They're not the same Devils team we've grown to know over the years, not by any stretch of the imagination. Martin Brodeur will not play tonight, replaced by Johan Hedberg. The Devils are coming off a comeback win, the same night as the Bruins beat the Sabres, so they've had the same amount of rest, and while it's as-yet-unknown if their best offensive weapon will be returning to the lineup tonight in Ilya Kovalchuk, though as of right now, it seems like that's going to be a no.
Here's the lowdown on tonight's matchup, quick and dirty: Hedberg has a 6-3-1 record, 2.229 GAA and .917 save percentage. New Jersey's power play is converting at an abysmal 10.0% (remember what that feels like?) which is good for dead last in the league. Their PK is second best in the league, killing 93.0% of penalties. On the flip side, the Bruins have leapfrogged into 14th on the PP, and sit at 10th on the PK. Man it feels good to be average.
A little more fun with numbers: if the Bruins win tonight and a certain combination of losses occurs, Boston could be sitting in 8th in the Eastern Conference tomorrow morning, or 18th in the league. Talk about clawing your way out of the basement, right?
After the jump, projected lines and other junk.
Enemy Site:
In Lou We Trust
Records:
Bruins: 8-7-0
Devils: 8-6-1
Injuries:
New Jersey Devils
Ilya Kovalchuk (gametime decision?)
Boston Bruins
Andrew Ference (lower body)
Dan Paille (mangled face)
Projected Bruins lines
Forwards
Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Nathan Horton
Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Benoit Pouliot-Chris Kelly-Rich Peverley
Jordan Caron-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton
Defense
Zdeno Chara-Johnny Boychuk
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Steven Kampfer-Adam McQuaid
Goalies
Tim Thomas
Tuukka Rask
Scratches: Daniel Paille (broken nose), Andrew Ference (lower body)
Projected Devils lines
Forwards
Petr Sykora-Patrik Elias-Dainius Zubrus
Zach Parise-Adam Henrique-Nick Palmieri
Mattias Tedenby-Ryan Carter-David Clarkson
Vladimir Zharkov-Brad Mills-Cam Janssen
Defense
Henrik Tallinder-Mark Fayne
Andy Greene-Adam Larsson
Bryce Salvador-Anton Volchenkov
Goalies
Johan Hedberg
Martin Brodeur