Match-up - New Jersey Devils (9-8-5) @ San Jose Sharks (14-3-5)
Road/Home records - 5-6-3 -------------- 6-1-2
TV - MSG Plus, CSN-CA
Puck drop - 10:30 PM ET
Season series - 0-0
Last 10: Devils 6-3-1 / Sharks 4-2-4
Projected starting goalies - Cory Schneider/Martin Brodeur v. Antti Niemi

Goals for/against per game

San Jose - 3.46/2.14
New Jersey - 2.18/2.23

Power play/Penalty Kill

San Jose - 20.2%/83.6%
New Jersey - 17.6%/85.7%

Projected lines for the Sharks (courtesy of DailyFaceoff.com):

Tomas Hertl - Joe Thornton - Brent Burns
Patrick Marleau - Logan Couture - Tommy Wingels
Tyler Kennedy - Joe Pavelski - Martin Havlat
Mike Brown - Andrew Desjardins - James Sheppard

Marc-Edouard Vlasic - Dan Boyle
Brad Stuart - Justin Braun
Scott Hannan - Jason Demers

Notable injuries: Adam Burish, Raffi Torres.

Projected lines for the Devils:

Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr
Patrik Elias - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder
Damien Brunner - Andrei Loktionov - Steve Bernier
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Cam Janssen

Andy Greene - Marek Zidlicky
Eric Gelinas - Adam Larsson
Peter Harrold - Mark Faye

Notable injuries: Ryane Clowe, Bryce Salvador, Anton Volchenkov, Jon Merrill.

Some notes:

- If the Devils hope to sweep the dreaded West Coast road trip, they'll need to bring their A game tonight. They're facing arguably the best team in the league in San Jose, and they're rested, too. Not only that but but Brent Burns is back in the lineup, which will only add more depth and offensive punch to an already loaded team.

- It'll be interesting to see how Pete DeBoer plays his cards tonight. I'm assuming he'll try and match Zajac's line agains Thornton's, but that'll leave two very good offensive lines going against lesser competition. This is one of those pick your poison scenarios.

- Jaromir Jagr has been red hot of late recording 16 points over his last 15 games. The Devils will need some more offensive output from him tonight because they aren't going to keep San Jose off the scoreboard.

- One key to the Devils' success of late has been balanced scoring. While Jagr's consistently producing, it hasn't just been him. Dainius Zubrus, for example, has six points over his last six games while Travis Zajac has points in four of his last six.

- Michael Ryder is a guy the Devils need a lot more from. He has just one goal in his last 13 games and has been near invisible for the better part of the season. It's his 700th career game tonight, so perhaps he'll do something to make the milestone night worth remembering.

- Tonight will be a huge test for the Gelinas - Larsson pairing. They'll be playing in a tough environment while going up against Pavelski, Couture or Thornton almost every shift. It'll be fun to see how they handle themselves going up against competition like that.

- As of the time of writing this, the Devils' starting goaltender has not been announced.

Martin Brodeur vs San Jose: 10-7-2, 2.42 goals against average, .895 save percentage.
Cory Schneider vs San Jose: 3-3-1, 3.54 goals against average, .902 save percentage.

Both goaltenders have played very well this year and neither have been too impressive against the Sharks, so I don't think there's a wrong choice here.

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