Carolina Hurricanes vs. New Jersey Devils Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 4/23/2022

Time: 12:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ

Where to watch: Bally Sports South, MSG

DraftKings: Check back later

BetMGM: Check back later

Caesars: Check back later

Hurricanes: 50-20-8

Devils: 27-43-7

I just want to say this about the New Jersey Devils. I have watched them more than any other team over the past 10 years. I would constitute that to having a death wish of some sort because after the Devils' run to the Stanley Cup Final 10 years ago, one of the greatest moments of my life, it's been one giant slide down to the depths of hockey hell.

And this year has certainly been one of those experiences because the Devils can't be thinking this was fun even with Jack Hughes becoming an All-Star and the Devils still losing 100 games because there's not enough talent in the world to actually be considered an enjoyable process.

So of course they have a matchup with the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday at home a couple of days after getting run out of their own arena on Thursday by way of the Buffalo Sabres in just another embarrassing moment for this franchise.

Now, look: I'm not going to totally blame the fact that the Devils are just an abhorrent team with no direction of goaltending whatsoever. And I'm not going to waste so much time in having to deal with teams that are not going to be in the playoffs, rather than their constituents from Raleigh.

But man alive, watching that performance against Buffalo the other night was just ridiculous. All you needed to do was watch Alex Tuch's shorthanded goal and see that puck slowly trickle through the weak side and just roll nonchalantly into the net. Andrew Hammond's 42-save performance against the Vegas Golden Knights the other night was just a flat-out lie.

"We did it to ourselves," Devils defenseman Damon Severson said. "Shorthanded goals are killers, and our power plays have been struggling, so to get scored on shorthanded is even worse. Those ones hurt for sure, and it just kinda started the whole ball rolling against us."

Once upon a time, I met Martin Brodeur in a bar after he gave up six goals in a game. He was the nicest man ever and I had no reason to go up to him. But I felt like he needed a friend, so I went up to him and said hello and he said, "you pleb, you are not a goalie, leave me alone." And then I went back to have my beer and it was awesome.

In that interaction, I played the role of the Devils over the last 10 years because man I felt like going home to cry like a child like the Devils have done so for the past 10 years. And now they're going to face the Hurricanes in what will likely be one lopsided finish? Yikes.

The Hurricanes won 4-2 the other night against the Winnipeg Jets to keep pace in the Metropolitan Division with the New York Rangers. And until their playoff positioning is set, you're likely to see the Hurricanes want to play everyone at full strength until it's set in stone.

"We've had a lot of these the last month, where you can't ask for much more," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "The other goalies have been playing great against us, and tonight it looked like the same thing. I think the key was just breaking through there at the end of the second."

But now they don't have Frederik Andersen for a while and they have to stay above water. May lord help us all.

Don't overthink this one. The Hurricanes are going to be going full speed on the road and it clearly won't take a couple of soft goals to end this one. Even if it does, the Devils are just going to be as depressing as me running into one of the best goalies ever. Hurricanes win 5-0

Check back later for trends.

Hurricanes:

Teuvo Teravainen -- Sebastian Aho -- Seth Jarvis

Andrei Svechnikov -- Vincent Trocheck -- Martin Necas

Nino Niederreiter -- Jordan Staal -- Jesper Fast

Jordan Martinook - Max Domi -- Steven Lorentz

Jaccob Slavin -- Tony DeAngelo

Brady Skjei -- Brett Pesce

Brendan Smith -- Ian Cole

Antti Raanta

Devils:

Tomas Tatar -- Nico Hischier -- Fabian Zetterlund

Pavel Zacha -- Dawson Mercer -- Jesper Bratt

Yegor Sharangovich -- Jesper Boqvist -- Janne Kuokkanen

Andreas Johnsson -- Michael McLeod -- Nathan Bastian

Damon Severson -- Colton White

Dougie Hamilton -- Kevin Bahl

P.K. Subban -- Ty Smith

Andrew Hammond

Points: Sebastian Aho -- 78

Goals: Sebastian Aho -- 36

Assists: Sebastian Aho -- 42

Goalie: Frederik Andersen -- 35-14-3, 2.17 GAA, .922 SV%

Points: Jesper Bratt -- 70

Goals: Jack Hughes -- 26

Assists: Jesper Bratt -- 45

Goalie: Mackenzie Blackwood -- 9-9-3, 3.29 GAA, .894 SV%