GAME DAY: Devils at Senators, Wednesday, April 9, 2009, 730 pm ET

New Jersey at Ottawa

7:30 PM ET, April 9, 2009
Scotiabank Place, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

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Success against Ottawa has helped put the New Jersey Devils in position to secure yet another Atlantic Division title. Most teams fared well versus the Senators before Cory Clouston took over.

The Devils have a chance to sweep their season series with the Senators and clinch their third division championship in four years Thursday night, but they visit a club that has won a franchise-record nine straight at home under Clouston's guidance.

New Jersey (49-27-4), third in the Eastern Conference, will finish first in the Atlantic by earning a point in one of its last two games or if Philadelphia loses one of its final three. The Devils are five points ahead of the second-place Flyers, who visit the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

But New Jersey has lost seven of its last nine (2-6-1) and is in desperate need of some momentum heading into the playoffs.

"Everybody around us is playing well and we have to figure a way to do the same," said Devils winger Jamie Langenbrunner, whose team concludes the regular season at home against Carolina on Saturday. "We have two games left and we have to find a way to win both of those."

A matchup with Ottawa (36-34-10) may help New Jersey get back on track. The Devils have won five straight versus the Senators since a 4-1 home loss Oct. 27, 2007.

However, New Jersey's three wins in this season's series came before Clouston took over as Ottawa's coach Feb. 2, when Craig Hartsburg was fired. Clouston has changed the Senators' fortunes, and the team made a commitment to him for next season after removing his interim tag Wednesday and signing him to a two-year deal.

Though the Senators will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 1995-96 season, they have gone 19-10-3 under Clouston and their nine-game run at home is the longest in franchise history. Ottawa won eight in a row during the 2002-03 season.

The Senators' latest win at Scotiabank Place was perhaps their most impressive, beating East-leading Boston 3-2 on Tuesday night.

"I just wanted the opportunity to continue what we started here," Clouston said. "I think the biggest thing that I'm looking forward to, and it's a long way away from now, is getting the next season started. How we're playing right now gives us a lot of optimism."

Ottawa has won three straight overall, with its top goal scorer heating up. Dany Heatley has 38 goals on the season, three in his last two games.

Heatley, though, has been held without a point in his last six games against New Jersey, facing Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur in three of those contests.

Brodeur, who returned in late February after missing 50 games following left elbow surgery, is essential to New Jersey's hopes of making a run in the playoffs. The veteran, though, has given up at least four goals in four of his last eight starts and has a 3.56 goals-against average in his last nine games.

The Devils outshot Toronto 48-18 on Tuesday night, but Brodeur struggled as New Jersey lost 4-1.

Langenbrunner was a bright spot for the Devils, scoring his 29th goal to extend his point streak to three games (four goals, one assist). The veteran winger has three goals and an assist in three games against the Senators this season.

New Jersey hasn't swept the season series since winning all three meetings in 1994-95.

Nothing but pride left to play for. I'm happy with a result either way.

Hopefully Heatley can make it to 40 goals on the year.

249 shots on goal leads the team?

Am I wrong, or does that seem low?

asq2 wrote:249 shots on goal leads the team?

Am I wrong, or does that seem low?

Only because Ovechkin has 9000.

Everyone talks about how much Ovie scores, but it never gets mentioned that his shooting percentage is so low. Currently, he's ranked 150th in the league. Seems ridiculous for a guy who's running away with the Rocket Richard trophy. Not that it's a bad thing, but if he had Jeff Carter's (2nd in the league in goals) number of shots, he'd only have about 36 goals. On the flip side, if Carter has Ovechkin's shots total, he'd have 68 goals.

I think the point is a very valid one; the Ovechkin tangent kind of took the spotlight off. Parisee has a more than 40% higher shot total than Heatley. Heatley's bread-and-butter is scoring goals. He's got two upper-tier puck distributors in the league on his line who pretty much always look to pass to Dany. Part of this problem is Heatley not having a good year -- a lot of missed shots or failure to take a shot. More of it, probably, had to do with the team's inability to generate offence for much of the season. Keep in mind that New Jersey, still, is a very defensive team. Maybe not the trapping Lemaire-led Devils, but never the less, not a run-and-gun '80s Oilers team.

what really makes me sick is that it is a fan appreciation game
tonight. I went to the last game of the year the past 2, maybe 3
years and because the team was good they did absolutely nothing.
No jersey off the backs, nothing special for the fans. Just a
message on the tube television saying "thank you sens army". Now
that the team blows they are running a fan appreciation night.

They don't give a crap about the fans unless they are fearful they wont be back the following year.

This organization is run like an absolute joke and I can't wait for the
so called businessman of the year Roy M. is out of a job in Ottawa.

They better still do this next year and the year after even if the team is solid.

Nasty Nas wrote:what really makes me sick is that it is a fan appreciation game
tonight. I went to the last game of the year the past 2, maybe 3
years and because the team was good they did absolutely nothing.
No jersey off the backs, nothing special for the fans. Just a
message on the tube television saying "thank you sens army". Now
that the team blows they are running a fan appreciation night.

They don't give a crap about the fans unless they are fearful they wont be back the following year.

This organization is run like an absolute joke and I can't wait for the
so called businessman of the year Roy M. is out of a job in Ottawa.

They better still do this next year and the year after even if the team is solid.

What a feckless group of money-grabbing asses.

The news in The Citizen this morning is that Mr Mlakar's contract has not (yet) been renewed.

Remember when The Gene brought in his fave band, The Eagles for a private command performance for himself, er, the fans... Now THAT is fan appreciation!

Do we have a score prediction? It's not a GDT without a score prediction.

5-2

SeawaySensFan wrote:5-2

For who?

SeawaySensFan wrote:5-2

if the brodeur from the Toronto game shows up then yes, if the real brodeur shows up, it will be low scoring, is it Elliott or Auld ( I probably didn't catch that lol)

davetherave wrote:

SeawaySensFan wrote:5-2

For who?

If I told you that it would invalidate the

As for the "Real Brodeur" he was at the Toronto game alright. Let's not kid ourselves about his abilities.

I have a feeling the Devils are going to be PISSED the Leafs lit them up; so I will say 3-2 Sens, assuming the Sens are still riding a high.