The Devils are coming off of a frustrating loss to the Bruins and now have to face a Blackhawks team that has been struggling as of late (Although they are beating Minnesota tonight by a big margin). The Bruins out Deviled the Devils by waiting and waiting until they got their chance; they made it count. Blaming Kovalchuk seems too easy to do since he was the one who bumped into Elias and was trying to create a goal in the last minute. That’s what you get from Kovalchuk, a guy who can make or break the game.  Getting a point out of the effort the team put forth is good though managing to stay only one point behind Pittsburgh (who failed to point against Tampa Bay tonight). After the terrible loss to the Flyers, in which the Devils played a terrible brand of defense, they tightened up the screws. This is what the Devils are supposed to be good at, playing shutdown defense every night. When they get away from that style of hockey they don’t play well and the team looks out of sync.

This next game against the Blackhawks is pretty crucial. Obviously, winning to get the two points to get the top spot in the Atlantic is a big deal, but also going out and beating the Hawks, who can score lots in bunches, shows the Devils can contend with western teams. The game will hopefully will be a stepping stone and a confidence booster going into the playoffs. To win the Devils are going to have to play smart hockey. Don’t let the Hawks get their big bodies in front of the net to screen Marty. If need be, give the shooting lane to stop the guy in front and let Marty kick out the rebounds into areas where players aren’t. Jacques keeps tweaking the lines so we’ll just have to wait and see who’s with who but the Devils are going to need to win battles down low against the boards if they are going to have a good chance in scoring.

The Devils have started this trend of playing extremely well against good teams and poorly against teams that should be an easy victory. Sure, the Blues have been heating up and doing their end of season run but to get shutout by them really shows a lack of effort (Brodeur not included). Tonight the Devils play the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are having a lackluster season based on last year’s performance. On paper this looks like an easy win for the Devils but who knows at this point. Predicting a winner is tough because the Devils should be able to easily outplay the Blue Jackets but lack of motivation might prevail again.

If the Devils are going to win tonight they are going to have to play good offense. Scoring goals hasn’t been this team’s problem, motivation has. The Devils can score them in bunches and can do that early, so look for long possessions in the Blue Jacket’s zone. If the Blue Jackets can weather said storm, they can go into the second period strong and probably catch the Devils sleeping. The second period has been a killer for the Devils since they have started their subpar play. It is crucial for the Devils to win this game and tie for first in the Atlantic.

Right now the main problem is the inept power play that hasn’t gotten better since the addition of Kovalchuk. He was supposed to fix all the problems right away and it hasn’t done anything and might have made it worse. The power play before he showed up was hovering around 20% and now has dipped down to 17.6%. When adding up the Devils power play and penalty kill, which is a way to determine the effectiveness of the specialty teams, the Devils are at 99.9%.100% is the ideal but at this point the Devils power play needs to get better to put them into the elite teams in the league. There is no clear cut reason for the power play troubles. However, a major problem is with how the points are being worked. Offense on the power play is stemming from passing from the points to down low or shooting from the points when there aren’t any good shooting lanes. Teams are giving up passing lanes to players down low, so why not pass down low? If you start the offense from down low you can free up the point man. Kovalchuk isn’t a passer, he’s out there to bomb shots from the point but he can’t do that if you don’t give him space. If you have the three guys on one side drawing the attention of the penalty killers you can free up space for Kovalchuk so he can get a pass to one time. Maybe this isn’t the solution to the problem but mixing it up rather than being stagnant and hoping it’ll click seems like a better solution.

Last night against the Rangers, the Devils showed off their offensive flair. Or rather the Rangers didn’t play good defense all night (not that the Devils were good either). The Devils for the most part of the game sustained a strong forecheck which allowed them to keep possession in the Ranger’s end. Although the Rangers were pretty deflated after Lundqvist was pulled unfairly. None of the goals against were soft and Lundqvist cannot possibly be expected to make up for the bonehead plays the Rangers defense sees so fit to make.

