It seems like a common complaint coming from my mouth lately but the Devils schedule just seems to have large gaps of days with nothing going on. Of course, now that I complain about it again, you'll notice the Devils have 3 games over the next 4 days and tonight's game has a slew of activities for fans.

Lets get to the activities first...It's Mystery Puck night which means you can buy a puck at the stadium tonight for $25 (proceeds go to Unicef). Every puck is guaranteed to be signed by a Devils player or coach and will be individually wrapped (I bet they look like Ding Dongs) so the identity remains a surprise until after purchase. It's also "College Night" which means discounted tickets for college students (and lots of drunk rowdy fans!!) and if that wasn't enough, if you show up tonight in a costume, you can enter the Annual Devils Halloween Costume Contest and winners will get...wait for it....tickets to a Miley Cyrus concert at The Rock in November, or if you're like me you can choose a catered Devils Suite for a Devils home game for 20 people. OK, on to some pre-game hockey talk...

The Matchup - New Jersey Devils (6-3-0) vs Buffalo Sabres (6-1-1). This is the first meeting of the season between the two teams.

Last Game - The Devils rolled into Pittsburgh on Saturday night, stomped all over the defending champs and left the igloo with a 4-1 win for their 3rd win in a row but comes at a price as Martin and Pandolfo both go down with injuries. The Sabres come to NJ on the way back home after a successful 2 game sweep against the Florida teams.

Game Thoughts - Martin is going to be a big loss over the next few weeks but as I said the other day, it could have been worse for him and we could be throwing around the words surgery and months out of the lineup. Mike Mottau will jump back into the lineup after missing the Penguins game due to injury but as of yesterday, the Devils were still being very tight lipped about the defense-man taking Martin's roster spot. Pandolfo is also a significant injury tonight because he's one of the Devils best checking forwards and Buffalo is a very deep team but from reports on other sites, the Devils players understand they need to overcome these injuries and not let them ruin what they've accomplished so far. Marty is rumored to be the starter tonight but there is also a rumor that Denis will get to start in one of the next 3 games. I fear with the loss of their number one D man and the fact that Buffalo is a really good forechecking team, the Devils defense might feel reason to try and sit back a little more than normal tonight which could cause Marty (or Denis) to see a large amount of shots. Ryan Miller is an excellent goalie but the Devils have put 3 and 4 goals on Lundqvist and Marc Andre Fluery over the last two games. With that said, the Sabres do scare me a little bit and we all know the Devils have been a little less than stellar at home so far this season.

Enemy Blog For Tonight's Game - Double Edged Sabres

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.

The Devils come home after a succesful road trip that saw them grab all 6 possible points available to them.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (3-2-0) vs. the Atlanta Thrashers(2-1-0) and the first meeting of the season.

The Last Game: The Devils fought their way back from a 2-0 defecit against the Washington Capitals and beat them 3-2 in a shootout. Goals were scored by Rolston and Clarkson in regulation and Parise and Langenbrunner put pucks in the net in the shootout. Marty stopped 31 of 33 shots on goal. Atlanta is coming off a 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.

Game Thoughts: The Thrashers, in my opinion, have been playing better hockey this season. They started to season 2-0 but are coming off of a bad loss to a bad team. As always, Ilya Kovalchuk is the dangerous threat for the Thrashers as he has 5 goals and 1 assist in the 3 games played by the Thrashers.  Pavelec is a decent goalie but certainly a beatable goalie. These are the type of games that scare me as a fan. The Devils last played on Monday night and on paper the Thrasher don't pose as much of a threat but I find these are the games the Devils struggle with. The Devils are winless at home this season as well, so yes, I'm nervous going into this game. Carolina comes to town tomorrow night and I am hoping the Devils aren't looking ahead to that game because of the playoff loss to Carolina last spring. Marty gets the start tonight against the Thrashers and it was about this time last year that Marty got hurt against the Thrashers so here is hoping history doesn't repeat itself.

