Match-up - Tampa Bay Lightning (8-3-0) @ New Jersey Devils (2-5-4)
Road/Home records - 3-1-0 -------------- 1-0-2
TV - NBCSN, TSN2
Puck drop - 7:30 PM ET
Season series - 0-0
Last 10: Lightning / Devils
Projected starting goalies - Ben Bishop (TBL) v. Martin Brodeur (NJD)
Goals for/against per game
Tampa Bay - 3.36/2.82
New Jersey - 2.18/3.00
Power play/Penalty Kill
Tampa Bay - 23.9%/82.6%
New Jersey - 22.5%/82.8%
Here are the projected lines (subject to change) for the Lightning:
Ryan Malone - Steven Stamkos - Martin St. Louis
Alex Killorn - Valtteri Filppula - Richard Panik
Ondrej Palat - Tyler Johnson - Teddy Purcell
Mark Barbeiro - Nate Thompson - B.J. Crombeen
Matt Carle - Radko Gudas
Sami Salo - Victor Hedman
Keith Aulie - Eric Brewer
Here are the projected lines (subject to change) for the Devils:
Patrik Elias - Andrei Loktionov - Jaromir Jagr
Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Damien Brunner
Rusty Olesz - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Steve Bernier
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Anton Volchenkov - Marek Zidlicky
Eric Gelinas - Adam Larsson
Notable injuries: Ryane Clowe, Cory Schneider.
Some notes:
- Gelinas has points in each of his games this season. Not only that, but he's been an extremely good possession player and has looked very good playing with Larsson. The Lightning aren't an overly deep team and the Devils have last change, so Pete DeBoer may be able to get him some good matchups.
- Zajac will have one of his toughest assignments of the season tonight. He'll likely spend most of his time shadowing Stamkos and trying to keep him off the scoresheet. Zajac may not have produced as much offence as fans would hope, but he's fared pretty well defensively against some stiff competition. If he can keep Stamkos off the scoresheet tonight, the Devils will have a very good chance of putting together their first two-game winning streak of the season.
- Stamkos and St. Louis have six two-point + games against the Devils since 2010, which leads all players.
- After a shaky start to the game in Boston, Brodeur finished off pretty strong. The Devils will need a good start from him if they hope to take out the No. 1 seeded team in the Eastern Conference for the second consecutive game.
- I expect the Carle - Gudas defense pairing to get a steady dose of the Elias line. Carle and Gudas have been appointed the Lightning's top defensive unit and they've been slaughtered in regards to possession when going up against top competition. The Elias line has been producing a lot recently and they've been excellent in terms of possession, so I expect them to fare quite well if they get that matchup. Devils have last change so if DeBoer wants it, he can get it.
- How about that Zidlicky, fellow? He still has his moments defensively, but he's producing at an extremely high clip right now. He has five points in his last five and nine points in 11 games. To put that in perspective, Erik Karlsson has 10 points this year.
- Jagr has six points in his last four games and is now just three shy of 1,700. These Czechs are on fire.
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