Tonight, the Rock will once again be full and fully in support of the New Jersey Devils. Will the Devils get some hope with a win tonight?

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The Time: 7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG+ (HD) & TSN (HD); Radio: 1130 AM Bloomberg

This is a must-win game for the New Jersey Devils.  If they lose, the playoffs are over for them.  If they win, hope remains alive.  This means do whatever it takes to get to the Rock, watch it on TV, listen to it on radio, use NHL GameCenter to watch it, or whatever means to support the Devils.  You know the saying, "Play like there's no tomorrow?"  Well, that's reality for this Devils team. 

I have some additional thoughts and quotes from others after the jump.  Check out Broad Street Hockey for Philadelphia Flyers coverage.

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Bruce Bennett - Getty Images

Let's do some more of this tonight in Philadelphia, Devils!(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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The Time: 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG+(HD) & TSN2; Radio: 1130 AM Bloomberg

The Official Watch Parties: Two locales for an important game. If you're 21 or over, why not watch the game with your fellow Devils fans: Rella's in Brielle and Park East in Hazlet.

The Goal: The Philadelphia Flyers lead the series 2-1. The New Jersey Devils need to win.

The Ramifications of a Devils Win: Ties the series up and makes it a best-of-3 with two games in Newark.

The Ramifications of a Devils Loss: We're praying for a repeat of the 2000 Eastern Conference Finals.

The Captain Needs to Step Up: I explain why here.

But Really, the Whole Team Except Brodeur Has to Raise their Game:  For the unaware, a recap of Game 3.  For those who didn't read that, let me summarize: it was a game where the Devils missed the net and were blocked twice as much as they had shots on net, a game where they went into a third period and overtime tied but came out with little-to-no effort to take the lead, and, among other facts, a game where they couldn't figure out that the refs were calling things tight despite the Flyers taking 4 straight legit calls in the first period.   It was not a good performance outside of Martin Brodeur being magnificent (and if you want to be really generous, Dainius Zubrus and Brian Rolston weren't so terrible).

Why Doesn't Brodeur Have to Raise His Game? Because he already has in this series.

The Devils do have to play much better tonight.  The team had a meeting on Monday to sort out what went wrong and what they need to do, per Tom Gulitti's post.  Let's hope the action follows the words.

Believe it or not, I have some positive perspective after the jump.

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Bruce Bennett - Getty Images

Can the Devils strike early in Philadelphia? Can the Devils carry the positives over from Game 2 into Game 3? Can there be another sweet goal by Zach Parise? (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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The Time: 6 PM EDT/3 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG+(HD) & TSN(HD); Radio: 1130 AM Bloomberg

The Official Viewing Party: If you're over 21 and in the area, go the Squan Tavern in Manasquan, NJ and watch the game with your fellow fans.

The Positives to Take Forward: I came up a few results from the 5-3 win by the New Jersey Devils over the Philadelphia Flyers that I feel the Devils should build on going forward.

The Importance of this Game: It's 1-1 in the series and tonight's game will be important. The Devils have not won in Philadelphia all season long; winning Game 3 would not only give them the series lead but really strike a blow in the hearts and minds of the Flyers faithful. It'll put a ton of pressure on Philadelphia for the following Game 4.  As for the Flyers, they'll want to establish their home ice. After all, it's now a best-of-5 with 3 of the games (including tonight) taking place at the Wachovia Center.    Personally, should the Devils want to win this first round, they'll need a win in Philly.  Why not tonight?

A few quick thoughts about the game after the jump.  Please check out Broad Street Hockey for Flyers coverage should you want it.

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Bruce Bennett - Getty Images

Can the Devils skaters give this man, stopping Mike Richards here, some goal support? Please? (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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The Time: 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG+ (HD) & TSN (HD); Radio: 1130 AM, Bloomberg

The Goal: Win.  OK, that's obvious, but going into Philadelphia down 0-2 is not an option.  I don't care if it's ugly. I don't care if it's long. It's all about W's at this point.  Death or Glory, Devils.

The Key Adjustment: In my opinion, the players need to be more patient.

The Beard-A-Thon: Yep. I'm not making this up.  Here are the details if you're into that sort of thing. Bruce Driver currently leads in total raised to date.  If you're going to the Rock for Game 2, you can get started on your beard - no, your current beard doesn't count - thanks to King of Shaves who will be present for this sort of thing.

A few quick thoughts about tonight's game after jump. If you want Flyers coverage, go to Broad Street Hockey. But don't trust them with anything about, say, the crowd at the Rock. I'll be there in my seat. They won't.

