- The Matchup: New Jersey Devils (13-4-1) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (9-7-2)
- The Time: 7:00pm EST
- The Broadcast: MSGSN, Devils Hockey Radio
Last Devils Game
On Saturday, the Devils found a way, yet again, to get a win, defeating the Washington Capitals 3-2 in the shootout. There was a mixture of good and bad this game. However, they did get the win, and that’s all that matters. The Devils did take a 2-0 lead in the first period before letting up 2 goals 7:29 apart in the 3rd period to send the game to OT (and an eventual shoot out). I would have been happy to get at least 1 point, but the Devils dug deep to get the 2 points.
The Capitals and Ovechkin decided a 99% innocent play by Bratt warranted putting a bounty on his head, culminating with a hit in the first period where Bratt ended up down on the ice during Luke’s 1st goal of the season (finally!). I’m sure those of you watching were about to walk out of the room and vomit like I was, but Bratt got up and was able to finish the game. Not only did Bratt finish the game, but he made an absolutely filthy move in the shootout to get the Devils on the board in round 2.
Heading into round 4 of the shootout, Alex “headhunter” Ovechkin missed on his attempt (karma) setting the stage for the Devils to win. In what at this point, should seem obvious, Keefe decided to send out Simon “en fuego” Nemec to attempt to win the game. Of course, he scored. What else is there to say about Nemec recently? From the late, game tying goal against the Islanders (saving a point), to his hat trick against Chicago (including the game winner in OT) and his shootout winning goal against Washington, the kid, for the moment, is absolutely unstoppable. Please hockey gods. Let his play continue like this forever.
Last Lightning Game
On Sunday night, Tampa Bay lost to the Vancouver Canucks by a score of 6-2. It was game number one of a three game home stand. Overall, the Lightning are in the middle of a run where they play 4 of their next 5 games at home, with the only road game being a short trip to Washington on Saturday.
Tampa Bay had a 2-0 lead early in the 2nd period on Sunday, before letting up a goal to end the period still ahead 2-1. After that, the game went completely off the rails in the 3rd period. Vancouver scored 5 goals in the 3rd period, including 3 of those goals in a less than 2 minute span. For some reason, Tampa Bay decided to pull their goalie while down 5-2, allowing Vancouver to “seal” the win with an ENG. Tampa Bay should have plenty of motivation to come out ready to play tonight. Besides collapsing in the 3rd period of their last game, they also lost the last game they played against the Devils, back on October 11th, which now seems like 3 years ago.
The biggest difference between that game and tonight, is both teams had relatively healthy rosters back in October. Tampa Bay, like the Devils, has had its share of injuries this season too. As of today, Tampa is missing Victor “I like to spear Nico in the groin” Hedman, Anthony Cirelli, Pontus Holmberg, Ryan McDonagh and Nick Paul. Obviously this could always change before tonight, but at least the Devils aren’t the only team missing significant players to injury.
Injuries, Roster for Tonight, Yada, Yada, Yada.
After the joyous recent news about Jack Hughes, I am pleased to inform you all that there might be some actual good news today. Per Amanda Stein from practice yesterday, it appears Dougie Hamilton, Connor Brown and Evgenii Dadonov WILL travel with the team on the rest of the road trip. It’s not certain who, if any of the 3 will play or when on the road trip, but the fact that they all practiced with the team and are going on the trip is a good sign. Basically, they may not all be back tonight, but they should all be back sooner rather than later.
In other roster news, the Devils have placed Cody Glass on injured reserve retro to 11/12/2025 and recalled Ethan Edwards from Utica.
Grimace’s Prediction and 2025-2026 Record Tracker
Grimace and I got into a recent spat over his last game prediction. He originally said they were going to win against Washington. After Jack Hughes got hurt, I made him change his prediction to say they would lose. We sorted it all out, and I agreed to let him make his own predictions from here out. Grimace believes the Devils will find a way again to win tonight!
Grimace’s 2025-2026 Season Prediction record currently stands at 7-3-0.
Your Take
The Devils right now, continue finding ways to both win and put points up on the board. With the injuries the team has been facing, it would be easy to fold, but the team refuses to quit, and I for one, love to see it. The only “complaint” that I have for tonight is, for the sake of my nerves, can the Devils not have their 6th straight OT game tonight? Sure, they won 4 out of those 5 games, but it’s too much stress! Feel free to leave your thoughts and comments below and thanks for reading!
In a shameless bit of non hockey related self promotion (approved by Chris – thanks Chris), I wanted to plug my brand new podcast on here, if any of you are interested in listening. We have a light hearted, fun discussion about any movies, music or video games mostly from the 1980s and 1990s. Please feel free to listen to us on any of the formats below and any feedback is welcome (positive and negative). Also, please follow us and subscribe, even if you think we stink. 🙂