The Calgary Flames will continue their exciting pursuit of a playoff berth when they take on the New Jersey Devils Thursday at the Prudential Center.

The Flames enter Thursday’s slate just two points back of the Vancouver Canucks for the final playoff spot, holding one game in hand. After their convincing 2-1 win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday, Calgary is now 13-14-6 on the road this season.

The Devils have offered a high level of play on home ice this season, but the Flames are coming to town at the right time as New Jersey will be without top forward Jack Hughes and its number-one defencemen in Dougie Hamilton.

I’ll detail the relevant game notes, as well as outline my favourite betting angle below.

The Flames turned the tides on Tuesday, as they dismantled the Rangers while playing as massive betting underdogs. The Flames held a 16-6 edge in high danger scoring chances, and outshot New York 35-13. Calgary showed strong resolve pushing back after Artemi Panarin scored 1:13 into the game, and seemed to catch the Rangers off guard the rest of the way.

The Rangers looked completely disconnected, and it did seem that the strong result was in part due to the horrible level of play offered by New York. The Devils provides a much different looking matchup than the two teams Calgary has already played this road trip, as they have offered a well coordinated defensive game recently, but are now lacking high-end talent.

Coach Ryan Huska made a number of significant changes to his offensive lines in Tuesday’s match-up, and based on the strong result, we will likely see nearly the same composition in tonight’s match-up.

While Connor Zary has not been at his best since returning from injury overall, it did seem that he wasn’t being put into roles which would allow his high-end offensive skill set to shine through.

Zary was elevated to the top line alongside Kadri and Pospisil on Tuesday, and the trio was highly effective. Kadri scored a game-tying goal midway through the first period, and Zary recorded the primary assist. They held a 78.7% expected goal share in 13:00 of even-strength play, and Zary had four shots on goal.

The Flames’ newly formed second line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Morgan Frost and Matt Coronato also looked excellent, generating 1.36 expected goals while allowing only 0.24 against. The trio demonstrated strong spacing in the offensive zone, and playing alongside Huberdeau and Frost could help arguably the team’s best shooter in Coronato get some additional looks.

Dustin Wolf is expected to get the start in goal after resting on Tuesday, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see Huska go back to the red-hot Dan Vladar. Wolf holds a +14.3 GSAx rating and .912 save percentage in 41 appearances this season.

Thanks to a 4-0-1 run entering this match-up, the Devils appear likely to avoid a disastrous playoff miss as they look to hang in without Hughes and Hamilton. While they still look to be better than all eight teams outside of the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, it is hard to view them as much of a threat to win-it-all without Hughes in the mix, who had posted 70 points in 62 games this season.

Since Hughes injury the Devils are 4-3-0, and have scored just 2.86 goals per game. Their inability to produce offence at high-rate should not come as much as a surprise, as even when Hughes and Hamilton were healthy they had been struggling to score. Since January 1st the Devils have scored just 2.52 goals per game, which ranks 27th in the NHL.

Timo Meier has elevated his game recently, after being one of the league’s most snake-bitten shooters throughout the rest of the season. He has put up four goals and six points over the last seven games, and has played more than his season average of time-on-ice in five straight match-ups.

Over the last 10 games the Devils hold an expected goal share of 45.64%, and allowed 3.18 xGA/60, which is considerably worse than their season long mark. While Hughes and Hamilton certainly aren’t known for their defensive play, both are strong enough play-drivers overall that their teams actually allow a below average amount of chances against with them on the ice.

Jonas Siegenthaler’s injury also hurts the Devils defensive upside tremendously, as the 27 year-old has developed into one of the game’s more underrated defenders.

Jacob Markstrom has been confirmed as the starting goaltender, and will face his former side for the second time this season. Markstrom was credited with a loss in Calgary on Nov. 1, stopping 29-of-31 shots faced in a 3-0 loss. Markstrom holds a +4.4 GSAx rating and .902 save percentage in 41 appearances this season.

Both of these sides have struggled to score for a significant period of time, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see this match-up look comparable to the game played earlier in the year in Calgary between these sides. While Calgary has not played very well recently, it could have a decent chance of making this game into somewhat of a coin-flip versus a Devils side playing without three critical pieces.

Most fans and analysts have been keen to see Zary used in a better role recently, which is something I’m in full agreement with. He fit well on the top-line in Tuesday’s match-up, and could be poised to go on a more productive run in his new role. Zary poured four shots on goal in his first game back on the top-line, and it looks as though his shot prop has not been adjusted enough to his new role in this match-up.

At -112 or better I see value backing Zary to record over 1.5 shots on goal.