So here we are again.

Tonight we’re staring at another showdown with our cross-river rivals, the New York Islanders, who have inexplicably joined the Rangers in dominating our boys for the first half of the season.  In fact, the Rangers and Islanders have combined to hand the Devils a whopping 44 percent of their losses (that’s 8 of 18 for you non-math whizzes out there) thus far this season, which is nearly as scary as me figuring out the arithmetic for that percentage.

2008 is a new year though and the Devils are looking to assert some of the dominance they’ve had over, oh say, everyone else in the league to Nassau County’s finest. The Devils come into tonight’s game having won 10 of 11 at the Rock and are coming off a gritty come-from-behind win over the Atomic Slugs of Buffalo (thank you Joe) on Saturday evening.

Unfortunately they’ll have to beat up on the Islanders without the steady all-around play of John Madden, who has joined linemate Jay Pandolfo on the injury list for what hopefully will only be a few games. Madden sustained a deep 2.5 inch gash near his ankle after it met the unfriendly end of Henrik Tallinder’s skate during Saturday’s game. Rachunek and Cam Jansen are also still working their way back from injuries, and will not play.

The Devils have once again turned to Barry Tallackson to fill the injury hole, so let’s hope he steps up his play just a touch from his last few less than stellar stints on the big-boy rink.

The most notable change in the Islanders lineup since the Devils last saw the team will be the subtraction of Chris Simon, currently serving his most recent 6345 game suspension for being the biggest (though certainly not the sharpest) tool in the team’s utility belt. Presumably this can only work to their advantage.

There likely won’t be any surprises in net tonight — odds are Brodeur be staring at (and hopefully outplaying) Ricky DiPietro from across the rink as we get underway shortly after 7.

Be sure to tune it to 2ma in the coming days for post-game praise or anger and of course your usual helping of rants, commentary and general awesomeness.

The comeback trail begins tonight!