The final week before the Olympic break and it certainly is a doozy with 4 games in 6 days including two against the Flyers.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (36-19-2) at the Philadelphia Flyers (28-25-3). This is the 4th of 6 meetings this season and the first of two meetings this week.

The Last Devils Game: Thought they played a pretty good game, got a lot of shots on net but Henrik Lundqvist (and his huge pads) came up big for the Rangers as they went on to a 3-1 win over the Devils. If you go back and watch the highlights, Lundqvist robbed NJ at least half a dozen times.

The Last Flyers Game: They also ran into a hot goalie as the Flyers only got one goal on 39 shots and the Wild got 2 past the Flyers for the win.

The Last Devils / Flyers Game: Going into this game it seemed that the Flyers had the Devils number this season. They had won the previous two games 5-2 and then 3-2 but the Devils didn't want to hear that nonsense. Elias scored twice, including his 300th of his career and Marty stopped 22 of 23 as NJ got the 4-1 victory.

Tonight's Matchup: Follow the formula that was used in New York on Saturday night. Sure, Emery (if he plays) can be a spotlight stealing goalie but he's nursing an injury so I don't imagine him being 100%.

Devils had an optional practice yesterday morning which caught Mottau and Fraser working on passing. I was glad to see Mottau working hard yesterday because the one big error he made Satruday resulted in a goal against, something he was certainly disappointed in.
As for the lines, I liked what I saw on Saturday with the exception of Peters. That guy never does much and Saturday he got into two quick fights and then got benched in the third as we double shifted a wing. I'd keep the lines the same, including Peters since we'll probably need a little muscle tonight. I certainly would keep Kovalchuk and Elias together as their chemistry needs to grow and once it does, should be incredible.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (35-18-2) vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs (18-28-11). This is the third meeting between the two teams this season.

The Last Devils Game, The Last Leafs Game, & The Last Devils-Leafs Game: These two just met on Tuesday night in which Dion Phaneuf and Jean-Sebastien Giguere made their Leafs debut. Phaneuf made some hits, threw some fist and acted like a total pansy by not taking of his visor (maybe my #1 pet peeve in fighting). Giggy wasn't challenged and Toronto kept NJ off the board while getting 3 of their own. Overall, it was a disappointing game.

Tonight's Matchup: Kovalchuk makes his NJ Devils debut. I can actually say I never thought I'd write that sentence. So the goal tonight is to do everything differently than they did on Tuesday, make Kovalchuk feel at ease with his new team and hopefully start some kind of chemisty with the fantastic #17.

I'd imagine Brodeur will get the start tonight after getting to sit on Tuesday night.

I trashed Oduya a little bit in my Kovalchuk piece but now I will throw him a little bone. The defense won't have Oduya out there now so they will have to do a little better job containing the Leafs tonight. I'm sure we'll get to see Salmela tonight as well and certainly hope he brings something to the table as well.

NJ will need to make Giguere work. After last weekend, the Leafs team is a better team as we found out on Tuesday. I'm just hoping after yesterday, this Devils team is a much better team and the Leafs will find that out tonight.

Wonder what Kovalchuk can do? Watch this....

Yea, I think he's got some talent in those hands of his.

As for the lines, I really have no idea but I'll take a stab. (Don't be surprised if Kovy ends up on with Parise and Zajac tho).

I thought the effort made by the Devils last night against the Sabres was a million times better than the effort made the night before against the Senators. Actually, an average performace would have been welcomed last night over what was given to us on Tuesday night.

The Devils got chances last night and kept the pressure on for most of the game. As usual, I thought that Ryan Miller was excellent for the Sabres and is certainly the reason the Sabres stayed in the game. The Devils played a very clean game only taking one penalty, which I had to disagree with Jamie on, he did elbow Miller as he skated through the crease. The Devils penalty kill on that one penalty was fantastic and kept the Sabres scratching their head as their fans really got on their case.

