St. Louis Blues Visit Red-Hot New Jersey Devils

Don’t look now, but the New Jersey Devils and future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur are the hottest team in the NHL.  The Devils (31-19-3) will go for their sixth win in a row on Thursday night when they host the St. Louis Blues (31-14-7) at 7:00 p.m. (ET).

New Jersey’s Brodeur blanked the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers (33-13-5) for his first shutout of the season with a 1-0 road victory on Tuesday that had a controversial ending.  New York captain Ryan Callahan appeared to tie the game in the final seconds, but teammate Marian Gaborik was called for interference and the goal was waved off.

Brodeur improved to 45-27-20 lifetime against the Rangers and earned the 117th shutout of his career.  The Blues will be another tough opponent for the Devils, who have lost three of the last four meetings, although they have not played against each other since 2010.

St. Louis is coming off a 3-1 road win against the Ottawa Senators (27-22-7) behind another strong performance in net by goalie Brian Elliott, who stopped 28 shots from his former team and improved to 16-5-2.  Elliott was sent to the Colorado Avalanche (27-25-3) in a trade deadline deal a year ago from Ottawa before joining the Blues.

The Nashville Predators (32-17-5) are tied with St. Louis for second place in the Central Division with 69 points after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks (33-15-5) on Tuesday.  The Predators visit the Senators at 7:30 p.m. and will try to hand them an eighth straight loss.

New York will try to bounce back from the loss to the Devils when they host the Tampa Bay Lightning (23-24-5) at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.  The Rangers hold a three-point lead over the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins (33-16-2) for the lead in the East through 51 games and a four-point edge over the Philadelphia Flyers (30-16-7) in the Atlantic Division.

The Washington Capitals (28-21-4) moved ahead of the Florida Panthers (24-17-11) in the Southeast Division standings with a 4-0 victory in a head-to-head matchup on Tuesday.  The Capitals have blanked opponents in three of their last four wins but have surrendered four goals in each of their past four losses.

Washington hosts the Winnipeg Jets (25-24-6) on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and has won the last two meetings after dropping the previous four.

The Panthers host the Los Angeles Kings (26-18-10) at 7:30 p.m. and have lost the last seven meetings in the series.  The Kings are 11-7-6 on the road and trailed the San Jose Sharks (29-15-6) by just two points in the Pacific Division heading into Wednesday’s action, but they had played four more games up to that point.