Buffalo at New Jersey Tonight

So much for the New Jersey Devils and their slow start this year.  After stumbling out of the gate with back-to-back losses to Philadelphia and the Rangers that saw Marty Brodeur looking like (insert Islanders goalie here), the Devils have roared back and won six of their last seven.  And coming off wins against the Rangers (4-2) and Penguins (4-1) they are playing with confidence despite losing more than their fair share of players over the past two seasons.

Zach Parise (12 pts.) and Travis Zajac (10 pts.) seem to be the players making the Devils tick this year, and they were teaming up with Jamie Langenbrunner on the right wing to form the Devils top line.  Niclas Bergfors is getting a reputation as a young gun, while our old friend Danius Zubrus has managed to stick around New Jersey for a couple years now as well.  Also, we may well get to see Andrew Peters tonight, but if you blink you might miss him as Peters is averaging a little more than 5:00 of ice time in the four games he has played.

Unfortunately for the Devils, they have been hit hard the past couple days with injuries.  In addition to Patrick Elias, who has yet to play this year after groin surgery, the Devils lost forward Jay Pandolfo for 4-6 weeks with a separated shoulder in Saturday’s game against Pittsburgh.

They also will be without their most dependable defenseman, Paul Martin, who is also out 4-6 weeks with a busted forearm.  The injury came after he took a slapshot from Bill Guerin to his left arm against the Penguins.  It appears Mike Mottau will be rushed back into the lineup a little before he is ready as he tries to come back from a hip injury, as Mottau did not practice with the team on Monday.

All this means the Devils are juggling their lines for tonight’s game.

In Buffalo, it’s the magical nine-game anniversary date for Tyler Myers.  Never have more words been wasted on blogs or on the radio than in discussing if he will be sent down to the minors or remain with the Sabres.  We said it after training camp and after the second game of the year and nothing has changed except he went from top-six in the defense to top-two in that time.  So please, no more “ooooh!  If Darcy fucks this one up!” comments.

Amazingly enough for the Sabres, the entire forward corps is healthy.  I do find it interesting that Ruff has been playing Ellis over Mair, but that’s a pretty minor point.

On defense, Toni Lydman will miss his second straight game and Andrej Sekera is not yet ready to return, so it’s Nathan Paetsch for the second straight game.  Paetsch played well enough while being matched with Steve Montador against Tampa Bay Saturday night, and his ice time was appropriately low enough at 12:48.

It’s a 7:00 start and the TV will be wearing it’s away graininess as we endure yet another game not in HD despite the technology being widespread enough that I can watch every game in the league in HD on Center Ice.  Hey, Buffalo is 6-1-1 so I have to find something to complain about!

UPDATE:  You want the good news first or the bad news?  Oh, bad news?  OK.

Andrew Peters won’t play tonight.  That’s bad.

Good news?  HD! (Click through for instructions to hear the hometeam broadcast on DirecTV).