The Devils have found a little confidence since leaving the confines of Newark, NJ. They are currently out on a 3 game road trip and have won the first two games of that road trip beating Tampa Bay in a shootout and taking care of the Florida Panthers in regulation. It would be very satisfying to come away with a win tonight and finish the trip with a perfect record, which would be huge considering the mood in the locker room one week ago.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (2-2-0) vs. the Washington Capitals(2-2-1) and the first meeting of the season.

The Last Game: The Devils played their best game of the season Saturday night defeating the Florida Panthers 3-2 in regulation. David Clarkson put home the game winner with just over 3 minutes remaining in the game. The Devils Powerplay was 2-for-6 and looked to have some life to it. Even though it was, in my opinion, their best outing, there were certainly minutes where the Devils play wasn't very "snappy." Case in point, the Panthers tied the game at 2 while on the powerplay. Weiss skated into the Devils zone, blew by two defenders and rocketed a wrist shot over Marty's left shoulder.

Game Thoughts: The Capitals are certainly a much stronger opponent than either the Lightning or the Panthers. Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin is one of the most dangerous lines in the league. Ovechkin (five goals, five assists) and Backstrom (two goals, eight assists) are tied for the league lead in points with San Jose’s Dany Heatley and Joe Thorton with 10 each. Semin (five goals, four assists) is only one point behind so the Devils defense will have to be on top of their game tonight. The rumor is that it will be Marty v Theodore in goal tonight despite the reports that Denis would play a game during this road trip. Theodore has a 2.90 GAA (28th inthe league) vs Marty's 3.22 GAA, which is 38th in the league. The Devils should be able to put some pucks behind Theodore tonight but the same can be said for the Capitols. Both teams are pretty even when it comes to special teams. The Caps have lost their last 3 games (one in OT) and will be looking to get back on track. I would expected this game to have a pretty quick tempo to it and really be an entertaining game.

Head over to the Capital's Kremlin for some insight on this game from the Capitals point of view.

Elias News: He's is continuing to skate on his own but team management has not said when he would be skating with the team. “Everything is progressing,” Lamoriello said. “He’s been skating every day since he started last Tuesday and will continue to do so.”

 The Devils have lost the first two games of the season and are off to their worst start since 2001/2002. They were blown out by the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 in their season opener and then played a better game against the New York Rangers but made some mistakes that resulted in a 3-2 loss. Both games were at home and now the Devils head out on a 3 game road trip.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (0-2-0) vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning (0-1-1) and the first meeting of the season.

The Last Game: The Devils played better against the Rangers but they still made a few mistakes, left guys on the ice a little too long and the Rangers were able to take advantage of that. In the end, the Rangers scored the game winner with 22:10 left to play in the game and the Devils just couldn't put one past Henrik Lundqvist.

Game Thoughts: The Devils top line hasn't been able to really put anything together. Sure, that line was able to put together a nice goal the other night against the Rangers but for the most part, they've been a little disappointing. The Devils are 2 for 11 so far on the powerplay including some really horrible looking 5 on 3 oppurtunities through 2 games. The Devils need to capitalize on those types of chances should the Lightning hand those to them tonight. The Penalty kill has allowed 2 goals in the 9 times they've been shorthanded, something that ended up really hurting the Devils the other night against the Rangers. The 4th line that played on Monday night was absolutely horrific. They need to find their game because the Devils need to roll 4 lines effectively. The Devils need to get to goalie Mike Smith early.

As for Marty, he had a bad game against Philly and a better game against the Ranges but ultimately let in a soft goal that eventually stood as the game winner. His confidence is shaken and he needs to get on top of that right away. Sometimes, being on the road, away from home and family can be just the prescription needed to adjust any type of confidence problem.

Whenever the Devils play the Lightning, I always worry about Lecavalier killing us but it's not just him now. Tanguay, who's off to a slow start, will eventually wake up, St. Louis is always dangerous and Stamkos is certainly someone to worry about.

