Matchup- Senators (13-12-3 29 points) @ Devils (13-12-1 - 27 points)
TV - MSG Plus 2, SNET-OTT, TVA
Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET
Last 10: Senators 5-3-2 / New Jersey 5-5-0
Projected starting goalies - Alex Auld (OTT) vs. Martin Brodeur (NJ)

Battle of the stats

Goals for/against per game

Ottawa - 2.96 / 3.39
New Jersey - 2.31 / 2.81

Powerplay/Penalty Kill percentage

Ottawa - 19% / 80.5%
New Jersey - 13.7% / 94.7%

Here are the projected lines (subject to change) for the Senators:

Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Milan Michalek
Bobby Butler - Nick Foligno - Daniel Alfredsson
Kaspars Daugavins - Zack Smith - Erik Condra
Zenon Konopka - Jesse Winchester - Chris Neil

Jared Cowen - Erik Karlsson
Chris Phillips - Sergei Gonchar
Brian Lee - David Rundblad

Here are the projected lines (subject to change) for the Devils:

Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Mattias Tedenby - Patrik Elias - Petr Sykora
Dainius Zubrus - Ryan Carter - David Clarkson
Eric Boulton - Tim Sestito - Nick Palmieri

Bryce Salvador - Adam Larsson
Henrik Tallinder - Mark Fayne
Mark Fraser - Anton Volchenkov

Notes: Andy Greene will sit tonight with a lingering foot/ankle injury...Mark Fraser will take his spot...Rod Pelley will sit yet again...Martin Brodeur will start...Adam Henrique is on a six game point streak...Ilya Kovalchuk and Zach Parise are on five game point streaks.

Senators to watch out for:

Milan Michalek - He's had a heck of a year thus far and is tied for first in the NHL in goal scoring with Jonathan Toews and Phil Kessel.

Erik Karlsson - He leads all NHL defenseman in scoring with 24 points (2G, 22A) in 28 games.

Sergei Gonchar - He's having a pretty good bounce back season to this point; at least offensively. The veteran defenseman has 19 points (2G, 17A) in 27 games thus far.

Devils to watch out for:

Adam Henrique - He is really establishing himself as a solid young player in this league. Henrique, who is just 21 years of age, has seven points (2G, 5A) in his last six games.

Ilya Kovalchuk - He's starting to produce at the level people expected him to; at least as of late. The Russian sniper has six points (3G, 3A) and 21 shots in the last five games.

Martin Brodeur - After a few bad outings, Brodeur really bounced back and played a solid game against the Maple Leafs. Can he do the same against the Senators?

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Note - Brendan Ross and I released our collaborated top 30 2012 draft rankings at TheHockeyGuys.net for December. Click here to check them out.

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