Smoking hot Devils visit Senators tonight

The Devils come in to tonights game against the Ottawa Senators winners of 6 out of their last 7 games. They went in to the all-star break with a very convincing 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens. At the start of tonight's game, the Devils stand atop the Atlantic Division with 61 points and 3rd overall in the conference.

Both teams will come in to the game well rested with each team only having 1 player (Parise, Heatley) participating in this weekends All-star festivities. The Devils will obvious look to continue their winning ways. It appears as if Scott Clemmensen will be between the pipes again tonight and Jay Pandolfo will be the odd man out again. He is obviously upset but he is being the "loyal soldier" and not making a big deal about it in the media. Lets be honest, the Devils, for the most part, aren't a very young team, so the amount of the depth they have will afford them the luxury of resting players down the stretch, thus keeping everyone fresh for the playoff push.

Brent Sutter is very confident in the lineup he is putting out on the ice each night and he is rolling all 4 lines. Every single night he is getting production from each line. Maybe not on the scoresheet but definitely they are affecting the game. The last time the Devils had a team this deep was the 2000 season and we all know how that one ended.

Here are my players to watch tonight:

Travis Zajac has scored 5 goals in his past 7 games. Playing along side Zach Parise has certainly helped with his confidence. Almost as important as the production he is putting up, is how he is playing in all situations. Penalty Kill, Power Play, 4-4. And not only is he playing in those situations, he is playing extremely well. He obviously learned alot last season and has really carried that learning experience over in to this season already surpassing his goal total from last season.

Patrik Elias has hit a bit of a dry spell the last few games heading in to the break with only 1 goal in 6 games. He was getting opportunities, he just wasnt able to put them away. I expect that to change tonight. He has always played well against Ottawa and I expect tonight to be no exception

Johnny Oduya has been tremendous all season long and he appears to finally realizing some of his offensive potential. He has been taking more chances this season in the offensive zone and it has really made a difference with 4 goals and 14 assists and he is a +13.

Prediction: The game will almost definitely start out slowly but I expect the Devils to find their groove and begin to play their game early in the 2nd period. Scott Clemmensen will put in another stellar performance and the Devils will walk out of Ottawa 4-1 winners.