New Jersey at NY Islanders

New Jersey: 75GP ; 44W-23L-8OTL ; 96 points ; last 10 games : 4-5-1 ; 1st Atlantic
NY Islanders: 75GP ; 36W-27L-12OTL 84 points ; last 10 games : 3-4-3 ; 4th Atlantic

Season series: The Devils lead the season series 5-1. They lost the first game of the season series 5-2 for what looked like to be a carry over from last year when the Islanders pretty much had the Devils number. Despite an incredible record last year, the Devils always seemed unable to solve the Isles. This year, it has been a different story. After that first loss early in the season, The Devils took over the next five games blanking the Isles 3 times (December 30, February 8 and February 17) by a score of 2-0.

They almost blanked them again during that January 13 game when both teams were scoreless for 59 minutes. John Madden beat DiPietro with 74 seconds left in regulation to give New Jersey a 1-0 lead and Miroslav Satan tied the score with 0.7 seconds left. That day, Scott Gomez scored with 1:20 left in overtime to lift the Devils to a 2-1 win.

The other game (January 4) ended in a 4-3 win for New Jersey.


Devils
The Devils finally ended a 3 game losing streak when they beat the Panthers on Saturday night. They are still on the road even though they are pretty close to home. As stated above their record against the Islanders is quite impressive. In their five wins they outscored the Islanders 16-4. A game does not make an other and the Devils shouldn't take the Islanders for granted.

They should get some players back for tomorrow. Elias and Rasmussen took part in practice. Having them back would be a good thing but as far as Elias is concerned I hope he doesn't try to come back too soon. Groin injuries are nasty in that they can look like they are healed and players can injure them again on a bad hit or bad ice. Gomez, earlier this season and Gionta suffered groin injuries. In both cases the players came back too early and Gomez had to miss a few games and Gionta went on IR.

I didn't read anything about Madden even skating. And Gionta is still unavailable until April 1. The Devils will be relying greatly on whoever comes back and possibly some of the call ups from last week. Whether Rasmussen or Elias come back, Claude Julien will have to shuffle his lines again like he has been for a while now. The Devils offense is not quite a force but the injuries are definitely not making things easy on the Devils. The players certainly don't use that as an excuse but as an observer you can only imagine how hard it must be chemistry wise to have your line mate changing from game to game and on some occasions from shift to shift.

Come March and April, every game becomes more important than the previous one. It is true for the Devils who are now tied for first place with the Penguins who defeated the Bruins Yesterday. As far as the Devils are concerned and Rich Chere article in yesterday's Star Ledger makes it pretty clear, they don't focus too much on the standings.

Being caught by the Penguins is definitely a concern if you ask me. It would definitely be too bad to lose what they so consistently and brilliantly built since Christmas. The team in second place would probably lose home ice advantage for the playoffs considering Ottawa is getting hot at the right time.

The good thing about the Devils today is they still believe in their potential. They don't start looking too much at teams around them. They just try to hang in there and do with what they have. "We're just trying to get our game back." goalie Martin Brodeur said. "The cards will fall where the cards fall. You can't waste your energy looking (at teams) around you. If we do well in these seven games, we'll be fine."

Islanders
The Islanders are still pretty much in the playoff hunt. The Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes are locked in a three-way tie for eighth spot. They have seven games remaining. They apparently put the Chris Simon incident behind them and fared pretty well in their last four games picking 6 out of a possible 8 points. They lost to Tampa and the Rangers in overtime but managed to beat the surging Penguins and the healing Flyers. They will be without Radek Martinek and Shawn Bates both on IR.

New Jersey will end the series on April 8 when they play the Islanders at Continental Airlines Arena on the season finale.



The Devils will play in Buffalo on Wednesday night to finish their 5-game road trip before returning to East Rutherford to face the Flyers on Friday.



At the 3-minute mark of the second period of the December 30 win against the Islanders, Brodeur became the eighth goalie in NHL history to play 50,000 minutes.
After the final horn, DiPietro passed the puck down to Brodeur, and the goalies waved to each other. Brodeur certainly appreciated the gesture.

The Islanders and Devils have the two longest NHL contracts among them. Last summer, Di Pietro signed a 15-year contract and Elias signed a 7-year contract.

New Jersey defenseman Brad Lukowich, a former Islander, played in his 500th NHL game when the Devils beat the Isles on February 17.

Tomorrow may be a new episode of the "battle" of words between Ted Nolan and Claude Julien. It all started when The Isles coach said: "This was a typical game against New Jersey. It wasn't a very entertaining game - it was kind of like watching a chess match." after the January 13 OT loss to the Devils.


"We're having a good season. I certainly wouldn't let finishing fifth change our hockey club. Once everybody is back healthy, we know how good we can be."
Claude Julien on how is team can perform in the playoffs in yesterday's Star Ledger.


Well, it would be quite something if Zach Parise could score his 30th goal of the season. It would give everyone a lift and right now the Devils need it.