All night the Devils third line looked good. And by the third line I mean Niedermayer and Clarkson because Rolston, even though he had a goal and an assist, managed to be invisible. He has size but refuses to check, he’s got a rocket shot but can’t hit the net, and he makes terrible passing decisions. What was great about the third line was the chemistry between Clarkson and Niedermayer. They worked the puck along the boards to each other wonderfully and while being defensively sound they put on a lot of offensive pressure.

ZZZ (Parise – Zajac – Zubrus) had some renewed energy and were great. Zubrus seemed to thrive on the wing and made a great blind pass to Zajac into the offensive zone to where he scored against Auld with what is becoming his patented slapper. Lemaire is having problems with the 2^nd line which should seem like a no brainer. You let Kovalchuk and Elias out there and they should just score, right? Well that isn’t the case. Elias only logged 16:08 of ice time last night and played at center. Elias’s lack of defensive prowess was easy to see and was the reason for a goal against. A play making center makes sense for Kovalchuk but Elias isn’t that.

For the match up with Pittsburgh: Fraser only logged 5:56 of ice time and was effectively benched after a pass into the slot which resulted in an easy put in for Prust. Salmela will probably be back in the lineup. Pittsburgh has been hot and this will be a good test for the Devils to play good defense and then letting the offense roll. In four previous games with the Pens this year the Devils have won all four meetings and have only allowed two goals against. At this point in the season the Devils need to win one of the last two meetings so hold Pittsburgh close if they want to win the division.

This blog is fueled by a few things: Marc Savard getting hit in the head by Matt Cooke and ESPN opinion guys.

Being busy as a college student really hampers my ability to watch ESPN shows regularly and I used to love them. On Around the Horn and PTI the opinion guys were talking about how they found Matt Cooke’s hit to be dirty which I can agree with. What I had a problem with is how they compared NHL hockey to Olympic hockey and how they don’t allow fighting in Olympic hockey and how the NHL should make moves to become like the Olympics.

A main opinion was how if you remove fighting and the need for it in hockey you can get rid of players getting hurt by these terrible hits. I think what the ESPN announcers fail to grasp is how important hockey tradition is. Fighting isn’t some type of barbarian brawl or gladiatorial games meant to satiate the blood lust of the fans. Fighting is for sticking up for your teammates, giving your team energy, and policing hockey. I believe that if you get rid of the instigator penalty you’ll see less hits because guys will get fought for what they do.

What are your opinions on this subject?

To be fair to Edmonton, they came to play. It wasn’t any fancy brand of hockey but it was a physical, weather the storm kind of hockey. As a team that has been demoralized for the duration of the season should be an easy win even for a struggling Devils team, right? Last night’s game was a lack of focus. From the first shift the Devils (except for Parise) looked like they didn’t have their legs. There was this lackadaisical to every shift, even when the Devils were applying some of the best offensive pressure they could.

There is no need to break this game down period by period because for the most part the Devils play stayed pretty constant over the course of this game. Of course, which is the norm for the Devils lately, they decide that in the last couple of minutes that they should try to actually win and they pour on the offense, to no avail. Still, with only 22 shots on goal the Devils didn’t really pressure Deslauriers too bad. He did make some great saves, like the breakaway chance on Kovalchuk, but the Devils really could have capitalized on a goal tender who has been down on his luck this year.

On a positive note, Martin Brodeur looked very good. He made 33 saves and kept the Devils in this game as long as he could. The goals against you could not really blame on him. The first goal was what happens when you get two defensemen playing together for the first time. Skoula wanted to make a good impression and looked to be trying to hard at times but in general his play was what to be expected. The second goal was a defensive breakdown by the Devils and a great pass diving pass by Robert Nilsson to get the puck right on Marc Puliot’s stick.

The last couple of games the Devils didn’t have problems scoring goals but those pains returned. There are reasons why the Devils would be tired but they aren’t excuses. The ends of road trips for most teams translate into weak efforts and the Devils always have a half effort before a rivalry match (Rangers on Wednesday). If this team has gotten into the mindset that they are going to make the playoffs they better wake up because lazy play like this is going to turn into a first round exit and a big lose (there are reasons why Kovalchuk might resign but at this point it points to no).

