Old friends Pete DeBoer, left, and Adam Oates, right, ready for a reunion Friday night.

In the Devils’ locker room Thursday afternoon, the “D” appeared to be the phrase of the day.

“I think they’ll be definitely a hard-working team and probably playing some real desperate hockey because they wanna get that win,” captain Bryce Salvador said.

When Oates arrived in D.C., he promised to revamp the Caps from the defense-or-die flag they rallied behind with Dale Hunter on the bench. Oates promised an attack-oriented team like the Caps teams we saw in Bruce Boudreau’s early years as coach — the style of play that helped Alex Ovechkin light up the league. Unfortunately for Oates, the lockout sapped whatever learning curve Ovi and co. would’ve had and the Caps have struggled to adjust through three games.

With that in mind, Mattias Tedenby admits the Devils will have to take take it up a notch, so to speak.

“I think we gotta play a little bit like we did against the Flyers but I think we got another gear as well offensively,” Tedenby said. “I think we had a solid game offensively, but I think we can do a little bit better offensively, create more and hold onto the puck a little bit more.”

Oates knows that, too. In fact, coach Pete DeBoer joked after Wednesday’s optional practice that his former assistant’s SAT scores were probably “at least a few hundred points higher” than his. DeBoer even admitted yesterday that Oates was a big part of the decision to move Ilya Kovalchuk to the right side last season — a move that seemed to Kovalchuk out of a fog and spur him to the fifth-most points in the league.

Oates is trying the same thing with Ovechkin this season, moving the league’s most dynamic player to his proper side and trying to get him to face the play more often.

“Stealing our ideas,” DeBoer joked.

And while the Devils might know a lot of Oates’ schemes, plans and tendencies, as Salvador points out, it goes both ways.

“They have a pretty good advantage because he was a big part of our team last year as far as implementing the systems and working with a lot of the individuals here,” Salvador said.

As for who the familiarity will serve best, the Devils’ captain probably had the best answer.

“Guess we’ll see after the game.”

Tonight the New Jersey Devils take on the San Jose Sharks at the Prudential Center. Now these two don’t usually see each other more than once or twice a year. In the two games last season, both teams won one game . However, both teams have made major changes since last season. The Sharks became a more defensive team with the acquisitions of Brent Burns, Jim Vandermeer and former Devil Colin White. The Devils became a younger team with the loss of Brian Rolston and Colin White.

I expect this game to be a very close game if the Devils can avoid the penalty box. The Sharks are a very good powerplay team. They thrive off of it. The Sharks can score from any where on the power play. One off the things they knew they needed to improve was the point on the powerplay hence the reason why Brent Burns is a Shark. Last season the only defensive threat on the powerplay was Dan Boyle. That is no more. Burns is going to be logging a lot of time on the powerplay.

The Devils can win this game with quick effective passing in the offensive zone. If they can control the puck in the offensive zone and play keep away from the Sharks. They can win if they can convert on some off all the time in the offensive zone.

Expect a fairly close game and fairly good number of chances for both sides. Please feel free to comment on the game as its going. Discuss and game on!