Devils at Hurricanes preview

DEVILS (8-8-2) at HURRICANES (8-8-3)
5 p.m. ET; MSG+, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Devils let a 2-0 lead against the Detroit Red Wings slip away before losing 3-2 in overtime. New Jersey played without defenseman Sami Vatanen, who was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury retroactive to Nov. 15, and center Nico Hischier, who missed his third straight game with an upper-body injury.
Carolina lost 4-1 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Hurricanes are 2-5-2 in their past nine games.
Goalie Curtis McElhinney is likely to start. He has made one start since Oct. 20, a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 6.

Players to watch

Devils forward Blake Coleman has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games.
Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has two goals and four assists during a four-game point streak.

They said it

"We are lucky we have back-to-back games so we can focus on the next game. We can't really afford to lose these games when we are winning. We have to stop thinking about it and play tomorrow." -- Devils forward Pavel Zacha after the OT loss to Detroit
"It was not the brand of hockey we've become used to playing. The good news is we come back tomorrow and rectify this." -- Hurricanes captain Justin Williams after the loss to Columbus

Devils projected lineup

Taylor Hall -- Travis Zajac -- Kyle Palmieri
Marcus Johansson -- Pavel Zacha -- Jesper Bratt
Blake Coleman -- Brett Seney -- Joey Anderson
Miles Wood -- Jean-Sebastien Dea -- Stefan Noesen
Andy Greene -- Damon Severson
Egor Yakovlev -- Mirco Mueller
Will Butcher -- Ben Lovejoy
Cory Schneider
Keith Kinkaid
Scratched:Kurtis Gabriel, Eric Gryba
Injured:Steven Santini (jaw), Nico Hischier (upper body), Brian Boyle (upper body) Sami Vatanen (lower body)

Hurricanes projected lineup

Micheal Ferland -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Brock McGinn -- Jordan Staal -- Justin Williams
Jordan Martinook -- Lucas Wallmark -- Andrei Svechnikov
Warren Foegele -- Clark Bishop -- Phillip Di Giuseppe
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Calvin de Haan -- Justin Faulk
Haydn Fleury -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Curtis McElhinney
Scott Darling
Scratched:None
Injured:Victor Rask (hand), Petr Mrazek (lower body), Brett Pesce (knee)

Status report

Neither team held a morning skate. … Hischier made the trip to Raleigh but won't play.

Stat pack

Severson has five points (one goal, four assists) in his past four games. Zacha had his first goal and first point of the season against Detroit. … Williams has gone 14 games without a goal.