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NHL Gameday Preview: Tampa Bay Lightning @ New Jersey Devils - Game 10

February 7, 2013, 12:26 PM ET [21 Comments]
Todd Cordell
New Jersey Devils Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Match-up - Tampa Bay Lightning (6-3-0) @ New Jersey Devils (5-1-3)
Road/Home records - 1-2-0 -------------- 3-0-1
TV - SUN, MSG Plus
Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET
Season series - Tied 0-0
Last 10: Lightning 6-3-0 / Devils 5-1-3
Projected starting goalies - Anders Lindback (TB) vs. Martin Brodeur (NJ)

Battle of the stats

Goals for/against per game

Tampa Bay - 4.44 / 2.56
New Jersey - 2.56 / 2.11

Powerplay/Penalty Kill percentage

Tampa Bay - 32.5% / 84.2%
New Jersey - 15.8% / 86.7%

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

Lines courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com.

Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Martin St. Louis
Cory Conacher - Vincent Lecavalier - Teddy Purcell
Nate Thompson - Adam Hall - B.J. Crombeen
Benoit Pouliot - Tom Pyatt - Pierre-Cedric Labrie

Victor Hedman - Sami Salo
Matt Carle - Eric Brewer
Keith Aulie - Brian Lee

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

Stefan Matteau - Travis Zajac - Ilya Kovalchuk
Patrik Elias - Adam Henrique - David Clarkson
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Steve Bernier
Krys Barch - Jacob Josefson - Bobby Butler

Bryce Salvador - Mark Fayne
Andy Greene - Adam Larsson
Marek Zidlicky - Anton Volchenkov

Notes: Martin Brodeur will start...Adam Larsson will remain in the lineup...Henrik Tallinder will sit as a healthy scratch for the third consecutive game...Peter Harrold is the other scratch on defense...Dainius Zubrus suffered an upper-body injury vs. New York and will not play...Stefan Matteau will take his spot on the top line...This will be Matteau's 6th NHL game, thus burning a year of his ELC...Martin Brodeur is two games away from being the 93rd player ever to reach the 1,200 games played mark...The Devils have killed off 15 straight penalties over the last three games.

Lightning to watch out for:

Cory Conacher - After an excellent start to the season and to his NHL career, he has slowed down a little bit as he enters tonight's game pointless in the last two.

Matt Carle - The 28-year-old defenseman has three points, a plus-1 rating and over 70 minutes in his last three games.

Anders Lindback - Lindback enters tonight's game with four wins in his last five starts and five wins in seven games on the year.

Devils to watch out for:

Stefan Matteau - Though a year on his contract will be used up after tonight's game, he can still be sent down to Albany or back to the QMJHL. If he wants to stick in New Jersey he'll need to play well.

Ilya Kovalchuk - After a good start to the season Kovalchuk enters this game on a five-game pointless drought. If the Devils want to keep winning he'll need to start scoring.

Andy Greene - He is playing arguably the best hockey of his career of late as he has a three-game point-streak and four points (1G, 3A) in that span.

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