Match-up - Philadelphia Flyers (21-17-4) @ New Jersey Devils (17-18-8)
Road/Home records - 10-10-4 -------------- 8-6-5
TV - NBCSN, RDS2, TSN2, TCN-PH
Puck drop - 7:30 PM ET
Season series - Tied 1-1
Last 10: Flyers 7-2-1 / Devils 5-3-2
Projected starting goalies - Ray Emery vs Martin Brodeur



Projected lines for the Flyers:

Steve Downie - Claude Giroux - Jakub Voracek
Scott Hartnell - Brayden Schenn - Wayne Simmonds
Michael Raffl - Sean Couturier - Vincent Lecavalier
Jay Rosehill - Adam Hall - Zac Rinaldo

Kimmo Timonen - Braydon Coburn
Mark Streit - Nicklas Grossman
Luke Schenn - Andrej Meszaros

Injuries: Erik Gustafsson, Matt Read.

Projected lines for the Devils:

Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr
Ryan Clowe - Adam Henrique - Michael Ryder
Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Steve Bernier
Reid Boucher - Andrei Loktionov - Mike Sislo

Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Jon Merrill - Marek Zidlicky
Bryce Salvador - Anton Volchenkov

Injuries: Pete Harrold, Damien Brunner, Patrik Elias.

Game notes:

- Tonight will be a very tough task for the Devils. Since Craig Berube took over the Flyers have played significantly better hockey than prior and as a result they're flying up the standings. They've improved quite a bit during 5 vs 5 play and Steve Mason has given them some pretty good goaltending. The Devils will need all hands on deck if they want to snap this mini losing streak.

- How important is this game? A regulation win for the Devils puts them within two points of Philadelphia and Washington, both of whom currently own a playoff spot in the Metro Division. A regulation loss, however, would leave the Devils four points behind Washington and six behind Philadelphia.

- The Devils seem to have had a lot of success against the Flyers in the Pete DeBoer-era. I think the two things that have given the Flyers the most trouble is 1) the Devils' aggressiveness on the PK - the Flyers don't handle that well and; 2) their ability to wreak havoc on the forecheck. The Devils like to keep play deep in the offensive zone and make the Flyers defense work along the boards.

Doing those two things has been key in the Devils' wins over the Flyers since DeBoer took over, so I imagine they'll continue to stick to that plan tonight.

- I talked about how well Travis Zajac has handled himself against top competition in my post yesterday, and he'll have another tough task tonight as he'll see a lot of Claude Giroux. No. 28 has 18 points in his last 12 games, too, so he's coming in hot.

- Sticking with Zajac, he hasn't been producing offense at a torrid pace, but his production has picked up quite a bit of late. He has nine points in his last 13 games despite starting a ton of shifts in his own zone and going up against top competition every night. He's been really good.

- In large part due to the Devils' inability to score goals when Cory Schneider starts, the Devils were unable to pick up a win, or even register a point, against the Sabres on Saturday.

As a result Martin Brodeur will get the nod in goal tonight, though I think that might have been the right call regardless if Schneider won on Saturday. In two starts against Philadelphia this season Brodeur is 1-1-0 with a .50 goals against average and .977 save percentage. That is kind of good.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddCordell!

Email: [email protected]