Peepin' Foes: New Jersey Devils

Seeing as the big storm that has freaked people out is now only expected dump all of two to four inches on New York (as of 2:45am), the Ranger game Saturday night should go on without a hitch. Well, it should start on time, but the New Jersey Devils will definitely muck things up a bit. Puck drop is still scheduled for 7 p.m. and it will be on MSG2 for the Ranger-cast and MSG+ for the Devils.

Where We Are: Coming off of the seventh loss in eight games, one where the power play finally scored (three times!) and players other than Marian Gaborik found the back of the net but the team still blew a two goal lead to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. Despite the slide, the team is still in the thick of the playoff hunt in the Least.

Where They Are: Second place in the Least. They played Toronto three of the last four games and won two of them, including a wild one Friday night where they did a reverse-Rangers by not folding and blowing a lead at the end of a period and instead scoring three goals in three minutes to come from behind and win.

Who To Watch For: That game marked the Devil debut of Ilya Kovalchuk and he contributed two assists for his new side. He may do even better on Saturday should the rumours prove true and Patrik Elias return from that big hit last month. David Clarkson and Paul Martin will still be on the IR, but Jersey still has Zach Parise, still has Travis Zajac and still has Jamie Langenbrunner. But, the Rangers being the Rangers, Dainius Zubrus or Rob Niedermayer could just as easily strike or Vladimir Zharkov could score his first NHL goal.

What To Watch For: More goals than the last time this two teams met (the insanely exciting 1-0 shootout loss). Kovy to get more comfortable with the Devils and get off more shots in space. Langenbrunner making himself comfortable around Hank thanks to the Charmin Blueshirt blueline. Dean McAmmond building off of his goal and assist against Toronto. I always liked his work ethic but easily hate him now that he went from Ottawa to the Isles and then the Devils.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Marian Gaborik to keep his four-game point streak going. Ryan Callahan being better than Langenbrunner at his own game. Sean Avery re-introducing himself to Mmmmaaarrrrtttyyy. MDZ to regain a bit of a scoring touch. Michal Rozsival to get less ice time. Olli Jokinen staying out of the penalty box. Brandon Prust vs. either Andrew Peters or Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (what a hockey name).

Also Check Out: The solid Fire & Ice, SBN's In Lou We Trust and Rich Chere's MSM blog.