Hurricanes take on the Devils tonight at 7 p.m

The Carolina Hurricanes take the ice tonight in New Jersey for the first time in four days.

Carolina was sluggish against Nashville on Monday, falling 4-0 and losing 5-2.

The Christmas break couldn’t have come at a better time for the Canes. The Hurricanes are still searching for consistency, so hopefully the holidays have provided a much-needed refresh and realignment.

There’s no time to rest as the Canes face the top team in the Eastern Conference on back-to-back nights.

Unlike Carolina, New Jersey played very well in December.

The Devils have picked up points in six of their last seven games and have only lost two regular season games this month.

The key to New Jersey’s success in recent weeks has been goaltender Jacob Markstrom. Markstrom’s last regulation loss occurred on November 27th. Since then, he is 9-0-1 with a 1.33 goals against average.

Markstrom is coming off back-to-back shutouts and has allowed just one goal in each of the three previous games.

Markstrom started each of the previous meetings between the teams. Since there is a home game between the teams, the Canes will face Markstrom. The question is: Will Carolina face him once or twice?

The Devils defense does its part to support their goalie. In the last seven games, New Jersey allowed 20 or fewer shots, setting an NHL record. During Markstrom’s consecutive shutouts, the Devils allowed just 12 shots in each game.

New Jersey now leads the league in goals conceded, conceding just 2.46 goals per game.

The most important play tonight is New Jersey’s power play versus Carolina’s penalty kill. The Devils have the second-best power play in the NHL.

The Devils scored three power play goals against the Rangers on Monday night.

Carolina’s perfect penalty-killing December ended Monday with a power-play goal from Ryan O’Reilly. Let’s see which team has the advantage on special teams tonight.

One of those power play scorers from New Jersey is Jack Hughes. In the last six games, Hughes scored four goals and six assists.

Hughes is tied with his linemate Jesper Bratt for the team lead with 45 points. The trio of Hughes, Bratt and Ondrej Palat lead New Jersey with 17 five-on-five goals.

The timing of today’s game is important. After going 6-5-2 at home in October and November, the Devils are 5-1-1 this month in Newark. Tonight is the final home game before New Jersey embarks on its longest road trip of the season.

Defenseman Nick DeSimone was recalled from the AHL this morning with Curtis Lazar still out with a knee injury.

Below are Walt Ruff’s expected lines for tonight:

Forward

Jarvis – Aho – Roslovic

Svechnikov – Kotkaniemi – Necas

Martinook – Staal – Carrier

Robinson-Jost-Blake

defense

Slavin – burns

Orlov – Chatfield

Gostisbehere-Walker

goalkeeper

Kochetkov (unconfirmed starter)

Tokarski

Sebastian Aho has started to step up his game. Aho has scored six points in five straight games and has picked up a point in 10 of the last 11 games.

On the other hand, Martin Necas hasn’t scored a point in four games.

Another area of ​​concern is the power play. The Canes have scored just two goals in their last 14 chances since scoring two power-play goals against the Islanders on Dec. 7.

Jaccob Slavin will play his 700th game tonight. He will become the 12th skater in the 2012 NHL Draft class to reach this milestone.

Here’s how you can watch the promotion:

• Time: 7:00 p.m. ET
• Location: Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
• TV: FanDuel Sports Network South with Mike Maniscalco, play-by-play; Tripp Tracy, color analyst; Hanna Yates, in-game reporter; Shane Willis, analyst.
• Radio: 99.9 The Fan
• Line: ML: CAR +110; PL: AUTO +1.5 -230