Seeing that the Devils just recently added Ilya Kovalchuk and Anssi Salmela you might guess that the Devils would have a boring trade deadline, and you were sure right. The Devils traded a fifth round draft pick in 2010 to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Martin Skoula, who had just been moved from Pittsburgh a few days ago. Skoula knows Jacques Lemaire and will hopefully fit will into the Devils as a depth defenseman and might actually prove to be better than one or two of the existing players. It seems that this trade deadline was all about defense as many teams around the league and the Devils could have tried to get another quality defenseman. James Wisniewski and Dan Hamhius seemed to be good fits but since no more trades have been confirmed for a few ours it is a safe bet that the Devils are sticking with what they got.

The lines look somewhat like this:
Fowards
Zach Parise – Travis Zajac – Jamie Langenbrunner
Patrick Elias – Dainius Zubrus – Ilya Kovalchuk
Brian Rolston – Rob Niedermayer – David Clarkson
Jay Pandolfo/P3L – Dean McAmmond – Vladimir Zharkov

The forwards look good in my mind. I would have liked to see Jere Lehtinen round out that fourth line and kill penalties but Pando in a limited role might be able to salvage was has turned out to be a lackluster season. With Clarkson being back Devils fans never have to see Andrew Peters again, which is a good thing. For the future the Devils should try to find a better second line center than Dainius Zubrus and hopefully he can have a strong rest of the season and a good playoffs to up his trade value. His contract is unreasonable for the amount of production he’s brought.

Defense
Paul Martin – Andy Greene
Bryce Salvador – Martin Skoula/Anssi Salmela/Mark Fraser
Colin White – Mike Mottau

Sure, Martin isn’t back yet but he’s scheduled to play after the Devil’s road trip and this really brings a sigh of relief to all Devils fans. Hopefully Colin White and Mike Mottau get a considerable drop in play time because defensively these two just make bad decisions. I’m guessing that Anssi Salmela will be sent down but it is possible that he won’t because the Devils are really lacking another puck mover that would be really helpful on the powerplay.

Lastly, you might notice the fancy red and green Devils logo that was used for so long. Today, NHL.com started selling the Christmas tree jerseys which is very excited as these jerseys are going to be brought back for March 17th. Lots of the Devils faithful still have their red and green jerseys but if you’re a younger fan these jerseys are nice and new and a nice way to tip your hat to Devils history.

After a riveting Olympic break that brought all hockey fans worldwide to the edge of their seats we come back to regular old NHL hockey. The Devils are sitting in an uncomfortable second place with the Pittsburg Penguins nipping on their heels. The teams play each other twice more and you can bet these games will be heated and gritty.

The Devils have some issues to address by the deadline in the form of a defenseman. Even though Paul Martin has been slated to come back after the break, the top six still need a good puck mover. The rumor mill says that James Wisniewski might be the one. He’s a good mover who will help out the ailing power play and does play with a physical edge. Both qualities the Devils greatly need. Fraser, White, and Salvador play with that physical edge but defensively can be exposed if made to play too many minutes. Martin is a great minute eater and defensively rock solid. This leaves Mottau who is neither physically strong nor defensively strong and should not be playing, period. Adding Wisniewski and removing Mottau would be a great improvement.

Today, the Thrashers traded for Evgeny Artyukhin. What is important about this is that he is a right wing who could be a replacement if Maxim Afinogenov is on the move. Kovalchuk did not really mesh with his Devil teammates and rumors say that Max might be traded for because of this. Afinogenov’s contract is a paltry sum of $800,000 and is an UFA at the end of the season. You bring him in to create offense with Kovalchuk for the rest of the season and you could have a winning combo. There is no word on who would the Devils would give up but it would seem that a draft pick would probably compensate for Afinogenov.

One last rumor is that the Devils may trade for Jere Lehtinen. He would be an improvement over Pandolfo, who has been terrible as of late. Lehtinen would bring even more veteran presence, great defense, and a little more of a scoring touch than Pandolfo.

