It's time for the rivalry game. It'll be the last one for the regular season, and the Devils want to break this streak. From Gulitti's report at today's morning skate, it doesn't appear the Devils will make any lineup changes for tonight's game.
As expected, much hay is being made about Sean Avery. Brent Sutter both told Gulitti and Chere (who happens to mention Avery in about every one his posts today) the following:
"This is about the New Jersey Devils trying to do what we need to do to get our game back to where we want to get it to and push forward. And it's about the New York Rangers wanting to play well and do the same thing. That's what this game is about. All this stuff about Marty and Avery makes a great story line, but it's totally irrelevant about what's going on."
That's exactly right. Dittos, kudos, and what-have-you to Mr. Sutter. I completely agree. (Aside: Thank you Rich Chere for at least stating what happened in Avery's last game against the Devils.)
In any case, Blueshirt Banter (outside of whining about Avery) says it's a must win for the Rangers. It's a must-win for the Devils unless they want to go into April in a slump and tell Philadelphia, "Hey, let's make these last two weeks interesting." And so it is your game thread tonight. Your expected starting goaltenders:
VS.
You can go to Blueshirt Banter for the other side of tonight's game. For those of us who hate the Rangers and/or love the Devils, keep it here. Feel free to leave any comments about the game; just keep it clean (PG) and keep it relevant to the game. Go Devils.