Early on last night it just had the feeling of one of those games we’ve seen too often as Devil fans the last couple of years…meaning yet another desultory 1-0, 2-1 loss, and sure enough that’s what happened in Buffalo against the worst team in the league. Granted, the Sabres have been playing better under still interim <cough> coach Ted Nolan, but let’s call last night for what it is – yet more points left on a table by a Devils team that is increasingly getting caught in a vice, even in the joke that is the Metro division.  Four points out with one more game played than the Flyers and Capitals (currently tied for the final two automatic spots in the Metro) is getting perilously close to being in critical condition.  Especially with the Flyers white-hot since shortly after firing Peter Laviolette, the Rangers white-hot whenever Cam Talbot plays, along with a talented though streaky Capitals team and even a Blue Jackets team that’s getting healthier with the recent returns of Nathan Horton and Sergei Bobrovsky.  If you want to make the playoffs, you have to win these types of games.  At least be competitive and act like you aren’t just going to throw out the skates and sticks and win with a half-***ed ‘effort’.  We barely got twenty-two low-quality shots on net against a team that allows 35+ on a normal basis.  After a season of being under seige in Buffalo, Ryan Miller must have felt like he was already in the Olympics for Team USA playing in a prelim game against Latvia.

At least during the first period I had the distraction of the wild Colts-Chiefs comeback to prevent me from watching much of an opening twenty minutes that was like an insta-cure for insomnia. Of course turning on an even worse second period after that actually made hockey seem boring in comparison to the NFL.  Even beat writer Tom Gulutti could barely contain his annoyance after spending all day finding a plane connection to this game lol

Tom Gulitti ‏@TGfireandice14h 

This is some pretty bad hockey so far.

Tom Gulitti ‏@TGfireandice14h

Definitely worth four hours of listening to Rhapsody in Blue to get here for this game..

Martin Brodeur – 24 starts, 71 goals scored by the Devils (2.96 per game)

Cory Schnieder – 19 starts, 31 goals scored by the Devils (1.63 per game)

And we wonder why Schnieder only has five wins as a Devil so far.  Or why he recently admitted he had to ‘reset’ mentally and physically during Christmas break.  To his credit he’s avoided publicly crying about his hard luck, only allowing that he has to be better so that the team wins games 2-1 instead of loses them 2-1.  Personally, I’m going to start to look at his press conferences to notice whether his nose starts growing Pinocchio-style or not.  Between getting jerked in and out of the lineup even when playing well despite a 2.13 GAA and .914 save percentage and the lack of goal support, he must be wondering what he deserved to get a one-way ticket to hockey hell for the next two years.  While his level of play certainly sagged in December compared to the rest of the season he certainly deserved better last night.

Of course it’s hard to score when you have Adam Henrique chunking a two-on-zero breakaway with an easy wrister his nemesis Miller stopped.  It’s also hard to defend when you continually let guys get open in front of the net, and that’s how the Sabres finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the final minute of the second period when somehow their one true threat in Matt Moulson is allowed to dissapear in the middle of three defenders and get an easy tap-in goal that put us predictably behind.  It was telling last night that Ryane Clowe got in his third fight of the season, which somehow leads the team despite his long absence and concussion issues over the last few seasons.  Even our supposed goon Cam Janssen is trying to be more of a hockey player and less of a fighter.  If anyone else did what Clowe did – jumping on Mike Weber early in the third period after he thumped Andrei Loiktonov at center ice – they would be hailed for being a team player, but since it’s Clowe people get on him for being dumb.  Ludicrious…honestly, Clowe’s kind of useless without his physical element anyway, as risky as it may be for someone like him to stick his nose in.  It would be nice to see more people do that on this team.

Even without the goon-centric former coach Ron Rolston, the game definitely took a physical turn in the third period and is perhaps the only reason at all the Devils got back into the game. After a too many men on the ice penalty to the Sabres, our struggling power play finally scored when Michael Ryder beat Miller shortside…but wait, because Tyler Myers clocked Danius Zubrus with an illegal head shot along the boards the goal was disallowed because the ref had blown his whistle – we think.  Referee Gord Dwyer didn’t do a very good job of explaining why the goal was disallowed because he merely said it was because ‘a penalty was called’.  Well no ****, but the Sabres never touched the puck between the penalty and Ryder scoring so that couldn’t be the reason.  In a sequence that make you think there really are hockey gods, the Devils got the goal they deserved on the 5-on-3 with Ryder scoring again, almost from the same spot on the ice.

Back in the game now you would have hoped Ryder’s goal could springboard the Devils to a big third period that would carry them through to a barely-deserved win.  That never really materialized though, in fact Zubrus took a dumb retailiatory obstruction penalty on Myers, and the Sabres’ power play connected yet again – this time through an unlikely source.  Instead of Matt Moulson, it was the immortal ex-Devil (for about five minutes last year) Matt D’Agostini scoring his first of the season.  Once again, the Devils’ net presence was lacking as Steve Ott was allowed to coast in on Schnieder, and then D’Agostini cleaned up the rebound with four…count ’em FOUR Devils standing in the vicinity of the crease. Neither guy had a hand or stick laid on them during that sequence.  Disgusting, inexcusable, whatever adjective you want to use.

Irony of ironies the Devils had made a notable personnel move before the game, demoting Eric Gelinas (whose play had fallen off in recent games) to get Anton Volchenkov back in the lineup, reuniting our supposed great PK tandem of Volchenkov and Bryce Salvador.  Yet our PK gave up both goals against a Sabres offense that may actually be one of the few in the NHL worse than ours, though you wouldn’t know it from our two games against them this year where we’ve scored a grand total of two goals in 125 minutes.  Bear in mind despite good goaltending from Miller and Jhonas Enroth this season, the Sabres don’t have a single shutout because their defense is so bad and yet we came within 40 seconds (in game #1) and a 5-on-3 goal (last night) of being shut out TWICE by this team!  Also being removed from the roster was former first-round pick Mattias Tedenby, who cleared waivers and was sent down to Albany, at least free of the Pete DeBoer doghouse that swallows up every under-25 player not named Adam Henrique or Jon Merrill.  But hey, gotta get even more of our slow vets in the lineup!  And keep leaving Adam Larsson on the bench despite the young defenseman claiming he’s ready to play now after a leg injury that hampered him for weeks.  It’s a wonder every team with speed doesn’t beat us by even higher margins, clearly we struggle against such teams as evidenced by our lousy performances against the Isles, Oilers and Blue Jackets, all young teams with speed and little else.

With just thirty-nine games remaining it’s getting late early.  If the Devils don’t pick up their play on a consistent basis, they could easily fall out of it by the Olympic break (there are another sixteen games left till that point including the outdoor game against the Rangers) and be sellers by the deadline, not an ideal position to be in considering we have no first-round pick.  Home games against the Flyers, Stars and Panthers are critically important before the Devils go on the road the week after for four games in a week at Toronto, Montreal, Colorado and Phoenix.  It would be nice if Patrik Elias got back by next week but who ever knows with the Devils.  All of our supposed day-to-day injuries turn into week-to-week mysteries.

This team still has to do better and it starts with picking up their defensive play.  You would think with nine hundred NHL-caliber defensemen on the roster they’d be able to avoid the kind of meltdowns they’ve had the last few weeks.  Then guys up front like Henrique and Travis Zajac need to start producing more.  Our offense up front without Jaromir Jagr‘s been a joke lately.  Only three goals scored by defensemen against the Blackhawks made our goal total respectable that night.  If the solutions are not currently on the roster, then GM Lou Lamoriello needs to take a long, hard look at his entire organization and re-assess things soon before the trade deadline.