Game 8 Preview: New York Rangers

Game 8 Preview: New York RangersGame 8 Preview: New York RangersGame 8 Preview: New York Rangers

I’m not a big fan of the Devils schedule so far this season. We’ve heard a lot of talk about how games won’t be spread out this season because of the Olympics in February but the last time the Devils played a game was Saturday night. I find that having so many days off in between games makes a team flat and sloppy when the next game comes around. Lets hope that’s not the case tonight.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (4-3-0) vs. New York Rangers (7-2-0). This is the second meeting of the season. The Rangers won the first meeting on Oct 5th, 3 -2.

The Last Game: The Devils are coming off their first win at home, a 2-0 shutout victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. The Rangers, who have been a surprise this season are coming off a 7-3 pounding by the visiting San Jose Sharks.

Game Thoughts: This has the makings of a classic Devils / Rangers game. There are a couple of story lines to watch like: Avery vs Brodeur, The Devils are a perfect 3-0 away from The Rock, Marty Brodeur is one shutout away from tying Terry Sawchuks record and how nice would it be to see that happen vs NJ’s biggest rival and then there is Henrik Lundqvist’s dominance over the Devils throughout his career. Tortorrella isn’t happy with the Rangers last performance so expect them to come out firing. This is the start of stretch where the Devils play four of five on the road, so they’d like a nice start to the time away from home with a win against their biggest rivals.

For coverage on the Rangers side of things (they cover NJ too), go visit our friends at Hockey Blog.

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