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The Time: 7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG+(HD); Radio: 970 AM The Apple

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils vs. the Philadelphia Flyers

The Outside Party: NHLTweetup is meeting in NYC, so if you're over 21, use Twitter, but can't get to the Rock to support the Devils, follow the Devils there.  Details and deals here.

The Key: Momentum

I have a few quick thoughts about tonight's game after the jump.  It's a bit short as with all the previews out there, the ones I linked, all the stuff Tibbs has linked, and so forth; there's not a whole lot of new ground to cover.  Do check out Broad Street Hockey if you'd like to learn more about the Flyers.

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Jim McIsaac - Getty Images

Will we see more Devils goals today? More importantly, who on the Devils will we see this evening at all? (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

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The Time: 5 PM EDT/2 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG+ (HD); Radio: 660 AM WFAN

The ILWT Promotion: $0.15 per comment to TEAMJLO, an organization set up to fight ovarian cancer - more details here.  Yep, we're doing this for today too.  GameThread will be open early at 3 PM EDT.

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (47-27-7) vs. the Buffalo Sabres (45-26-10)

The Last Devils Game: The New York Islanders came to the Rock and got proverbially smashed by the Devils 7-1. Just a good, old-fashioned blow out.  How nice it is to be the one giving those out.  Here's my praise-filled recap of that game.

The Last Sabres Game: The Buffalo Sabres decisively defeated the Ottawa Senators to end Ottawa's season on a down note, 5-2.    It was the first time the Sabres have beaten the Senators all season.  Tomas Vanek was a monster with 4 of the Sabres' 5 goals including the rare penalty shot goal.  Check out Die by the Blade for opinion and analysis on that game.

The Last Devils-Sabres Game: Way back on January 27, the Devils were mired in their slump that would go on to continue into February.  Coming off a 3-0 loss to the Senators the night before, the Devils did play a much better game in Buffalo. The only problem was that the Sabres had Ryan Miller in net, who was on the top of his game.  40 shots against and only one could beat him.  Martin Brodeur was no slouch either, as he stopped 31 shots and only really failed in the shootout.  In retrospect, it was a good thing that the Devils forced a shootout given how inconsistent they were playing back then.  The Sabres won the shootout and so picked up two with an official final score of 2-1.  Here was my recap of the game, which chose to focus on the good things the Devils did that night.  David Olesky of Die by the Blade had a more negative take in his recap. The Devils are 1-1-1 against the Sabres this season.

The Goal: Put out a good performance.  The Devils already clinched the Atlantic Division so they'll either finish second or third in the Eastern Conference.  Since the Devils don't absolutely, positively have to win this game, I just want to see a solid performance by the Devils.  Nothing too crazy, no injuries, and nothing that would cause anyone too much concern going into the postseason.   It's not about the result, it's about keeping momentum - that's what I think is the most crucial aspect to look for in the big picture.

I'm literally writing this after the recap of the last game, so news is a bit sparse on both sides. Consider this a more "abstract" preview in that sense.  Please check out Die by the Blade for the Buffalo side of tonight's game.  Please continue after the jump for a few more thoughts on this evening's game.

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The Time: 7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG (HD); Radio: 660 AM WFAN

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (46-27-7) vs. the New York Islanders (34-36-10)

The ILWT Promotion: $0.15 per comment to TEAMJLO, an organization set up to fight ovarian cancer - more details here. GameThread will be open early at 4 PM EDT.

The Last Devils Game: It wasn't your traditional letdown, but the New Jersey Devils lost the last game of their three-game road trip to the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.  The Devils pounded Scott Clemmensen with all kinds of shots of varying kinds of difficulty, but they could only beat him twice. The Panthers, unfortunately, scored thrice. Given how they didn't try to do much after scoring their third goal, it can be said that Clemmensen earned them the win.   My recap of that game can be found here.

The Last Islanders Game:  Truth be told, the Islanders faithful wished the team they supporterd had a night like New Jersey's.  Instead, they were the opponents at the final regular season game ever at Mellon Arena. The Pittsburgh Penguins were pumped and simply pounded the Islanders en route to a 7-3 win.  Unfortunately, Alexei Ponikarovsky literally pounded Josh Bailey's face leaving the latter to be out with facial fractures and the former suspended.  Dominik's recap of the game at Lighthouse Hockey is very much worth your time.

