Eric Tangradi
-- Michael McLeod -- Joey Anderson
Stefan Noesen -- Blake Pietila -- Nick Lappin
Andy Greene -- Damon Severson
Will Butcher -- Connor Carrick
Egor Yakovlev -- Steven Santini
Mackenzie Blackwood
Cory Schneider
Scratched:Kurtis Gabriel, Colton White](https://www.nhl.com/player/colton-white-8478841)
Injured:Jesper Bratt (lower body), Miles Wood (ankle), Pavel Zacha (upper body), Taylor Hall (knee), Nathan Bastian (upper body), Nico Hischier (upper body), Sami Vatanen (illness), Mirco Mueller (left shoulder), John Quenneville (upper body)

Flames projected lineup

Johnny Gaudreau -- Sean Monahan -- Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk -- Mikael Backlund -- Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett -- Mark Jankowski -- Austin Czarnik
Andrew Mangiapane -- Derek Ryan -- Garnet Hathaway
Mark Giordano -- TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin -- Travis Hamonic
Oscar Fantenberg -- Rasmus Andersson
David Rittich
Mike Smith
Scratched:Alan Quine, Oliver Kylington, Dalton Prout, Michael Stone
Injured:James Neal (upper body)

Status report

Noesen is expected to return after missing one game with an upper-body injury. …Rittich will make his second straight start and fourth in five games.

Stat pack

New Jersey has lost 264 man-games to injury this season. …Gaudreau hasn't scored in nine games and has one goal in his past 19.