After a win over the Sabres last night, the Devils (31-29-11) enter tonight's game against the Islanders (43-25-4) having won three straight, and feeling pretty good about themselves.
While the playoffs aren't a possibility at this point, you wouldn't know it from their recent play.
New Jersey has won 10 of 15 entering this game, and are a couple of games over .500 for the first time(?) since the opening week of the season.
Cory Schneider will be back between the pipes tonight, as the Devils look to extend their winning streak to four, and avoid a season sweep from a division rival in the process.
The good (or bad) news for New Jersey is the Islanders are cold as ice of late, having lost four straight, and won just three of their last 10. On one hand they're not playing very well (good), on the other that won't last, and as soon as they break this slump they could pile it on (bad). John Tavares hasn't recorded a point in four games, and the Isles lost all four. Go figure. They seem to go as their captain does, and this slump won't last forever, but the Devils are surely hoping they can keep him off the scoresheet for one more game.
New York is a much better even-strength team than the Devils, however, the Devils have Schneider and his .929SV% in goal, which has evened things out on a lot of nights this season. They'll need that to be the case again tonight.
What to watch:
1) We'll start with Tavares. After a rough start to his NHL career against the Devils - he couldn't produce points to save his life - he's sort of been a Devils killer over the last few years. He's an elite shooter and he has 19 shots in his last five games, so the goals will start to come soon. The Devils are hoping that's not tonight.
2) Steve Bernier is quietly having himself a nice season. He has four points in his last five games, and has 26 points on the year. With Jaromir Jagr shipped out to Florida, that ranks Bernier 5th(!) on the team in scoring.
3) New York is better than New Jersey at 5 vs 5. New York is as disciplined (perhaps more so) than New Jersey. That means the Devils will need to a) take advantage of their limited PP opportunities and; b) get excellent goaltending from Schneider if they want to have a chance.
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I've recently been experimenting with game previews of this style. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue using this format, so please let me know if you like the new format better, or the old format I've been going with for years.
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