Lightning vs Devils Look A-Head

Its game # 42 for New Jersey and #43 for the Tampa Bay Lightning as the two face each other tonight in Newark. For the Devils, they will be seeking out points 62 and 63 and their third straight win. The Lightning lost their last game in Buffalo 5-3 after falling into a 3-0 hole early and on the year as a whole; they are 16-16-10 with 42 overall points. These two have had very evenly matched contests thus far, as every game has been decided by one goal, but the Devils won all three of them.

It was just the third game into the season when the Devils and Lightning met for the first time and if it wasn’t for a last second goal from Travis Zajac, it would have been New Jersey’s third straight loss. They went on to win the game in a shootout, but I can’t help but think if it wasn’t for that last second goal, we would have started out 0-3 and perhaps this entire season would have been different, you never know. Regardless of getting into “what if’s”, if history is any indication of tonight’s game, it will be closely contested. In fact out of the last ten meetings, eight of them have been one goal wins, but all of them by New Jersey. The Devils have won every game against the Lightning dating back to when they played in the 06-07 playoffs, when the Devils ousted the ‘ning in the first round 4-2.

Tampa is a curious team this year to say the least. They have seen some great goaltending from both Nittymaki and Smith, but also inconsistent play from the two. For a team with some great offensive names they are at the bottom of the league in goals for with 106, only convert on the power play 17% of the time, and have allowed 126 goals against. They are lead statistically by Martin St. Louis who has 10 goals, 36 assists for 46 points. The goal leader is Steven Stamkos with 21. The others the Devils have to watch out for is obviously Vinny Lecavalier who has 39 points this season, but also Ryan Malone who has a splendid 19 goals so far on the year. Malone only has 1 point in his last 4 games played, so look for him to try to bust out of that tonight, hopefully the Devils key up on him. The hottest player on the team right now has to be Vinny, who has 13 points in his last 10 games played, so Jersey will really have to watch out for his dynamic play.

Martin Brodeur will start in his 21^st consecutive game tonight. At the other end, the Lightning will put Mike Smith in net. Smith is 2-1-1 with a 2.24 GAA, .930 save % in his last four games played. I look for this one to be another tight affair, but the Devils should be loose and ready to go, as they are on two days rest and had an optional morning skate today.

SMART CHART
TB		TEAM		NJ
2.52		GOALS		2.98
3.00		GA		2.17
16.86		PP%		21.85
80.35		PK%		83.33
29.07		SHOTS OFF		29.61
31.24		SHOTS DEF		27.83
-0.48		GOAL DIFF		0.80