Nashville Predators vs New Jersey Devils Preview & Betting Pick – 1/29/2026

The New Jersey Devils and Nashville Predators will go at it in the NHL on Thursday night. Both of these teams are on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff positioning in their respective conferences. But both are still in contention to climb into playoff spots and will try to get an important win in this inter-conference game. Before the opening faceoff, I’ve looked at all the data and made my Predators vs Devils prediction.

Our Predators vs Devils Pick

Confidence: ★★★☆☆

Game Snapshot

• Matchup: Nashville Predators vs New Jersey Devils
• Date & Time: Thursday, January 29, 2026, 7:00 p.m. ET
• Venue: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey
• Broadcast: ESPN+

Key Storylines

• Recent form: Nashville has lost two straight games and four of their last five. The Preds most recently lost an overtime game on the road to the Boston Bruins, with Nashville being held to just two goals in back-to-back games. New Jersey has also dropped two straight games, losing to the Winnipeg Jets and Seattle Kraken over that span.
• Goaltending: Projected starters for this game are Juuse Saros for Nashville and Jacob Markstrom for New Jersey. Saros sits at 20 wins with a 3.04 GAA and .895 save percentage. If New Jersey turns to Jacob Markstrom, his season has included a GAA of 3.29 and a .879 save percentage, with Jake Allen playing better in net this year.
• Key skaters: Nashville’s Ryan O’Reilly leads the team with 51 points, while Steven Stamkos headlines the Preds with 25 goals scored. For New Jersey, captain Nico Hischier leads the team in goals and points, and Jesper Bratt leads them in assists with 27. Jack Hughes remains the primary creator, even if his point totals suffered during his injury absence earlier this season.
• Roster notes: New Jersey moved veteran winger Ondrej Palat earlier this week, opening forward minutes for other players. On the injury front, Devils defenseman Luke Hughes is on long‑term injured reserve and Stefan Noesen remains sidelined. Nashville lists Fedor Svechkov as day‑to‑day, with no major blue-line absences reported midweek.

Betting Trends & H2H

• This is the first of two head-to-head meetings between the Predators and Devils this season.
• The under has gone 29-23 in games involving New Jersey this season.
• Nashville has gone over the total in 27 of their first 52 games this year (51.9%).

Predators vs Devils Model Projection

Final Thoughts

Jay Sanin

Jay Sanin is the GM and Head of Sports at ATS.io. He has been writing about sports gambling since 2013, handicapping tens of thousands of sporting events. He plays sides and totals aggressively across most sports and is more selective in player prop markets. He does his own modeling across most sports, and his family is jealous of how much time he spends on his precious spreadsheets.

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