For all the talk of the Devils’ first six games without a regulation loss, I think many fellow fans – and perhaps the players themselves – got caught up in the record and not in the fact that barring some wild comebacks and Martin Brodeur showing up from the hop and playing well until this weekend, this team really hasn’t played as good as its record.  Yes, to a degree you are what your record says you are but eventually the level of play will catch up with you, even in a short season like this.  While 3-0-3 might have bought the Devils some time early, their 5-1 whipping in Pittsburgh today showed that everything’s far from perfect.

Some games aren’t as bad as the score would seem to indicate, this one was.  Particuarly after the first period, which was fairly even amazingly enough.  However, the last two periods were a good old-fashioned spanking with mental breakdowns all over the place.  Our first mental breakdown came from the bench, when coach Pete DeBoer put Krys Barch on the ice after our power play to begin the second period ended (of course another fruitless endeavor).  Having Barch on the ice when Sidney Crosby‘s coming out of the box?  Major league mismatch, and of course it was Crosby who created the Penguins’ first goal, gaining the zone and putting pucks on net before Brandon Sutter applied the finishing whack at 2:27.

Things went from bad to worse thanks to Anton Volchenkov, who screwed up a play about as badly as you can screw one up, flubbing a pass intended for Bryce Salvador right onto the stick of a wide-open Chris Kunitz, then deflecting Kunitz’s shot past Brodeur at 9:56.  Kunitz’s goal being ‘unassisted’ was the most misleading part of the game, it was assisted all right.  And Volcheknov earned a seat on the bench for the rest of the game until it got completely out of hand later.  Our only bright spot came when Andy Greene scored a shorthanded goal off a nice spin feed from Danius Zubrus after Crosby clearly flopped to draw a call on Patrik Elias.  Greene’s goal at 12:23 pulled us to within 2-1 and despite being outshot 12-4 in the period the Devils were still in the game.  Could they possibly have another crazy comeback in them?

Finally and emphatically the answer was no, as eventually the Penguins domination caved the roof in over us. Kunitz found a wide-open Kris Letang in front when Adam Henrique drifted out of the play after both defensemen got caught behind the net, and the Pens’ All-Star defenseman did the rest putting in a wrister to restore the Pens’ two-goal lead at 2:31.  Passiveness burned the Devils on the Penguins’ fourth goal, when Crosby was allowed to bull into the zone with a full head of steam without being challenged, and eventually power home a goal at 7:11.  Finally for the coup de grace, Robert Bortuzzo got his first NHL goal at 9:51 when his shot caromed off Jacob Josefson‘s stick past Brodeur to make it 5-1.

Five different goalscorers for the Penguins and a 30-16 edge in shots only begin to tell the story.  Our best players weren’t our best players with Brodeur allowing five goals, Ilya Kovalchuk playing twenty-four minutes with nary a point and a -3 and our vaunted defense breaking down for the second time in less than seventy-two hours.  Of course, not having Mark Fayne for a second straight game due to his ‘minor’ arm injury didn’t help, neither does the uncertainty around the remainder of the defensive core over who’s going to stay and who’s going to go.  With eight NHL defensemen and two outstanding professional goalies, defense and keeping the puck out of the net has to be our strong suit, the way it was for much of the first six games (before arguably our best defenseman was shelved the prior two games).

Especially due to the offense’s issues now.  Yes, Carter-Gionta-Bernier has done yeoman’s work since last April but really they should be a good fourth line instead of a third line.  Part of the problem right now is we really have two fourth lines, or more accurately five fourth-liners in the lineup and another guy (Josefson) who is a second-liner in every aspect of the game except offense, where he’s basically fourth-line caliber at this point.  Losing three top nine forwards and not doing a thing as of yet to replace them is slowly coming back to bite the Devils.  Especially with the increased icetime of Kovalchuk.  Before becoming a Devil, he averaged 22 minutes a game.  Last year he averaged 24:30, and was running on fumes during the postseason with a bad back (though he still managed to lead the club in scoring).  This year he’s averaging 25+.  Is it any wonder why he’s looked listless the last few games?

There needs to be a move to get another top six/nine forward in here soon, however Lou Lamoriello has to make that happen.  Whether it’s trading defensemen, prospects or draft picks, our depth just does not compare with the team that made that big run from last February on.  Yes, it’s still early even in this truncated season but never has this Yogi Berra saying been more true: ‘It’s getting late early’.  There needs to be a move just from the standpoint of not running up the icetime of your top players to insane levels, never mind the fact that the team actually needs another scoring forward.  As of now, the Devils have still done nothing to replace the sixty goals of offense we lost with Zach Parise, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Petr Sykora‘s departures.  Our current roster ‘replacements’ are Stefan Matteau (still in limbo himself until the team decides whether to burn an ELC year), Barch and defenseman Peter Harrold, who finally got into the lineup playing as a forward – I’m sorry, that isn’t going to cut it long-term or any-term.

With the Devils now out of first place, tomorrow afternoon’s showdown with the Isles looms larger, to prevent the team from tumbling down the standings further before help arrives – assuming it ever does, and before it’s too late (i.e. before some of our current forwards go on the shelf because of overuse, or a defenseman gets hurt and suddenly we can’t trade from depth).