For most of the season, this Devils team played with numerous injuries and played above expectations. AHL players stepped in and filled roles that they were not supposed to. However, the last month has not been kind and the Devils need a boost. Clarkson and Martin coming back should really help the team out. First of all, with Clarkson in you eliminate the need for ever playing Andrew Peters or Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond. He might not fight as much as them or be a heavy weight but he has proven that he has found a scoring touch while retaining his ability to fight and do dirty work. As a whole, the Devils need to find themselves in the form of a strong power play, consistent offense, and that well known shutdown defense. Line chemistry needs to be created and sustained if the Devils want to make a strong showing into the playoffs.

I am new to the site and as you can probably tell I will be blogging for the Devils. I'm still learning this blogging system so I hope this all gets posted correctly.

Pregame: This is an important game for the Devils seeing as the Olympic break is just a few days away and they are in need of points. Pittsburgh is only one point behind the Devils in the Atlantic Division. I would not say that Pittsburgh is playing all that great but at 6-3-1 in their last ten it is much better than the Devils who are 3-5-2. What the Devils are going to see tonight is a similar Nashville team who needs to get a win tonight to finish strong before the break. The Devils are going to win by playing strong defensive hockey (this isn’t news to anybody). The problem is that lately the Devils have had problems giving up leads and right now those two goal leads are killing the Devils. The defense is not as strong now that Johnny Oduya has been traded and Ilya Kovalchuk has yet become acclimated with the Devils’ system. What to look for from the Devils tonight is a powerplay that has yet to really click with Kovalchuk but has been slowly getting better and since the Nashville penalty is one of the worst in the league (ranked 28) maybe the Devils can finally get the power play going. What else to look for is to see if Jacques Lemaire is willing to put Kovalchuk in tied situations; Kovalchuk can spark a team offensively but can also be a big defensive liability.

New Jersey Devils:

Goals for per game – 2.5

Goals Against per game – 2.29

Power Play % – 18.3

Penalty Kill % – 81.7

Nashville Predators:

Goals For per Game – 2.71

Goals Against per Game – 2.75

Power Play % – 16.7

Penalty Kill % – 75.9

Update:

The Devils lines for tonight
Parise – Zajac – Langenbrunner
Kovalchuk – Zubrus – Elias
Rolston – Niedermayer – Corrente
Pelley – McAmmond – Zharkov

This game started out very strong for the Devils as they were all go offensively pushing the Predators back into their own zone. Kovalchuk made a statement with a ringer off the pipe in the first few minutes. The Predators didn't show up to play and it showed but after about four minutes the play settled a little bit but still heavily in the Devils favor. At 9:49 Travis Zajac opened up the scoring after the defense fell asleep and let Jaime Langenbrunner walk through the zone down below the goal line. Langenbrunner then passed the puck through the crease pass Pekka Rinne into the slot where an unmanned Zajac easily put the puck in the net. After that goal Francoise Bullion took a hooking penalty and only 30 seconds later Dan Hamhius took another hooking penalty. The Devils had a few good attempts to score with the biggest chance coming from Parise when he squibbed a shot through the crease. At 16:35 Dainius Zubrus took a tripping penalty which lead to a goal from Cal O'Reilly at 18:30. To end the period Shea Weber bombed a shot from deep and Brodeur flashed the glove to stop him which was quickly followed up by an equally excellent save by Rinne on Patrick Elias who was in on a breakaway. To end the period the Devils had a 14 to 7 shot advantage but the Preds managed to keep it tied.

The second period started in Nashville's favor as Jordin Tootoo scored on Martin Brodeur at 0:46. Marty was cheating to his left and Tootoo used the defenseman as a screen and snapped a wrister past Marty on his right. However the Devils quickly responded at 2:30 when Elias was open with space in the zone and slapped a shot to the top right shelf past Rinne. Soft goals by both goaltenders. David Legwand took a penalty but the Devils could not get set up in the zone and the Preds had a few good shorthanded chances by pressuring Kovalchuk in the Devil's end. The Devils go down a man and get their own shorthanded chances from a soft call by the refs on Zubrus for goaltender interference. Because of the quick succession of chances both teams shut down a bit offensively. Both the Devils and the Preds were giving up too many scoring chances. Another lazy penalty from Colin White (I just don't like how he plays) at 13:52 for holding when he dropped Tootoo in the corner. However, nothing came of the power play. Later in the period Zajac had a good chance from the top of the circle when he just missed a slap shot right of Rinne. Zajac's slap shot has really improved lately and he is getting more confidance in his scoring ability. The period ended with a good chance by Kovalchuk on a centering feed from Elias. After two periods the teams were 2-2 with the shots 20 to 16 in the Devils favor but the Devils still dominated most of the period.

