Tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET, the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders continue their preseason slates live from the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. The game can be live streamed here. New Jersey fans can hear all of the action on WFAN 101.9 while New York fans can do the same on WBBR 1130.
New York will play its final season in the Nassau Coliseum in 2014-15 before moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and this will be a dress rehearsal for the move and the second exhibition game played in the building.
The Islanders went 34-37-11 with 79 points last season and failed on their attempt to make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. The team added Mikhail Grabovski and Nikolai Kulemin through free agency this season to add to the young core they already have in place.
The top-line for New York in the regular season this year is slated to consist of Brock Nelson, captain John Tavares and Kyle Okposo while a line of Michael Grabner-Grabovski-Kulemin will round out the top-six.
Tavares is excited to get the Brooklyn crowd engaged in hockey.
"For us, we want to get the crowd going and get them involved in the game," he told the team's website. "We just want to bring over that atmosphere like we have at the Coliseum."
The defense will be anchored by a pairing of young Calvin de Haan and Travis Hamonic while Lubomir Visnovsky provides a veteran presence. The Islanders brought in Jaroslav Halak to shore up their goaltending situation which has been shaky over the last few years.
The Devils are coming off of a season where they finished 35-29-18 with 86 points and missed the playoffs for the second straight season. The team is hopeful to get back to the Promised Land this season.
New Jersey brought in forwards Mike Cammalleri and Martin Havlat to add depth to their offense this season. Cammalleri will likely find himself on a top-line with center Travis Zajac and veteran Jaromir Jagr, 43, who recently said he wants his career to keep going.
"I want to play until 50, maybe more," Jagr told NorthJersey.com when training camp opened.
Rounding out the top-six is slated to be a line consisting of Patrik Elias-Adam Henrique-Michael Ryder.
With Anton Volchenkov (Predators) and Mark Fayne (Oilers) gone, the Devils turn to a young defense led by Adam Larsson, who will skate alongside Andy Greene on the team's top pair.
In net, mainstay Martin Brodeur isn't around anymore, but the team feels confident that Cory Schneider is the future of the franchise.
Hockey comes to the Barclays Center when two Metropolitan Division rivals faceoff as the Devils and Islanders clash tonight in Brooklyn.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
