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After a pretty good unofficial first half of the season the New Jersey Devils have stumbled since exiting the all-star break.
While they've recorded at least a point in all three games they've dropped two of them despite holding late leads in both games they lost.
Their one win came against the New York Rangers, who they happen to be going up against tonight at MSG. The Devils will be looking for a repeat performance tonight against their biggest rivals.
The Rangers have won two in a row since their loss to the Devils and sit four points ahead of them in the standings so this is definitely a big game for both parties.
With a regulation win the Rangers would be six points up on New Jersey while a Devils regulation win would close the gap to just two points for 2nd in the Metro.
There was a lot on the line last week when these two teams met and it was played like a playoff game. I expect more of the same tonight.
LINEUPS
Blandisi - Henrique - Stempniak
Boucher - Zajac - Palmieri
Kalinin - Josefson - Kennedy
Farnham - Gionta - Tootoo
Greene - Larsson
Gelinas - Schlemko
Helgeson - Moore
Schneider
--
*ruled out with concussion
Kreider - Stepan - Zuccarello
Miller - Brassard - Fast
Lindberg - Hayes - Stalberg
Glass - Moore - Paille
McDonagh* - Girardi
Staal - Klein
Yandle - Boyle
Lundqvist
Notes
1) The Devils are 30th in the NHL in scoring chances per 60 minutes of 5 v 5. The Rangers are 27th. Don't expect fire wagon hockey with both teams trading chances in this one.
2) Joseph Blandisi has caught fire tallying 10 points in his last 10 games and four in his last three.
3) Dan Girardi was once pretty good at suppressing shots, chances and goals. Those days have passed. He gets exposed pretty regularly these days - see Blandisi's goal against the Rangers last time out - and is a guy the Devils should target.
The game is at 7:00 eastern and can be seen on NHL Network, MSG, and MSG+.
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