Lemaire juggled the lines and switched Zubrus and Langenbrunner. Legwand got a highsticking penalty that was embellished by Brodeur. The Devils had a lot of trouble getting into the zone but when they did Kovalchuk blasted a puck. Joel Ward got down to block the puck and it hit him in his head. Fortunately Ward was okay and just had a dented helmet. At 8:24 the Devils catch the Preds defense sleeping again when Elias passed into the high slot to Kovalchuk who took his time and wristed a shot past Rinne. The Devils poured on the offense against and shortly after Kovalchuk and Zajac had a two on one but one too many passes and Zajac could not get a shot off. At 11:53 Hamhius took a tripping penalty which resulted in a power play goal. Kovalchuk passed from down low to the front of the net. The puck took a lucky bounce off of Weber's skate and Parise buried the puck behind Rinne. The Devils took a commanding 4-2 lead and the Preds were not up to the task to battling back into this game. Parise got hit up high by mistake by Weber, which marks yet another game where Parise gets hit in the face. At 15:27 Mikke Mottau took an unnecessary slashing penalty but Broderu managed to make a few great saves to prevent a Predator rally. To end the game the Preds pulled Rinne but Langenbrunner got the empty netter which was his first goal in 19 games in which he had a hat trick against Minnesota.

This is what the Devils needed. Even though the power play doesn't look right it is making progress. It's just growing pains of a developing power play. The Devils managed to keep up good offensive pressure all game and still play good defense. Sure, there were offensive break down but that is bound to happen. I like that Lemaire is finally playing the top two lines more and giving them proper minutes. Niedermayer is actually effect when playing between 14-15 minutes and Rolston's weak play becomes more bearable when he is only playing 15 minutes. I like the short shift style because it keeps player energized for every line but I think the top two lines can get even more ice time. Finally, Mike Mottau played 22 minutes which still bothers me and I hope the Devils make a move for a real defensive defenseman who is responsible in his own zone. I liked the look of the team because Peters and P3L didn’t play and most of the time they do more harm than good. Jay Pandolfo has been dreadful lately so I hope this game is good rest and also a wakeup call to improve his game.

Pregame:

This is an important game for the Devils seeing as the Olympic break is just a few days away and they are in need of points. Pittsburgh is only one point behind the Devils in the Atlantic Division. I would not say that Pittsburgh is playing all that great but at 6-3-1 in their last ten it is much better than the Devils who are 3-5-2. What the Devils are going to see tonight is a similar Nashville team who needs to get a win tonight to finish strong before the break.

The Devils are going to win by playing strong defensive hockey (this isn’t news to anybody). The problem is that lately the Devils have had problems giving up leads and right now those two goal leads are killing the Devils. The defense is not as strong now that Johnny Oduya has been traded and Ilya Kovalchuk has yet become acclimated with the Devils’ system.

What to look for from the Devils tonight is a powerplay that has yet to really click with Kovalchuk but has been slowly getting better and since the Nashville penalty is one of the worst in the league (ranked 28) maybe the Devils can finally get the power play going. What else to look for is to see if Jacques Lemaire is willing to put Kovalchuk in tied situations; Kovalchuk can spark a team offensively but can also be a big defensive liability.

New Jersey Devils:

Goals for per game – 2.5

Goals Against per game – 2.29

Power Play % – 18.3

Penalty Kill % – 81.7

Nashville Predators:

Goals For per Game – 2.71

Goals Against per Game – 2.75

Power Play % – 16.7

Penalty Kill % – 75.9