Keep an eye on Mario Lemieux near the end of tonight's game and you will know if John Madden, Bobby Holik and Randy McKay have done their jobs.
If Lemieux fires the puck at Madden again, it will have been another frustrating night for the Pittsburgh Penguins' superstar in the Eastern Conference final.
Lemieux more or less admitted that's how he relieved his frustrations as time ran out in the Devils' 3-1 win in the series opener.
"That's the first I knew of it," Madden said with a straight face yesterday as the Devils returned to practice after a day off. "I haven't read the paper. I've been home with my family. My wife had me sequestered for a couple of days.
"But if that was the case, I don't know, I've had worse things done to me, so that doesn't bother me."
Given that his nickname is Mad Dog and he graduated to the National Hockey League from one of Toronto's tougher neighbourhoods, it is not surprising that not much bothers Madden. He is accustomed to doing the bothering.
Madden did his job so well against Lemieux that he will stay at left wing on Holik's line tonight instead of returning to his regular job as fourth-line centre. Sergei Brylin, Holik's on-and-off winger, will play with Scott Gomez in his first game since injuring his knee early in the Eastern Conference semi-final against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"It's more that I want to keep the Madden and Holik line together," Devils head coach Larry Robinson said of pairing Brylin with Gomez and Alexander Mogilny, whose play has tailed off since the middle of the Leafs series.
The Holik line did not allow Lemieux so much as a shot in the first game. But this time, there are suspicions that Penguins head coach Ivan Hlinka will put Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr on the same line in order to crank up the offensive pressure on the Penguins.
When it comes to frustrating Lemieux, Madden says success starts with keeping the puck away from the Penguins' owner/player.
"That's number one," Madden said. "If you can isolate him when the other guys [linemates Kevin Stevens and Alexei Kovalev or Jagr]have the puck, then obviously they don't want to pass him the puck.
"You dump it in the defenceman's corner and make him carry the puck instead. You have to slow the game down, get a whistle."
Above all, Madden said, you have to be careful at the Penguins' blueline, as that is where they love to capitalize on opposition errors.
"Never, never, absolutely never give the puck away at the [Pittsburgh]blueline," he said. "It seems like nine times out of 10 that's what they're waiting on.
"They come back hard to their blueline and as soon as they get a turnover at the blueline, they use their backchecking speed and they turn it into offensive rushes."
If Lemieux and Jagr play together, the assumption is that Jagr will replace Kovalev at right wing. Both Madden and Robinson say this is only a perceived improvement, given Kovalev's 95 points during the regular season.
"I don't think it matters to me because the two guys that are switching are Jagr and Kovalev," Robinson said. "To me, those are two dangerous players. So whether Kovalev is playing with Lemieux or Lemieux is playing with Jagr, I don't think it matters.
"They are both big, strong wingers, so it is not going to change how I coach."
There is also the question of Jagr's shoulder injury, which may have been aggravated late in Game 1 when Holik drove him into the boards. That, too, is dismissed by the Devils.
"He's probably better than 80 per cent of the league with one shoulder," Robinson said. "You are always afraid of a wounded animal."
Nor has much thought been given to any feud between Jagr and Hlinka -- the star was caught on camera apparently refusing to go on the ice for a power play late in Game 1.
"Obviously, the media will always try to make a bigger deal of what happens," Holik said. "You can't always believe what you see in the paper, especially in the playoffs.
"I don't go by what I see in the paper, just what I see on the ice. No, I definitely do not [see a problem] I cannot tell you how they feel, I can only tell you I have to be ready because they will come out with the best they have."
No matter who is at right wing beside Lemieux, Madden says the mental pressure will be fierce for the Devils.
"When you have all those guys, whether you put them on the same line or don't, the whole time you've got to be watching what's going on," he said. "Who do you want to have the puck? Where do you want them to have the puck?
"Sometimes the best defence is going on the offence. Keep the puck in their zone, fore-check and have a sustained fore-check, make them play in their zone and get tired a bit."