Passing, which was down right awful on Tuesday was much better. Johnny Oduya made a nice heads up pass to a streaking Brian Rolston who found himself behind the Sabres D and took a nice low slapper that beat Miller above the pad and below the glove. (There was once a point in time we were complaining about Rolston right?!!)

The Devils defense did a nice job keeping the Sabres from sustaining any kind of pressure. The Sabres would come in the zone and get off a good shot or two, but then the Devils would clean up a loose puck or stop a pass or get a block and go turn the play up the other end of the ice.

The only point in which the Sabres were better was the shootout. Marty did a nice job on stopping Drew Stafford but then couldn't stop the next two shooters. Parise who I usually have no issues with seems to be stuck using the same move in every shootout. Miller did an excellent move to keep the leg down but part of me thinks he knew what Parise was going to do. Jamie's attempt wasn't any better.

I'll take the point, I always will. I would have prefered 2 but I thought the Devils played much better and that at least is a moral victory. The Leafs come into town tomorrow night which isn't the hardest matchup on the schedule and at a good time too.

As always. if you missed the game, watch the highlights here...

The Devils are doing an online chat with Ken Daneyko, today at 2pm EST. You can follow the chat right here and ask Ken your questions.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (34-15-1) at the Ottawa Senators (28-21-4). This is the 4th and final matchup of the regular season. The Devils are 3-0 against Ottawa and looking for the season sweep tonight.

The Last Devils Game: It was a game that I was certainly nervous about given the fact that NJ went into Long Island and got the worst beating of the season only 5 days prior but the Devils got revenge and beat the Islanders 4-2. The Devils had been struggling with scoring goals up until the Islanders game but found the back of the net 4 times. Let's hope that continues tonight against the Senators.

The Last Senators Game: When the Sens were forced to trade Dany Heatley in the summer, did anyone give them a chance at playing more than 82 games this season? The enators extended their winning streak to 6 with a close victory over their Northeast division rival Boston Bruins but Alfredson and Spezza were the difference makers in a 2-1 victory.

The Last Devils/Senators Game: These two teams last met in NJ and the Devils skated away with a 4-2 victory, although I felt it was a lucky victory. The Senators had chances, in fact the Devils took 6 penalties and the Senators couldn't capitalize on any of those chances. This was a game where I felt the Devils weren't very good but luckily the Senators weren't very good either.

Tonight's Matchup: Keep getting the puck to the net. The Devils got a lot of shots on DiPietro on Saturday night and got 4 past him. The more the puck is thrown at the net, the more chances of it going in the net. It's a basic rule in hockey and sometimes players forget that. Remember the Bryce Salvador goal the last time these two teams met? He just threw it at the net and somehow it bounced in. The Senators are a hot team as of recent so the Devils will need to show up for the entire 60 minutes. The Senators certainly aren't going to roll over and die tonight, not in their own building.

Zubrus will be back in the lineup tonight. It will be nice to have his size back in the lineup. Marty will be making his 30th start in a row and Colin White has only been fined - not suspended - for his hit from behind so he will also be available tonight. I think the Devils need to maybe dress Peters tonight, since Clarkson is not available as the Devils will have Chris Neil and Jarkko Ruutu to deal with.

These are the lines I would go with..

Zach Parise  - Travis Zajac  - Jamie Langenbrunner
Brian Rolston - Dainius Zubrus - Niclas Bergfors
Jay Pandolfo - Rob Niedermayer - Vladimir Zharkov
Andrew Peters - Dean McAmmond - Nick Palmieri


Andy Greene - Bryce Salvador
Colin White - Mike Mottau
Johnny Oduya - Mark Fraser

Martin Brodeur

One more thing, the Devils are hosting an online chat with Devils legend Ken Daneyko today at 2 PM on the official web site (You can also follow right here). Submit your questions in the chat, or by Twitter with the hashtag, #DaneykoChat (though you'll need to be in the chat to see if it's answered).