NHL

Devils to face Jets without Kovalchuk

Doubly ironic, isn’t it? The latest transplants who couldn’t keep their superstar player visit the past nomads whose tents remain historically portable, the ones who grabbed that left wing but might not be able to keep their own.

The recent Atlanta Thrashers, the ones who couldn’t hold onto Ilya Kovalchuk, have morphed into the second coming of the Winnipeg Jets, two decades after the previous Atlantans, the Flames, flew north to Calgary. The original Jets, the WHA trailblazers of Bobby Hull, Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg, have long since moved to Phoenix, where the Coyotes endure as an endangered species themselves.

The new Jets tonight visit the Devils, the ones who moved from the Meadowlands to Newark after spurning Nashville and Hoboken. They were shipped to New Jersey from Denver in 1982 after Kansas City, where the franchise originated in 1976, folded.

The Devils’ financial worries just don’t go away. June hangs over their heads as a deadline to find angels before all hell breaks loose. Forcing partners to pay their way out of ownership, discount debt sales, unpaid rent and the novelty of a payroll budget totals a tale of trouble without guarantee of a happy ending. Their salvation may be the fact the Thrashers found the only currently available destination, because Hamilton, Ontario, was nixed.

The Thrashers couldn’t convince Kovalchuk to stay with them — and probably thus travel to Winnipeg — even with a $100 million offer. Instead, the Devils signed Kovalchuk for $100 million over 15 years, and that salary balloons to $11 million next season.

Teams are lining up their offers for Zach Parise, figuring the Devils, with financial concerns, will have real trouble signing him next summer. Foes figure the Devils will have to make it two straight seasons of trading away their captain as a rental — in the next four months — before losing him for nothing as an unrestricted free agent. Last season, the Devils dealt captain Jamie Langenbruner to Dallas.

The further irony is Kovalchuk probably won’t play tonight, having suffered a leg muscle pull in the waning moments of Thursday’s 4-3 shootout victory in Philadelphia. That triumph snapped the Devils’ three-game losing streak, their second victory in their last seven games (2-4-1).

Johan Hedberg, another Thrashers alum, is expected to sit out as well, after winning Thursday. Hedberg suffered a back injury during the game, and Martin Brodeur will seek his first victory of the season. It is the first time in his career Brodeur, who has appeared in just three games due to a shoulder injury, has been winless (0-2) into November.

Eric Boulton, a third recent Thrasher, might be ready to return from the hand he injured in a fight two weeks ago.

The Devils play host to the Hurricanes on Tuesday and the Capitals on Friday, then visit Washington a week from today to start five straight and 10-of-12 on the road.