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New Jersey Kind Of Day, Devils In Town, New Uniforms Revealed

December 13, 2013, 9:40 AM ET [160 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
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Lots of news and notes as we head into the weekend. The Penguins will finally resume game action after being off since Monday, they will reveal their Stadium Series Jersey today at 2 PM, Shawn Thronton hearing is today, last but not least it might be Jaromir Jagr and Martin Brodeur’s last game in Pittsburgh.

Tonight might very well be Jaromir Jagr’s last NHL game in the city of Pittsburgh. It’s very difficult to definitively say it is his last game because he could always be traded at the deadline if the Devils are not in the playoff picture. There is also the chance that Jagr comes back to play another year. However, you can’t be certain of those scenarios. Personally I believe that Jaromir Jagr has earned a well-deserved round of applause from the fans of Pittsburgh.

The man is a hockey legend and accomplished countless positive things while in a Penguins jersey.

The people that still boo Jagr can take a long walk off a short pier as far as I am concerned.

Currently Jagr is the Devils leading scorer with 11 goals and 14 assists at the age of 42, incredible.

I could go on about my feelings how Jagr should be treated tonight, but Pittsburgh Tribune Columnist Dejan Kovacevic already did a bang up job on the subject. You can find his terrific piece about Jagr here.


Kovacevic references Game 6 of the 1999 1st round matchup against the Devils. It is the game that Jaromir Jagr considers the best that he has played. On a hobbled groin he scores 2 clutch goals to pull the Penguins out of the jaws of defeat and deliver the Penguins to victory. The Penguins went on to win Game 7. Here are the highlights from that game:





Another player on the Devils who deserves some recognition is Martin Brodeur. He is one of the best goaltenders of all time and has been a quality divisional rival for the Penguins for years. The guy exudes class and also deserves the respect of the Penguins faithful. However, Brodeur will not be making the start tonight, that responsibility has been given to Cory Schneider.

Two legends in their potential swan song, in Pittsburgh, on a Friday night, good stuff.


How fitting that the Penguins will be playing against New Jersey and in fact they will be releasing, well, a new jersey today. The Pittsburgh Penguins will be releasing their Stadium Series jersey today at 2 PM. The Penguins twitter account has posted some teasers of the jersey. It appears that the jersey will be black and vegas gold. This is certainly a step in the right direction rather than beating the powder blue drum again.

Given that they are playing the Blackhawks I thought it was a possibility for the Penguins to revisit their 1992 SCF black and yellow jerseys but I don’t think that is the direction they are taking.

My personal guess is that it will be the mid 90’s pigeon logo in the Vegas gold. I also realize that my guess is probably going to be way off.

UPDATE 2:10 PM




I don't dislike the jersey, I think they look nice. i like the piping at the bottom and the black shoulders. With that said I also will not be going out of my way to purchase one either.

I ran a poll yesterday which asked what Penguins superstar would finish with the most points on the season, Crosby or Malkin. The results are in.





The overwhelming choice was that it will be Sidney Crosby and he will also win the Art Ross Trophy. My vote falls in line with the majority as I feel that Crosby will win the scoring title this year.

Shawn Thornton will have his hearing today with the NHL. My thoughts about the situation are that the NHL needed to come down hard on both Neal and Thornton. Coming down legitimately hard was necessary if they wanted to send a strong message that would actually deter future negative behavior. I don’t believe that they accomplished that with the Neal suspension and I don’t believe they will do so with the Thornton one either. Thornton deserves a minimum of 25 games but my guess is that he will get somewhere between 10-15 games.

For the record I believe that Neal deserved 30 games and that Thornton should miss the rest of the year.

Punishments like that would actually deter the despicable behavior exhibited by Neal and Thornton.




Line Combos


Projected lineup for the Penguins:

Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis
Jokinen-Malkin-Megna
Conner-Sutter-Vitale
Adams-Sill-Kobasew

Maatta-Letang
Despres-Niskanen
Engelland-Bortuzzo-Dumoulin

Projected lineup for Devils:

Zubrus-Zajac-Jagr
Bernier-Elias-Brunner
Boucher-Henrique-Ryder
Sestito-Loktionov-Janssen

Greene-Fayne
Volchenkov-Zidlicky
Gelinas-Merrill

Injuries

Brooks Orpik remains out of practice and thus out of the lineup with concussion symptoms that stem from the Thornton incident. I would not expect much in the way of updates until the Thornton hearing concludes later today.

Rob Scuderi and Tanner Glass are 3-5 days away from practicing again according to Dan Bylsma. Good news there.

Anton Volchenkov is day to day with back issues

Bryce Salvador is back practicing but will not play this weekend because of a foot problem.
Ryan Clowe has been medically cleared to play, he had a concussion.

Power Play

The Pittsburgh Penguins still have the best power play in the NHL. It currently sits at 26.1%.

The Devils power play is 17th overall at 17.7%.

The Penguins are 13th in the league with 111 power play opportunities

The Devils are tied for 26th overall with 96 power play opportunities.



Penalty Kill

The Penguins are 2nd overall in the NHL on the PK with 86.8%

The Devils are 3rd overall as they are tied with the Penguins at 86.5%.

The Penguins are 2nd best in the league with only being shorthanded 91 times

New Jersey is tied for 12th overall with 104 times shorthanded.

Between the power play and penalty kill rankings the Penguins have the best special teams in the NHL.

Fenclose%


The Penguins are 5th overall at 54.3%

The Devils are 6th overall at 53.4%

When you combine the Penguins special team rankings with their 5 on 5 play it makes for a very good hockey team, even though there are some tweaks that still need to be made to the roster.

Even Strength Save %

The Devils rank a disappointing 26th overall in EVSV% with .909%. Part of the reason for that has been the Devil’s decision to split starts between Martin Brodeur and Cory Schneider. Schneider should be the clear cut #1 guy and moving forward it appears as though he will be.

Schneider’s EVSV% is .920% and Brodeur’s is a very low .897%.

The Penguins are ranked 22nd overall with .921%. Marc Andre Fleury is at .926%.

Trends

Devils are 5-2 in their last 7 vs. Metropolitan

Devils are 8-18 in their last 26 vs. a team with a winning record

Devils are 1-4 in their last 5 overall

Devils are 1-4 in their last 5 vs. Eastern Conference

Devils are 1-8 in their last 9 Friday games

Penguins are 4-0 in their last 4 vs. Metropolitan

Penguins are 1-4 in their last 5 games playing on 3 or more days rest

Devils are 4-1 in the last 5 meetings

Devils are 2-7 in the last 9 meetings in Pittsburgh

Stats are courtesy of covers.com

Thanks for reading!

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