Apart from actually losing tonight’s game against a lousy Panther team, pretty much the worst-case scenario occured tonight when the Devils suffered multiple injuries in what turned out to be a costly 2-1 win.  Early in the second period, Travis Zajac sustained a wrist injury after being slashed where he felt numb for a while after that, but still was able to contribute two assists.  A wild, undisciplined cross-checking penalty by Florida’s Colby Robak midway through the third period resulted in a five-minute major penalty, and knocked out Tim Sestito for the remainder of the game though according to coach Pete DeBoer, he was fine after – though unavailable to reporters.  After the final buzzer, Scottie Upshall cheap-shotted captain Bryce Salvador on the knee, resulting in a scrum.  Apparently the Panthers feel since they’re losing all their players to injury they should try to knock everyone else out too.  However, Salvador said he was fine after the game, and was fortunate to be wearing a knee brace or it might have been a different story.

Yet, it was on a play where no Panther was involved that the Devils suffered a potentially catastrophic injury early in the third, when Ilya Kovalchuk lost an edge, fell into the boards and injured his shoulder – missing the rest of the game, including the Devils’ joke of a five-on-three where they barely registered even a shot on goal for a five-minute power play.  Of more pressing concern than a bad power play getting even more hopeless, is the fact the Devils’ best forward may well be out for a prolonged stretch.  DeBoer cautioned that he’d probably be out a while and there would need to be some guys that step up.  As writer Tom Gulitti noted, DeBoer looked and sounded like he expected Kovy to be out a while.  Officially, they’re doing more tests tonight and tomorrow so hopefully there’ll at least be definitive word and not just the usual day to day crap we’ve come out with for every injury.  Especially one that was obvious to everyone who saw it.

Pretty much the best thing you could say about the game was it was a needed two points.  For much of the game it was kind of an uninspired performance though.  Particularly in a first period where the Devils registered a grand total of two shots on goal – both by Steve Bernier.  Fortunately Florida couldn’t muster much of an attack either, although the lion’s share of their chances came in the final five minutes of the period.  At least the second period was a different story with the Devils coming out more lively, and scoring first at 1:24 when Zajac found Patrik Elias streaking to the net, and he managed to poke the puck past Scott Clemmensen while falling down.

New Jersey controlled much of the second and got a deserved break when Clemmensen held, then dropped a shot from David Clarkson, who stayed with the play and whacked the loose puck in at 11:03 for his twelfth goal of the season (though only the second in his last eighteen games).  In fairness to Clemmensen it looked like he was in control of the puck and had it whacked out of his glove by Clarkson, but I’ll take it.  Especially with all the holding the Panthers were getting away with along the boards, and their cheap shots in the third period.  Despite outshooting the Panthers 12-5, and taking command of the game one little snafu got Florida right back into it with under ten seconds remaining.  Ironically, it was a puck-handling snafu by Martin Brodeur behind the net, who must have wanted to remind the crowd what they were missing with our wild Moose adventures of the past few weeks.  Brodeur’s attempt to fire the puck around the boards hit a chink and died, leaving Tomas Fleischmann to scoop up the puck and find Peter Mueller in front for what could have been a devastating goal.

The fact it wasn’t a momentum-changing goal said more about the Panthers than anything else imo (and the fact we had an intermission to regain our composure).  Even though the Devils outshot Florida again in the third though, it wasn’t a particuarly great effort – especially on a power play that got booed sans Kovy.  Of course, I knew it could be tough to score if we didn’t get one in the first couple minutes and sure enough, that came to pass.  There’s really no excuse for how bad the power play’s been – with or without Kovy, though at least the defense was able to step up in the third and not allow too many quality chances.  For the second game in a row though, Brodeur was strong stopping the puck making scattered key saves throughout the game.

Every new win seems to be a milestone for the HOF’er to be, though tonight’s career win #666 was more or less a spectacular coincidence, considering 666 is the number of the fictional devil, and right now there’s no more identifable real Devil than Brodeur.  A group of fans were even holding up the numbers after the game. Marty’s own brother once quipped he should retire after hitting win #666, and wanted his stick from the game – which he got.  Despite the Devils’ two straight wins though, quite a few more Marty victories are going to be required to return to the postseason this year.

A task that may get much harder depending on what the final word is on Kovalchuk tomorrow.