In Lou We Trust

You know, I did get a chance to listen to the final 5 minutes of the second period and the entire third period on the radio. I must say, Matt Loughlin and Tom Chorske aren't that bad to listen to. The game they were covering on the other hand, wow, that was atrocious. Well, the Parise-Zajac-Langenbrunner line looked good. They got the 2 goals for NJ. But where does one begin in describing this ugly game?

1. I could start with the top line of Elias-Gomez-Gionta. Who did very little last night. NJ was poor on the offense, having only 16 shots on Rick DiPietro. Worst of all, Gomez' groin may have acted up during the game, so he only got 15 minutes of ice time and missed most of the second and third periods (Hat tip: Star Ledger).
2. The team as a whole got outworked. The VERY first thing I heard in on WFAN when I turned on my radio was Chorske stating that the team got outworked so far against the Isles.
   
3. The defense was a shambles. Reading the Devils message board on HF as I listened to the game, I learned that Colin White's most impressive move in the first two periods was falling down with no one around him. Really. White did get a good hit on Yashin which seemed to be the only positive thing he done all night. He was poor. Martin was poor. Rafalski didn't do much. Just poor.
4. Marty got lit up. No way around it.
   
5. This infuriates me the most, so I'll use the most annoying way of saying it: THE POWER PLAY WENT ZERO FOR SIX. THEY SCORED THREE POWER PLAY GOALS IN THEIR LAST EIGHT GAMES WHERE IN THEY HAD FORTY FOUR CHANCES. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE IN THIS NEW NHL(tm)! YOU HAVE A MAN ADVANTAGE, DEVILS, TRY TAKING ADVANTAGE OF IT!
   

Just dissapointing; even Viktor Kozlov scored against the Devils. Last night, I kind of wished Jason Blake was a Devil. The Islanders had NJ's number last year and they certainly had it last night. The only Islander who didn't have a good night last night was ex-owner Sanjay Kumar, who got 12 years for fraud (3 years less than DiPietro's contract, Isles fans!). Tredon Lynch at On Fire does a little fact-finding and discovered that the Devils are 4-8 when they have 4 or more days without a game. Well, the team certainly hasn't played with any consistency. Before the Isles games, the Devils were playing, well, Devils hockey against the Panthers and the Blue Jackets. He's also worried about the Montreal game, as the Canadiens owned and pwned the Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 with not one but TWO shorthanded goals.

I'm not. Why? Just look at Martin Brodeur's stats at NHL.com

In the 43 games against the Canadiens he's played, Brodeur is 29-12-5 with a lifetime GAA of 1.81, a save percentage of 93%, and 6 shutouts. Brodeur is THE MAN in Montreal. All Devils fans know that Brodeur comes up big when the game is big, and what could be bigger at this point in the season? The Devils have just come off a bad loss to a division rival in their home, they need to get back into the swing of things in Montreal - Brodeur's home away from home. Montreal has started the season off well enough at 7-2-3, so it certainly won't be easy. Nevertheless, the Devils win in Montreal not only puts them back on their winning ways; but a win will give the team a ton of confidence as well as sending a message to the rest of the league that NJ is not on the decline. But if this team can't get a lift from what Marty normally does in Montreal, some tougher questions will have to be asked of the team's heart and of the coaching staff's game preparation methods. In any case, I'm optimistic for tomorrow's game.

Labels: Devils Postgame