Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Shaking the Monkey

That sounds dirty. I'm actually referring to the monkey that has been on the Canadiens back with respect to the New Jersey Devils for the last few seasons. The numbers speak for themselves: it's the second meeting in the last ten days between the teams; The Habs have beaten Jersey twice in a row. Since moving from the Forum to the Bell Centre, the Devils have dominated the Canadiens with a record of 12-6-1-1 on the Habs home ice.

Hot for the Devils: Martin Brodeur (3-0-0, 0.98, .972 in last 3 GP), Zach Parise (5 pts in last 3 GP)

Cold for the Devils: Arron Asham (0 pts in last 10 GP), Dainius Zubrus (0 pts in last 7 GP)

Hot for the Canadiens: Alex Kovalev (10 pts in last 6 GP), Andrei Markov (12 pts in last 11 GP)

Cold for the Canadiens: Michael Ryder (0 pts in last 5 GP), Francis Bouillon (0 pts in last 6 GP)

Quick notes: Devils centre Patrik Elias is 4 assists away from surpassing Scott Niedermayer as the Devils all-time leader in that category. Zach Parise has emerged as a solid two-way forward and his +23 rating reflects that. He also leads the team in goals and points.

The Devils have scored 180 goals and allowed 159. The Habs have scored 223 and allowed 197.

Tomas Plekanec is apparently a gametime decision as he continues to deal with flu-like symptoms. He didn't skate today but could still suit up. Steve Begin has missed the last six games, three with an ankle injury and three that Carbo left him out of the lineup.

Devils defenceman Colin White left Friday's game with an upper body injury and missed their last game, against Toronto. Another Devils defenceman is dealing with injury as Paul Martin deals with several minor injuries, he's missed their last four games.

Sports Illustrated's Michael Farber has this great piece on Mike Komisarek. Farber is a top-tier talent in the field of Hockey Journalism and he doesn't hold back when talking about Komisaurus.

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