I for one am expecting Växjö to come out and try to dominate this game as they can *still* qualify for the knockout stages of the competition and as last year's runners up I'm sure that they will be looking to give it every shot to progress.
However, they haven't had the best of starts to their SHL campaign this season and their record is currently 2-2-2 placing them in the ninth spot with 8 points which includes a regulation time 2-1 loss against Timra who played two pre-season games against the Steelers this summer.
Växjö's CHL campaign has obviously not been great so far but in the two games that I have seen them play, albeit through the YouTube stream, they have played some very entertaining hockey with their only win coming against Salzburg which was helped with an Austin Ortega hat trick. Ortega has 4 points in 4 CHL games and also 25 PiMs which came from a game misconduct vs Bern which was a very physical game with plenty of rough stuff after the whistle and Växjö as a team took 51 PiMs. They have four players who have four points in the CHL this year; Ortega, Horak, Persson and Shinnimin and both goalies post a below 90 save percentage compared to both posting 94% in the SHL.
We know that our CHL efforts have been brave without reward this year taking the Swiss champions SC Bern to OT at Ice Arena Wales and then leading twice against them in Bern. If we execute our game plan and can quickly adapt to the pace, European refereeing style and get a complete buy in of the systems from the team then we're in for a very good game. Hedden (3+1) and Pope (0+4) lead the team with 4 points and Martin (1+2) with three points is close behind. Bowns posts a 86.7% save percentage making some crucial and world class saves throughout.
I'm really looking forward to this one... Let's Go Devils, go out and send another message to Europe and the Elite League combined!