The New Jersey Devils went winless in a two-game road trip through Florida. The Anaheim Ducks have started the season with three road straight losses.
One of these teams will finally earn their first win of the 2016-17 campaign when the Devils host the Ducks at Prudential Center on Tuesday night.
New Jersey opened with a pair of tough road tests against the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning, although there were signs of improvement from the two games. They earned a point in a 2-1 overtime loss while being outplayed by the Panthers, then played much better before squandering a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 loss to the Lightning on Saturday.
"It was more of what we needed," Devils coach John Hynes said to The Bergen Record of the Lightning contest. "One of our objectives was trying to be a better team from the Florida game to (Saturday). I thought our process was better. The big thing we know is teams are going to push when you're up 2-0. We handled it well in the second half of the second period, once it got to 2-2. We've got to find a way to stem the tide quicker."
New Jersey will again be without the services of Sergey Kalin, the team's third line center that has been out due to an illness. He has just resumed skating but, according to the Bergen Record, is still a few days away from making his season debut.
The Ducks will be the Devils' third straight opponent that qualified for the 2016 Stanley Cup Playoffs, although they have looked like anything but a playoff team this season. Anaheim earned just one of six points through three games of their season-opening five-game road trip, and that came in a 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Sunday.
Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm, one of the best at his position in the league, remains without a contract. The restricted free agent has yet to come to terms on a new deal and, through three games, the team is allowing an average of 32 shots per game.
Last season, Anaheim allowed 27.5 shots per game, the fourth-best mark in the NHL.
"We can measure our game by the number of mistakes that we feel we made that are correctable," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said to the Orange County Register after his team lost to the Penguins on Saturday. "And our team's not playing to the level that's required right now from our group. Simple as that."
This is familiar territory for Anaheim, which opened the 2015-16 season 1-7-2 before winning the Pacific Division with 103 points. But coach Bruce Boudreau is gone, as is No. 1 goaltender Frederik Andersen, which means another turnaround is far from guaranteed.
"This is a new beginning, a new season," Ducks right winger Corey Perry said to the Orange County Register. "You got to go out and you got to prove yourself all over again. Last year wasn't a great start. Everybody knows that. We don't have to talk about it.
"It's a tough road trip to begin the season. We need that first win to get us going and get the confidence up again."