If you are looking for the Tampa Bay Lightning point of view for this game, head over to read our friend over at The Hockey Bay.

Just a little side note, the first win for Jaques Lemaire as the new Devils coach in 1993 came in the form of a 2-1 victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning. I'm just saying...

Updates via twitter tonight as they play.

Saturday was a terrible outing but the great thing about hockey is that there is always another game to be played either the next night or a few days later which means its a chance to erase the bad taste in your mouth from the last game, and boy is there a bad taste in our mouths!!

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (0-1-0) vs. the New York Rangers (1-1-0) and the first meeting of the season.

The Last Game: The Devils had a horrible start to the season getting routed by the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2. The Rangers are coming off a very good showing agasint the Ottawa Senators where they won by the score of 5-2.

Game Thoughts: The power play HAS to show up tonight. After reading the guys who cover the Devils practices in person, it sounds like the Devils worked on the power play a lot in practice yesterday. I'm not sure the reason why Parise was point man on the power play on Saturday night but he belongs on the side of the net. Parise is money when it comes to being at the side of the net on power plays. Lemaire had talked about a loss of confidence with his team after failing to get shots on net during a two minute 5 on 3. A few big hits can easily change any teams confidence in a hurry at any point in a game, so throwing some big hits at the Rangers is a must tonight. The Rangers have started the season much better than I thought they would so you can expect their confidence to be pretty high.

As for Marty, I said it in my Game one rant recap,he usually bounces back from poor games with a nice strong game and a game against the rival New York Rangers is certainly a game to do it. Sean Avery won't be in the game tonight due to injury so Marty won't have that distraction to face. It's early in the season but this is a game the Devils need to win. It's a game against our hated rival, a game after a terrible loss and the last home game beofre a 3-game road trip.

If you are looking for the Rangers point of view for this game, head over to Bloguin's Ranger site, The Manic Ranger I will hopefully be twittering during the game tonight, something I hope to do for the majority of the games this season.

For those who haven't seen it yet this season, here is the new "Hells Bells" intro being played at The Rock at the beginning of all the home games.

Finally it's time to talk about some real, meaningful hockey. I do love putting things together like league and team predictions but lets get to what this blog is really about, Devils Hockey!!

Recap of 2008/2009 Meetings: The Devils and Flyers split the series at 3 games a piece with the Flyers winning the final meeting last season.

Projected Lines:

Zach Parise-Travis Zajac-Jamie Langenbrunner
Brain Rolston-Danius Zubrus-Nic Bergfors
Jay Pandolfo-Rob Niedermayer-David Clarkson
Andrew Peters-Rod Pelley-Pierre-Luc Letourneau-LeBlond

Johnny Oduya-Paul Martin
Colin White-Mike Mottau
Bryce Salvador-Cory Murphy

Players to Watch: I thought Bergfors did enough in the pre-season to earn his spot on the roster for opening night. I am axious to see what he and Pelley bring to the table in this game. We've heard talk for the last two days about the reason Shanahan not being a Devil this season was because of the youth that NJ is going with instead, and now we get to see them in a meaningful game. Pandolfo who was on the fence about playing tonight appears to be playing and it appeared this morning that Matt Halischuk and Ilkka Pikkarainen were the extra forwards.

What To Expect: Pre-season meetings were a bit of a disappointment but this is the regular season where everything gets kicked up a notch. I do see a fight or two in this game and having Pronger on the other side of the ice worries me a little bit. I've never been a fan of his and I am always waiting for him to do something filthy and now he's in Philadelphia (the perfect fit!!). The Flyers do have some offensive power as well as defense too shutting out Carolina 2-0 last night, so the Devils can not sit back on any kind of lead that they may get. The Flyers Penalty Kill got a significant upgrade with the Blair Betts signing (who by the way is the one guy I wanted Lou to sign this past summer). Should be an entertaining game.