Drew Miller and Joakim Andersson celebrate Wings’ game-tying goal late in 2nd period

Dreary weather outside (dark, rainy and cool) proved a fitting metaphor for tonight’s no-show at the Rock by the Devils.  Granted, I can’t kill the team from the perspective that tonight was their 10th game in 17 nights with a West Coast trip part of the mix as the NHL continues to stick it to us with this schedule.  I understand every team’s going to have a 10 in 17 stretch with the compressed season thanks to the Olympics but how many other teams have a 10 in 17 stretch with a opposite coast swing among that?  Or a league-leading 22 back-to-back games?  Eventually the Devils were going to crash and tonight they crashed hard – not only losing 3-1 to a Wings team when Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg were nowhere to be found due to injury – but also registering a franchise record-low 11 shots on goal.  This isn’t exactly the Wings blueline with Nicklas Lidstrom and Vladimir Konstantinov we’re talking about here.

I don’t even want to hear about the stupid, phantom delay of game penalty on Cory Schnieder with a minute left in the third period that basically killed off any remote chance of tying the game, and led to the Wings getting a clinching third goal on their power play.  There was one lousy minute left in the game and we were behind already in a game we were ridiculously outplayed.  And again – this bears repeating – we had eleven shots on goal!  If Pete DeBoer wants to console himself that the effort was there, whatever…even I don’t think effort was the issue.  Unlike a certain professional sports team that used to play in New Jersey (cough Nets cough) at least the Devils’ effort is there most of the time.  I’m not entirely sure where their brains are sometimes though, like Adam Henrique royally screwing up the game-winning goal in the third period by letting Gustav Nyquist‘s pass go right through him and to an open Johan Franzen in front, and the big moose doesn’t miss those chances.

Where I do have to get on the head coach for is his personnel decisions and (mis)management of a number of players on his roster.  I have no issues with his system, I like the system which is a good fit in the current NHL.  I’m not entirely sure we have the players to execute it beyond our first line of Jagr-Zajac-Zubrus, which is a perfect fit for the forechecking and cycling DeBoer’s system requires.  Clearly we have serious problems offensively as a whole with a whopping eleven games scoring zero or one goals this year, and getting shut down time and again by backup goaltenders.  Other than signing Jaromir Jagr, none of GM Lou Lamoriello‘s moves to bring in scoring have really worked out to this point.  Sure Michael Ryder got off to a good start and got goals in back-to-back games against the Canadiens but aside from that he’s been a disaster for longer stretches.  Well maybe disaster is too strong a word considering how hideous Damien Brunner‘s been after his illusory goal-scoring binge early.  At least we know Ryane Clowe is alive now – since after missing two months with a concussion the Devils finally let him talk to the media today – but his return isn’t yet imminent.

However, we continually handicap ourselves time and again with our pregame and in-game lineup choices.  Starting with the continual fascination of icing Cam Janssen and Tim Sestito.  I realize Janssen DID give the team a spark when he first got here but that’s all it was, a brief spark.  Now we’re stuck with him playing sub-five minute games during the most taxing part of our schedule, and even a Janssen playing ‘well’ isn’t exactly going to help this pathetic offense.  Neither is playing Sestito, who has zero NHL goals in 74 career games.  Yes, he’s a grinder, big whoop considering he also plays sub-10 minute games.  Sorry, Pete – they’re just not NHL players.

You’re more or less icing an AHL line and there’s literally no excuse for that given all our supposed depth up front with former first-rounders like Mattias Tedenby and Jacob Josefson either sitting in the press box or also playing seven-minute nights since the coach can’t ever conceive of ever trusting them.  Josefson actually looked like one of the better players out there early in the game when he hit a post in the first period then nearly scored on a 2-on-1 shorthanded in the second period but the puck hopped over his stick at the last second after Patrik Elias found him with a nice pass.  Of course Josefson was benched soon after, playing a meager 7:41.

Continually shortening your bench also means more minutes for the 35+ forwards like Elias, Jagr and Danius Zubrus (who was one of the few guys who actually did play well tonight).  However, running them into the ground constantly because you only have confidence in half your roster is going to lead to more nights like tonight.  Especially during a 10th game in 17 nights, or 11th in 18 which is what tomorrow’s showdown at MSG will become.  Given that schedule and the advanced age of our leading forwards, there’s literally no excuse for these icetimes:

Loiktionov 12:41, Boucher 11:31 (after he nearly won the game Wednesday night), Sestito 8:17, Josefson 7:41, Janssen 4:18, Brunner healthy scratch

I threw the last one in there because while Brunner hasn’t played well this year and probably didn’t deserve to play against his former team tonight (on that one I do agree with DeBoer on principle at least), the fact is he IS a forward capable of playing 15-minute nights.  You kind of need that in the lineup right now.  Even ignoring the fact you’re benching the guy for two AHL players, it just made no sense from a timing standpoint.  There are times to get heavy-handed and make a point, tonight wasn’t really one of them.  Not with how taxed this roster is.  Plus if you ever want to get the guy going, you figure maybe a game against the Wings will spark him the way playing the Habs did Ryder.

What makes Pete’s treatment of the forwards so baffling is that he actually is trusting the younger defensemen like Eric Gelinas and Jon Merrill, and the defensive icetime has been far more evenly distributed.  I can’t even get on the head coach for the usage of Mark Fayne anymore, he’s been awful with his chance to re-establish himself in the lineup and was particularly bad tonight with a -2.  While Henrique was the primary goat on the lead goal, Fayne was also nowhere to be found when he should have been the defenseman covering.  If Peter Harrold‘s in the lineup for him tomorrow, it’s deserved.  Although I do wonder what black hole Adam Larsson fell down after his ‘non-serious’ injury’s kept him out three weeks.  Or what happens when if Bryce Salvador ever comes back, for that matter.

I’m tired of complaining about the team, but there really isn’t a lot to comment about at the Rock either.  I had my very own Keystone Kops episode in the pregame when I went into the lower bowl to watch the pregame skate and then left, forgetting my umbrella.  Frantically I rushed down and snuck back into the lower bowl before faceoff, and it took me a few minutes but I finally remembered where I left my umbrella and found it.  I could have stayed down in the lower bowl with how many empty seats there were – a sad crowd of barely above 13,000 for Detroit on a Friday night I would have thought impossible before the season.  Unfortunately it’s become the norm for reasons I won’t repeat myself and get into again.

It also took over an hour for me to get to Newark because of the usual road work/traffic around Newark, plus more traffic in a rainy commute home from work for many.  Thank goodness it doesn’t take long to get home from these games.  Most seasons I’m usually going to two out of every three games but so far this year I’ve been to 11 of the 13 games.  With the road-heavy schedule of the first two months they’ve been spread out to this point but after four games in ten days (three losses and barely an OT win against the Sabres) I’m ready for a break from going or recapping these nightly fiascoes.