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New Jersey Devils vs. Florida Panthers: Game One Preview

April 13, 2012, 1:17 PM ET [39 Comments]
Todd Cordell
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
*All stats based on regular season play.

Match-up - Devils (48 wins, 102 points) @ Panthers (38 wins, 94 points)
Road/Home records - 24-15-2 -------------- 21-9-11
TV - TSN (HD), NHL Network (US), RDSI, MSG-Plus (HD), FS-Florida (HD)
Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET
Season series - Panthers won 2-1-1
Last 10: Devils 7-2-1 / Panthers 2-3-5
Projected starting goalies - Martin Brodeur (NJ) vs. Jose Theodore (FLA)

Battle of the stats

Goals for/against per game

Florida - 2.40 / 2.63
New Jersey - 2.63 / 2.50

Powerplay/Penalty Kill percentage

Florida - 18.5% / 79.5%
New Jersey - 17.2% / 89.6%

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

Panthers lines courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com.

Tomas Fleischmann - Stephen Weiss - Kris Versteeg
Sean Bergenheim - Marcel Goc - Mikael Samuelsson
Wojtek Wolski - Shawn Matthias - Scottie Upshall
Marco Sturm - John Madden - Tomas Kopecky

Jason Garrison - Brian Campbell
Dmitry Kulikov - Mike Weaver
Ed Jovanovski - Erik Gudbranson

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

Zach Parise - Travis Zajac - Ilya Kovalchuk
Petr Sykora - Patrik Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Adam Henrique - David Clarkson
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Steve Bernier

Bryce Salvador- Marek Zidlicky
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Anton Volchenkov - Peter Harrold

Notes: Martin Brodeur will start...Cam Janssen, Eric Boulton and Adam Larsson will sit as healthy scratches...The Devils won six consecutive games to end the regular season.

Panthers to watch out for:

Stephen Weiss - This is the 29 year old's first career playoff game. You can bet he'll be jacked up and ready to go for tonight's game.

Kris Versteeg - He killed the Devils in the regular season scoring five goals and tallying six points (5G, 1A) in just four games against them. New Jersey's defense will certainly need to tighten up on Versteeg.

Erik Gudbranson - He's a tough, physical, shutdown defenseman that is made for situations like these. He'll need to be good if he wants to remain in the Panthers lineup.

Devils to watch out for:

Ilya Kovalchuk - He is more committed to winning than ever before and I really think he's going to have a big post-season for the Devils. It starts tonight.

Patrik Elias - He has always elevated his game come playoff time. This has been one of the best seasons, if not his best, since 2003-2004.

Peter Harrold - He played very good down the stretch for the Devils, but that doesn't matter anymore. If he struggles, Pete DeBoer will have no problems putting Adam Larsson back in the lineup.

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