A couple familiar faces will be in town as the New Jersey Devils get set to host the St. Louis Blues in a battle between two of the hottest teams in hockey.
The Blues, who have won seven of their last 10, are without some key players due to injury - notably Paul Stastny and Jaden Schwartz - and have brought in Scott Gomez and, most recently, Martin Havlat to solidify their depth with some NHL bodies.
Gomez has been productive thus far having tallied six points in nine games while Havlat is expected to make his Blues debut against his former squad.
You can bet he will be looking to make an impact after a rough year in New Jersey where he didn't necessarily agree with his usage; or lack thereof.
Just something to keep your eye on in what should be a good game.
LINEUPS Cammalleri - Henrique - Stempniak Kalinin - Zajac - Palmieri Tlusty - Josefson - Tootoo Farnham - Gionta - O'Neill
Greene - Larsson Merrill - Severson Moore - Schlemko
Schneider
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Steen - Lehtera - Tarasenko Havlat - Backes - Fabbri Paajarvi - Gomez - Brouwer Jaskin - Brodziak - Reaves
Emundson - Pietrangelo Bouwmeester - Parayko Gunnarsson - Shattenkirk
Allen
THREE KEYS 1) The Devils need to cover their points and watch closely for trailers because the Blues like to activate their defense and have as much offensive talent on the back end as any team in hockey.
2) Scoring first will be very important. Jake Allen has been lights out this year - he has a .945 save percentage in nine games - and the Blues can lock it down as good as anyone so being forced to come from behind against them certainly isn't ideal.
3) St. Louis is an excellent 5 vs 5 team so the Devils will be in tough to beat them in that game state. That means they'll probably need to win the special teams battle if they're going to have a shot in this game.
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