GAME DAY: New Jersey @ Ottawa, Mar 20 7:30 PM

VS
Who: New Jersey Devils @ Ottawa Senators
When: Tuesday, March 20 @ 7:30 PM
Where:MSG+, Rogers Sportsnet-East

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The Story:

This is the 3rd meeting between these two teams this season, with the series tied 1-1.

The first meeting was a 5-4 Devils SO win at home in Jersey on December 8.

The last meeting was a 3-2 OT Sens win in Ottawa.

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Ottawa (37-26-10)

Ottawa is 2nd in the Northeast (7th in the Eastern Conference) with 84 in 73, 3 points behind Boston with 72 games played. The Sens are 19-14-4 at the Scotiabank Place this season. Over their last 10 games they are 5-3-2.

Ottawa is coming off of a 3-1 loss to the Leafs on Saturday, having won the previous game vs. Montreal in the 1st of a back-to-back.

Team Leaders:

Goals: Milan Michalek [32]
Assists: Erik Karlsson [53]
Points: Jason Spezza [75]
PIMs: Zenon Kenopka [172]
+/-: Flip Kuba [25]

Player(s)-to-Watch:

Daniel Alfredsson has 3 points (2G, 1A) in the two meetings this season vs. NJ.

Starting Line-up:

Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Milan Michalek
Rob Klinkhammer - Kyle Turris - Daniel Alfredsson
Nick Foligno - Jim O'Brien - Chris Neil
Zenon Konopka - Zack Smith - Erik Condra

Filip Kuba - Erik Karlsson
Jared Cowen - Sergei Gonchar
Chris Phillips - Matt Gilroy

Ben Bishop

Injuries:

Craig Anderson
Peter Regin
Jesse Winchester

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New Jersey (41-27-5)

The Devils are 4th in the Atlantic division (6th in the Eastern Conference) with 87 points in 73 games. They are 21-14-2 on the road this season. They have gone 6-4-0 in their last 10 games.

New Jersey is coming off of a 4-2 loss to the Rangers in a brawl fileld affair last night, which extends their losing streak to 2 games.

Team Leaders:

Goals: Ilya Kovalchuk [30]
Assists: Patrick Elias [44]
Points: Ilya Kovalchuk [73]
PIMs: David Clarkson [134]
+/-: Bryce Salvador [15]

Player(s)-to-Watch:

David Clarkson registered a point (1G,1A) in each of the two meetings this season.

Starting Line-up:

Zach Parise - Adam Henrique - Ilya Kovalchuk
Petr Sykora - Patrik Elias - Dainius Zubrus
Alexei Ponikarovsky - Jacob Josefson - David Clarkson
Eric Boulton - Ryan Carter - Cam Janssen

Andy Greene - Mark Fayne
Anton Volchenkov - Marek Zidlicky
Bryce Salvador - Adam Larsson

Johan Hedberg

Injuries:

Henrik Tallinder
Travis Zajac

NJ blew their wad last night...hopefully they come out flat. We should be able to match THAT intensity!

Edit: Looking at their lineup...that's a pretty decent team right there.

Edit 2: Should we consider loading up the top line with MM, Spezza, The Alfie? And don't hand me the "we need to spread around the scoring BS"...what scoring?

Courtesy of last night's fight filled affair:

Sens have gotta get up for this one. This is the home stretch. Need to have a strong finish to the season on the way into the playoffs. I'm not gonna worry too much about who we'll match up with, I just want the team to start playing strong and go in on an upswing... after that, anything can happen.

GO SENS GO!!!

Cussing morons...wow.

And no one should feel badly for Carter, you want to do a staged fight and you get your faced beaten to a bloody pulp, so be it.

Dan Seguin: Zenon Konopka in the lineup tonight.

Here we go...

Brent Wallace: Konopka on playing NJ tonight "I hope they come out with the same lineup". Konopka will be in the lineup.

Man... this better not get silly.

The Butler is out tonight for Zenon.

Mendes: Zenon Konopka in; Bobby Butler out for the Sens tonight vs NJ.

Spezza will play his 600th game tonight. No doubt with a heavy heart.

Via Brent Wallace, it's Bishop vs Hedberg in nets:

"Bishop and Hedberg the goalies for tonights Sens - Devils game. Konopka in, Butler out."

It's about time for Zenon to draw back into the lineup.

shabbs wrote:The Butler is out tonight for Zenon.

Mendes: Zenon Konopka in; Bobby Butler out for the Sens tonight vs NJ.

Noted, thanks.

Riprock wrote:

shabbs wrote:The Butler is out tonight for Zenon.

Mendes: Zenon Konopka in; Bobby Butler out for the Sens tonight vs NJ.

Noted, thanks.

shabbs wrote:

Riprock wrote:

shabbs wrote:The Butler is out tonight for Zenon.

Mendes: Zenon Konopka in; Bobby Butler out for the Sens tonight vs NJ.

Noted, thanks.

This is a big one for us. 4 points up on 8th and 6 points up on 9th, we want to bank this one and get back to basics.

Spezza may still not be 100% mentally there, but after the funeral, I could see him being a little more focussed. We'll need him and Karlsson to bounce back and immediately put a goal or two on the board for the Sens.

Bishop will have to be solid again, it's a good test for him and the team.