Bruins vs. Devils 5/4/21 PREVIEW: Welcome to the Final 5

Just the Facts:

The Time: 7pm EST

The Place: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

Place to Watch: NESN+

Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Opposing SBNation Blog: All About the Jersey

Know Your Enemy:

• Pavel Zacha is the Devils’ leader in points, with 31 in 46 games. Miles Wood, ever the Bruins’ favorite Devil, is their leading scorer with 17 in 52 games.
• Scott Wedgewood played last night and while he did play well, he will probably be supplanted by Mackenzie Blackwood, who like Wedgewood has a .902 SV% in 32 games. Given the way these games are played recently, I can only imagine he’ll be walking out of tonight with a .920%.

Game Notes:

Welcome to the last five games of the regular season! We’re finally in what could be called the home stretch! So! Let’s get started. How’s life for the Devils over the past couple weeks again?

Uh huh. And how did they do last night in their 3-0 loss?

NaturalStatTrick.com

Sounds about right.

The Devils are, of course, very much out of the playoffs and have been since...well...maybe before the season started while Boston is playing with house money, as they’re officially in. But of course that doesn’t mean they can take a game off and throw the AHL guys out there. The Devils have had the Bruins’ number, and they’ll need to fight for points, points that could be a huge boost in the next five games. They’ve been more or less neck-and-neck with the Islanders for much of the last couple of weeks, and while they got some help from the Sabres last night, there’s very little chance statistically that they get that same help tonight. A win tonight puts at least some form of cushion between them and Long Island, and suddenly puts a lot of pressure on the Caps and Pens, who are a mere 3 points ahead of Boston.

Of course, there’s also the question of whether or not Mike Reilly is 100%. He got a maintenance day yesterday, and we’ll see today if he gets the okay to play tonight. Further, we’ve got some career and season milestones to chase: Pastrnak is searching for the big 200 in NHL goals, and the Bruins can finally salvage a .500(ish. you know shootouts are bullshit.) record against this otherwise moribund club in Newark. Big stakes wherever you can find them in the NHL.

Can the Bruins start their way from 3rd to 1st in the division with a win tonight? Tune in, and find out!