Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Detroit Red Wings (28-20-12, 68 points) and New Jersey Devils (26-23-13, 65 points) faceoff for the second of three meetings this season live from the Prudential Center in New Jersey. The game can be live streamed here. Detroit fans can hear all of the action on 97.1 The Ticket while New Jersey fans can do the same on 101.9 WFAN.
Detroit is hanging on to the second and final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and has two games in hand on New Jersey, which trails the wild-card leaders by three points. The first time these two teams met, the Red Wings defeated the Devils 3-1 on Dec. 6 in New Jersey.
The Red Wings have won two in a row and are missing their leading scorer, but general manager Ken Holland doesn't see the team doing anything major ahead of Wednesday's 3 p.m. ET NHL trade deadline.
"We had some unrestricted free agents last year," Holland told the team's website. "We weren't a buyer, we weren't a seller, I felt if we could just get our team together we could play our way in, which we did. Other than [Henrik] Zetterberg, for the most part we're healthy. We're probably the healthiest we've been since early December."
Zetterberg (16-32-48) paces the team in points and is sidelined for the rest of the regular season with a back injury. The team will also be without Pavel Datsyuk (15-18-33) due to a knee injury. With Zetterberg sidelined, Niklas Kronwall leads the team with 39 points off of six goals and 33 assists while Daniel Alfredsson has 37 points off of 14 tallies and 13 helpers.
For the Devils, all eyes will be on the man in the crease as rumors have gone rampant that Martin Brodeur may be traded prior to the deadline, making Tuesday possibly his last game in a Devils uniform. A report surfaced on Tuesday that Brodeur was being dealt to the Minnesota Wild, however it has since been refuted and the Wild traded with the Oilers to acquire goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.
Still, Brodeur could suit up for his 1,250th career game with the Devils in what could ultimately be his final one. The Devils will look to put off-ice distractions behind them in order to bounce back from a 4-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
"You've got to have a short-term memory this time of year," coacn Pete DeBoer said via NHL.com. "We gave ourselves a chance to win [Sunday], we didn't and we've got to regroup and be ready for Tuesday because they're all big."
Brodeur is 14-11-4 with a 2.47 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage for the Devils this season. He'll likely be opposed by Jimmy Howard, who is 13-13-9 with a 2.60 GAA and a .914 save percentage for Detroit this season.
New Jersey has been led offensively by Jaromir Jagr, who has 52 points off of 19 goals and 33 assists while Patrik Elias is 2-4-6 in his last three games and has 13 markers and 26 helpers for 39 points and Adam Henrique has four goals in three games and has lit the lamp 18 times while adding 15 assists for 33 points.
The Red Wings and Devils hit the ice in what could prove to be Brodeur's final game in a Devils uniform when the lights come up at the Prudential Center tonight in New Jersey.
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