Match-up - New Jersey Devils (25-22-13) @ New York Islanders (23-30-8) Road/Home records - 11-15-6 -------------- 9-14-8 TV - MSG Plus, MSG Plus 2 Puck drop - 1:00 p.m. ET Season series - Tied 1-1 Last 10: Devils 5-3-2 | Islanders 3-6-1 Projected starting goalies - Martin Brodeur vs Evgeni Nabokov
Projected lines for the Islanders:
Thomas Vanek - Brock Nelson - Kyle Okposo Michael Grabner - Josh Bailey - Cal Clutterbuck Anders Lee - Ryan Strome - Colin McDonald Eric Boulton - Casey Cizikas - Mike Halmo
Calvin de Haan - Travis Hamonic Brain Strait - Andrew MacDonald Thomas Hickey - Lubomir Visnovsky
Projected lines for the Devils:
Dainius Zubrus - Travis Zajac - Jaromir Jagr Adam Henrique - Patrik Elias - Steve Bernier Ryane Clowe - Andrei Loktionov - Michael Ryder Ryan Carter - Stephen Gionta - Jacob Josefson
Andy Greene - Mark Fayne Anton Volchenkov - Marek Zidlicky Eric Gelinas - Jon Merrill
Game notes:
- Never thought I'd say this during the middle of a season, but this could very well be Martin Brodeur's last start in a Devils uniform. After over two decades with the team, Cory Schneider has firmly supplanted Brodeur as the team's No. 1 goaltender. Brodeur won't be going anywhere unless he wants to (he has a NTC) but the feeling many have is he'd like to move on to a better team where he'd start a little more frequently. He admitted that he's thought about this potentially being his last start as a Devil and you can bet it will be emotional for him. Hopefully for the Devils he can keep them in check and go play a good hockey game. The Devils need points.
- With John Tavares and Frans Nielsen out of the lineup, the Islanders are extremely young and inexperienced down the middle. They are still talented, though, and some are fighting for jobs next season so the Devils can't sleep on them.
- The Islanders are a poor possession team and allow a ton of goals - in large part due to awful goaltending all season long. The Devils should be able to push the pace of this game and they'll probably come away with two points if they do. I think they'd be smart to put as many pucks on net as they can because a) they're not skilled enough to be the Harlem Globetrotters and; b) it probably won't take anything special to beat Nabokov a few times.
- Michael Grabner always seems to play well against the Devils and he's entering the game confident coming off a two-goal performance against the Leafs so the Devils will need to watch out for him. Seems like he scores every time he plays New Jersey.
- Jaromir Jagr enters this game one goal away from 700 for his career and one assist away from tying Marcel Dionne for 9th all-time with 1,040. I wouldn't be surprised to see him reach one, or both plateau's, today.
- Patrik Elias' three-point performance against the Jackets was his 5th multi-point effort in his last 10 games. He's really starting to come on.
- The Devils' power play has been pretty good all season long and went 2-3 against the Blue Jackets on Thursday, so they should be able to take advantage of the Islanders' abysmal penalty killing unit.
- Thanks to the injury to Damien Brunner, Jacob Josefson is back in the lineup. I expect him to do a nice job in the limited minutes he'll get on the 4th line. He's usually pretty responsible defensively.
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