Sounds like a broken record, doesn’t it?

I have no real ‘hate’ for the Devils.  It is not the same as the Rangers, but the Devils play can drive you to become a serious drinker, or a religious convert.

The team has to ‘forget’ about the past tendencies against the Devils, and come up with a supreme effort tonight.  The goaltending has been fine, but Ricky needs to step it up even further today than he has in the past.  I know that he looks up to Marty, but it is time to lay the smackdown on #30 in white.

I am not ripping on the team’s overall effort against the Rangers, but we are going to have to be extra careful about committing silly penalties against this team, because there is almost a certain chance that the Devils will not be penalized at all.  They are known for being the least penalized team in the NHL.  This should be point number 1 in their attack on New Jersey tonight.

Also - getting all three scoring lines going.   They have to make plays, get the scoring chances in, and find ways to stop the ‘non-trap’ that they use.  They may have to dump more than they are used to, but they have to make a great deal of crazy movements in the neutral zone to stop their blue line defense.  Again, all the lines have to ‘click’.

Hoping for a strong effort tonight.

Player to Watch:  Miro Satan - missed his first game in over 300 consecutive the other day, and just has not been himself in the past few weeks.  We need to get more consistency from him, and get his linemates moving as well.  It may be a 2 goal effort that may win it tonight, so we need to get output from as many as possible.

Again - congratulations to Trent on winning the Nystrom Award.  What a great effort and a class guy to boot!  By the way- that is my lovely wife Claire (not Carol as the Islanders had it on the board), presenting Trent with the award before the game Sunday.  Boy she looks small, doesn’t she?

Well - get the two points guys, and keep the pressure going.  We need everything that we can get.

Talk tomorrow…  By the way - check out Pat (the drive for five’s show) it is on Tuesdays at noon, on BrooklynCollegeRadio.org.  And check out Pat’s site (www.thedriveforfive.com).