Penguins vs Devils Gameday 66. Playoff mode in full effect?

Pens vs Devils, the fourth match-up between these two teams so far this year. The series is led 2-1 by the Penguins, however they lost against the Devils in their last outing on January 20th, a game much like today's with the absence of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Injuries are still an issue for the Penguins, but give them a little bit of credit as they came out of Toronto on Wednesday night without losing a player to injury.

New Jersey has turned things on of late going 18-2-2 since January 9th, and 9-1 in their last 10 games. Pittsburgh is a paltry 3-4-3 in their past 10 games and has not won a game in regulation since February 4th.It was speculated that Chris Kunitz would be back for this game however Bylsma announced he won't be attending tonights game in Jersey, he may however play tomorrow night in Boston.

Mark Letestu was recently given top line duties with Kovalev and Neal, he didn't come out and do too well last time against the Leafs but he was getting into his role as the game progressed. Hopefully after a bit more time together this line will work some magic and help Neal get his first goal as a Penguin, so that Errey can freak out about grabbing the puck for the guy who netted it.

Defensively Niskanen and Lovejoy are coming into their own as well. Niskanen tallied his first 2 point game since 2009, and Lovejoy was all over the ice on Wed against the Leafs. With Orpik out still both of these guys will be on the ice for the Penguins D, however Penalty Killing is not a crutch and the team knows they can't lean on it.When asked about the P.K "One thing we have to do a better job of is staying out of the penalty box. Keep teams from testing our penalty kill too much." Bylsma said, "We’re comfortable in those situations and it’s that time of year where games tighten up and it feels more like playoffs."

That is definitely what the Devils have been trying to do since going on this "one game at a time" mentality. Win every game possible, one at a time, just like the playoffs. They've tightened up significantly but the Pens have studied up and been practicing for this type of situation. Based on practice and Wednesday's game we can expect the same line ups.

Predicted Line ups for tonight's game:

 Offense

James Neal - Mark Letestu - Alex Kovalev

Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy

Maxime Talbot - Dustin Jeffrey - Pascal Dupuis
Mike Rupp - Craig Adams - Chris Conner

Defense

Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Kris Letang - Deryk Engelland
Matt Niskanen - Ben Lovejoy

Between the pipes for the Penguins? Big Brent Johnson! Fully healthy and here to give Fleury some rest in a back to back series.

What I said during the game day write up for Jan 20th:

Tonight we're going to have a match-up between what used to be a really good team, and what used to be a really bad team. The Penguins meet the Devils tonight in Jersey, without both of their star players. This is the first time that this has happened since February of 2006, back then Geno wasn't even on the team! To fill the void Byslma has called up Dustin Jeffrey again and put him up on the first line against the Devils.

Ah to live in a world where only calling up Dustin Jeffrey was the least of our worries...

Let's Go Pens!