The Devils host the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at The Rock. Be on the lookout for what Tortorella does with Lecavalier and St. Louis, in case he puts one of them for Richards. Also, the Devils MUST avoid penalties tonight, or it will be a long day for Marty and the boys. Right now, the Devils will look to get a rowdy crowd buoyed by students in Halloween costumes and hopefully out-sell the Nets, who have their home opener against Chicago tonight at the Brendan Byrne Arena, which is now painted with red trim. It made me chuckle while working the Jet game on Sunday.

Back on topic, a reminder that if you are a student and you wear a Halloween costume, you will be allowed into Prudential Center for $10. Hope to see some great costumes tonight, as the winner of the costume contest wins Hannah Montanna tix, which sell for about a zillion dollars.

Anyway, we all know the key will be Lecavalier and St. Louis getting on the board and the Devils, *chuckles*, Deee-fehhhhnse trying to stop them, with the aid of ”6′7, 230 lbs. defender Olli Malmivaara, as the Devils look to dress 7 defensemen tonight, don’t be shocked if Mike Rupp sits it out.

On a final note, TSN has this game in Canada.

PREDICTION: Devils finally break the slump, but barely, in the shootout 2-1.

”6′7, 230 lbs.

Sweet. Hopefully Sutter goes with 7 defensemen tonight.

Preview later.

Sorry for the delay, but procrastination got the better of me yesterday. I was able to catch the game late last night, and I have to say that I was impressed at what I saw. The Rangers played a solid 60 minutes last night, which was probably their biggest problem last season. Some other things that stuck out from last night:

- Almost every site is reporting it, but it’s true; parking a man in front of the net did wonders for the power play. It was the reason for Jagr and Shanahan’s goals. Nigel Dawes’ was just a cool deflection. The Rangers need to keep that up.

- Fedor Tyutin’s hitting keeps getting better. So does Dan Girardi’s. Seeing Joey McDonald’s gear go flying was insane, but the fact that those two take players to the boards, or to the ice without taking penalties is exactly what needs to be done if the defense is going to stay this sharp.

- Sean Avery wants to come back for Thursday’s tilt against Michael Nylander and the Capitals, but it looks like he’ll be held back until Saturday’s game. When he comes back Jason Strudwick obviously goes back to his position in the press box and Ryan Hollweg moves back down to the fourth line, but no one can knock the job these guys have done. Strudwick has provided good forechecking minutes, and Hollweg didn’t look too out of place, although neither did anything spectacular either. The real problem comes when it’s time to move someone else out of the lineup, as Dawes cannot be moved.

Same lineup most likely on Thursday, and while I was all for a call up last week, I don’t mind not having one now. Shows why I am not behind the bench or in the front office for the Blueshirts. Maybe some day though, you never know. Back on Thursday unless something newsworthy happens.

You know, the Devils have been trying a great deal to create scoring by juggling up the line combinations at the forward positions. Here’s some advice: When developing chemistry, you might wanna let something stick for more than, I don’t know, two shifts? Jeez, Brent Spurrier changes lines faster than NJDevs.com goes through panic attacks.

You see, Brent Spurrier has been trying to find a combo of Top 6 - Hell, he’d take Top 2 if he could score - forwards, and this is what he came up with for his 4 lines for what will likely be the team that suits up against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Halloween night:

Parise-Zajac-Gionta
Elias-Brylin-Clarkson
Pandolfo-Madden-Zubrus
Pelley-Asham-Rupp

Wha?? Really? Now, I’m not as opposed to Sergei Brylin on line #2 as the rest of Horned-Tail Nation. Since he got hurt and missed 30 games during the 03-04 season, Sarge has increased his point totals (33-37-40) in the previous three seasons and played well with Patrik during their time with Jamie Langenbrunner. Well, my main problem is with the dishing of Dainius Zubrus to the 3rd line. Your really going to take someone your paying $3.6 million to be your #1 center and put him on the right side of the third line? Fair enough, Sutterior. Madden and Pando are our two hottest forwards, so maybe it’ll work, but I’d rather at least see him playing wing with Parise and Zajac, giving that line a little size that Gionta just doesn’t give you. And why not play Gio with Madden and Pando if they’re going to be counted on more to contribute offensively.

Let’s take a look at the line combos the Devils used in their three victories. For their October 6th win over Florida, this was the Devs 12 forwards:

Elias-Zubrus-Clarkson
Parise-Zajac-Gionta
Pandolfo-Madden-Asham

And in their 6-5 defeat of the Thrashers on October 12th:

Elias-Zajac-Gionta
Parise-Zubrus-Asham
Pandolfo-Madden-Clarkson
Rupp-Pelley-Brylin.

Finally, for the 5-4 wild one in Pittsburgh on October 16th:
Elias-Zajac-Gionta
Zubrus-Parise-Asham
Pandolfo-Madden-Clarkson
Rupp-Pelley-Brylin.

The problem is that Sutter’s not willing to keep a line together for more than five minutes. Maybe, if he found something that works and stuck with it, the Devils wouldn’t be 3-6-1.

Devils-Tampa tomorrow, 7PM.

The Rangers take on Tampa Bay tonight at the Garden at 7pm. Instead of calling someone up, they will again skate Jason Strudwick on the 4th line and move Hollweg up to the 3rd. Brandon Dubinski will get power play time again tonight, and he deserves it. Sean Avery practiced with contact today, getting checked by Dubinski several times throughout the session. He is hoping to play on Thursday, but Renney said it will more likely be Saturday.

I won’t be around tonight for any live threads. Schoolwork has to get done tonight so I will record the game, watch it late tonight and then add my 2 cents tonight or early tomorrow. Enjoy.

1, 2 and 3 are from the pre-game skate. You all should know what number four is.

1. Our Newest Prize
2. Pre-Game Skate
3. The Scoreboard all lit-up, front and center.
4. The great ones

Felt this deserved it’s own post:

1 & 2. Finishing up the mural.
3. A Devils Celebration
4. The last we saw Patrik Elias happy.

All of these are pictures from the mural.