Thursday, November 08, 2007

 

Devils 4 - Flyers 1

The New Jersey Devils rebounded from their terrible loss to Pittsburgh with a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The latter link goes to the game summary at NHL.com, which has the links to all the box scores, super stats, and other in-depth information as well as a recap of tonight's game.

First, the criticism:

-The Devils started a bit slow and conceded the first goal of the game, a power play bomb from the point by Mike Richards.
-The Devils conceded too many penalties: handing the Flyers 7 power plays.
-Speaking of power plays, the Devils had 6 power plays and couldn't finish on any of them, including a double-minor in the first period.

Now, what actually matters:

The Devils fully woke up after the Richards goal and began to take the game over. 4 goals in even-strength play on Martin Biron. 39 shots on net, with only 14 shots against. The Devils did not dump and chase the entire game, they actually carried the puck into the zone at times and crashed the net to great success - and were unfortunate to light up back-up Antero Niittymaki. The defense was absolutely solid, the penalty killers were good after the first power play against, and the offense was threatening all night long. The game featured a number of firsts: Dainius Zubrus' first goal as a Devil, Rod Pelley's first ever NHL goal, and Martin Brodeur was solid in what little he faced in earning his 499th career win. The Devils finished their checks, the finished off the Flyers, and played a solid three periods of hockey. After a terrible loss, this is exactly what good teams are supposed to do - they respond to a bad loss with a strong win.

Friends, this is how we do it.

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