The Last Devils-Islanders Game:  After the Devils beat the Penguins again, they went over to Long Island to play the Islanders back on March 13.  As great as it was to see the Devils beat the Rangers and the Penguins in consecutive games, I felt the 4-2 loss to the Islanders represented a step back for New Jersey in my recap.  A strong first period performance was negated by a rush near the end by the Islanders.  The second period performance wasn't good, and ultimately was never fully answered. The Devils showed some signs of hope in the third period that were eliminated after a shorthanded goal by the Isles.     For the Islanders' side, Dominik at Lighthouse Hockey was appropriately happy about the performance and result.   Incidentally, the Devils are 3-2 against the Islanders this season.

The Goal: Keep up the offensive effort - the goals will come.  While one can't reasonably expect all four forward lines and the defense (esp. Mike Mottau) to rush up ice like mad and bomb many pucks on net in every game, the offensive effort against Florida was admirable.  Here was a game that looked to be a trap game on paper: opponent with nothing to play for, it's on the road, coming off two straight shutouts.  On top of that, Jacques Lemaire shuffled up the lines, throwing some flux into the matter. While the result was disappointing, the Devils played quite well considering the concerns I had prior to the game.    If performances are a priority, then I'd have to say they team's been doing quite well in the run up to the playoffs.

Therefore, the Devils should look to put out a similar effort - in terms of intensity, possession, puck control, and I suppose the universal phrase of "hustle" - tonight to secure a win.  Yes, the Islanders' defense isn't as poor as Florida's, but I highly doubt the Devils will run into another goaltender playing out of his mind tonight. 

Check out Lighthouse Hockey for Islanders coverage from an Islanders supporter.  Please continue on for my additional thoughts on tonight's game.

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The Time:  7:30 PM EDT/4:30 PM PDT

The Broadcast: TV: MSG (HD); Radio: 1130 AM WBBR

The Matchup: The New Jersey Devils (46-26-7) at the Florida Panthers (31-36-12)

The Last Devils Game: Was it a dominating performance? No.  They battled the Atlanta Thrashers back and forth for the first two periods, while putting together a goal in each period.  Travis Zajac scored roughly 10-11 seconds into the third period and the Thrashers just gave up.  The Devils won 3-0, Martin Brodeur picked up his 110th shutout and 600th career win, and Atlanta was eliminated from the playoffs.  Here is my recap of that game.

The Last Panthers Game: In a game noted for a horrible blunder by Keith Ballard, the Florida Panthers lost to the Ottawa Senators 4-2.   As you may expect from the score, not much went right for the Panthers. But Donny Rivette of Litter Box Cats pointed out a few players who did OK in his recap.

The Last Devils-Panthers Game:  Way back on January 20, 2010, the Devils putting up a win was very welcomed.   It did snap a then-three game losing streak.  The Devils hosted the Panthers and defeated them 2-0.  Actually, the second goal was an empty net goal; so the Devils put up a 1-0 lead during the second and held on.  Not bad as it was in the middle of (in hindsight) a bad stretch of hockey for New Jersey, with several goals helped out by their own defense.   Travis Zajac scored with Nick Palmieri picking up his first NHL point; Dean McAmmond got the empty net goal to seal it; Tomas Vokoun stopped 31 of 32 shots and the Panthers in front of him never really supported him.   I recapped the game here; a short, to-the-point recap by Donny Rivette of Litter Box Cats can be found here.  The Devils are 2-1 against the Panthers this season.

The Goal: Avoid the trap game - come out fighting.   That the Devils put up shutout wins over Carolina and Atlanta on the road were impressive on their own.  In the bigger picture, though, I feel the best accomplishment about both games was that the Devils didn't play down to their level.   Well, here comes the spoiler tonight, the final road opponent of the regular season: the Florida Panthers.  The Panthers have nothing but potential draft position and pride to play for - and Florida head coach Peter DeBoer's not a fan of playing for a draft spot.   Are the Panthers a bad team?  Yes.  Will they shock the Devils if/when Tomas Vokoun plays as well as he does and their youth carry the water on offense and defense?  Only if they aren't prepared.  

Say what you will about the Islanders, but at least that's (somewhat) of a rivalry and it's at home.  The last game of the season against Buffalo can be important with respect to playoff seeding for both teams.  This game, however, doesn't carry much extra motivation.  It's great that Jacques Lemaire thinks the team can do better - let's hope he'll set higher expectations for tonight.  Otherwise, we could see a letdown in Sunrise.

Check out Litter Box Cats for Florida-based opinions about tonight's game later on. Please read on after the jump for my additional thoughts on tonight's game.

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