Saturday, April 14, 2007
Rd. 1, Post Game 2: Tampa Bay 3 - Devils 2
The Tampa Bay Lightning evened up the series by winning tonight 3-2. As always, NHL.com has the official scoresheet and official super stats of the game, linked respectively.
I could go into depth about the game, discuss what the Devils did right (and they did some things right) and what they did wrong (obviously they did some things wrong). I could go into how much better Johnny Oduya was, their continued success on the power play, or how improved the Devils were on their discipline. I could go into how poor the Devils were on the first power play in giving up a shorthanded goal to start the game, how Martin Brodeur should have had that shot late in the second that tied it up at 2, or how the Devils really should have calmed down in the third period and focused on getting solid shots on Johan Holmqvist as opposed to rushing the puck up and getting a shot on Holmqvist's chest whenever they are not offsides. You may say that I already have done that; but I say I could elaborate further on all of those things. However, I will be brief for a change:
The New Jersey Devils played exactly one good period of hockey (the second). Teams who only play well for one period will not win in the playoffs.
Needless to say, the Devils need to play much better overall for the entire game for Game 3 on Monday. The series now goes to Tampa Bay, but unfortunately for the Lightning, the Devils are pretty good on the road (24-14-3 record this season, third most road wins in the NHL). Of course, if the Devils give a performance similar to this in Game 3, the chances of victory will be significantly lowered for New Jersey.
Labels: 2007 Playoffs, Devils Postgame
# posted by John Fischer @ 9:47 PM 0 comments 
