Mike Cammalleri being chased by Dion Phaneuf in the Devils’ 5-3 win at the Air Canada Centre (NJ.com)

Part of me’s annoyed I couldn’t see most of tonight’s unlikely Devils 5-3 win at Toronto, but in a way it was probably fitting that I was MIA cause the Devils themselves are becoming a real-life MASH unit.  Although defenseman Jon Merrill came off of IR and returned to the lineup tonight, the Devils were without forwards Jaromir Jagr (‘flu’), Patrik Elias (groin) and Martin Havlat (who knows) and defenseman Adam Larsson  (flu) to go along with having Travis Zajac (again, who knows), Ryane Clowe (concussion) and Bryce Salvador (another who knows) already on IR.  Havlat also had to be placed on short-term IR just to clear a spot for Merrill.  From all accounts this new-look Devils team actually played better than in most of its previous games this season.  Perhaps that says something with having more speed in the lineup?  God knows one of our biggest problems the last couple of years has been having a lineup of slugs.

Ironically one of our newest (and oldest) Devils in Scott Gomez seems to be making a good impression thus far.  Not that I’d know since I was too disinterested to watch much of Tuesday’s game and unavailable to watch tonight’s game.  I’ll get a better look at him Saturday when I can’t avoid watching since I’ll be attending the game with a few friends.  I’m alternating being astonished and yet not surprised, since Gomez was so bad his last few years I wasn’t sure he really could help.  Yet we saw this script play out with Petr Sykora in 2012, at times there’s just something in the air when guys ‘come home’ again.  Plus even at his age Gomez can skate and of course hasn’t lost his offensive creativity, which this team could desperately use.  Right about now I’m cursing the fact we gave Damien Brunner two years last fall cause if he wasn’t on the team Gomez probably would have been here from day one if not in the lineup.

I’ll admit when I’m dead wrong about something but sadly I was dead right about Brunner, when other fans were going gaga over signing him I pointed out that Ken Holland (the Wings’ esteemed GM) doesn’t make personnel mistakes and he didn’t deem Brunner important enough to re-sign despite a decent enough rookie season coming from overseas in 2013.  So was the rest of the league apparently since Brunner was still sitting without a contract in September before we gave him a tryout.  Granted beggars can’t be choosers and at times Brunner’s shown flashes of why people wanted him but that’s followed with too many moments like tonight where he didn’t get a puck deep in the zone, was chewed out on the bench by coach Pete DeBoer and apparently benched.  To the coach’s credit at least in the last couple games he’s tried to hold some vets accountable, healthy scratching Michael Ryder for the Devils’ 1-0 loss in Pittsburgh.  Ryder has been mostly ineffective – again – this season, after showing flashes during the preseason and early of the player he used to be.  Sadly that wasn’t the player we signed, or at least not the one that’s been on the ice for us through his season plus.

Maybe the coach is finally feeling a little heat for the first time, granted there’s been speculation about his job really since the start of last season but with the team’s recent five-game winless streak the talk has ramped up again.  In a mild surprise the Devils demoted Peter Harrold after he’d been playing big minutes in big situations the previous four games (though after averaging 20+ minutes his first two games he was reduced to just over 15 in his last two), ensuring – for the time being – the Devils have five young defensemen up with the big club – Merrill, Larsson, rookie sensation Severson, Eric Gelinas and Seth Hegelson.  After the last few games where the first pairing of Severson-Andy Greene got 25+ minutes and the back pairing – usually Larsson and Hegelson/Gelinas – got around 12-13 minutes, the icetime was more evenly distributed tonight.  Granted some of that was a function of the score but the game was never really a total runaway until Steve Bernier and Adam Henrique scored midway through the third to baloon the Devils’ lead to 5-2.  The fact Harrold was demoted so quickly after Pete was going back into old habits of playing him more than he should suggests there might be a disconnect between the front office (Lou) and the staff.

Our fresh-faced defense was terrific for a night, although the high shot totals – thirty-two shots against Cory Schneider tonight which is about the norm these days – continue to be a concern.  Still the young guys are providing some needed spark with Gelinas contributing a goal and an assist, and Merrill getting two assists in his first game back off IR.  Hegelson led the team in hits with an astonishing ten in nearly twenty minutes.  Ironically Severson might have had the least effective game of the four who played.  Clearly the young D helped our popgun offense as well, considering we scored five goals which we haven’t done since the first two games of the season.  Not that I’m expecting Steve Bernier and Steven Gionta to score every night unless we found a time machine and got the 2012-versions back.  Gionta was actually questionable for the game himself with a leg injury suffered in the carnage of the Pittsburgh game Monday night where Jagr, Elias and Gionta all had to leave early and the Devils were left with just nine healthy forwards at the finish.  While Jagr and Elias didn’t play (Jagr missing his first game as a Devil in two seasons), Gionta did.

It’ll be interesting to see what lineup decisions get made on Saturday assuming Jagr (and Larsson) does actually have the flu and this isn’t another one of Lou’s euphenisms for a concussion.  The only reason I’d take the flu story at face value is because Jagr’s lack of missed time factored into the two-game suspension Robert Bortuzzo got for the head shot that put Jagr out of the rest of the Penguins game on Tuesday.  There’s really no reason for Lou to keep a concussion secret from the league if he was going to angle for a bigger suspension.  Plus with Larsson being out that lends credence to it being the flu although the next contreversy will be what defenseman sits on Saturday if Larsson’s back, since one of the young guys has to sit assuming all five stay.  It might BE Larsson himself, despite his PK work the last few weeks he still hasn’t seemed to shake DeBoer’s pigeonholing him into the Anton Volchenkov role of being solely a PK specialist or a general lack of trust.

Oh well, at least we can finally breathe a sigh of relief over a win.  Although the Devil ‘fans’ who can’t wait for us to lose in game #25 just to improve draft position in a lottery annoy me to no end.  After all the crowing we do as a fanbase about how the Penguins tanked to get Mario Lemieux way back when it’s a bit disconcerting that we’re willing to go down that road, especially this early in the season.  ‘But they’re not a contender anyway!’ people cry…well we heard the same thing about 2012 and to a degree 2003 as well.  Not that I’m expecting this Devil team to contend.  It’s more likely they’ll need to build their own hospital wing at the rate it’s going. but it’s not like it’s totally unreasonable to hope for a playoff run if they get in.  Especially since they’ll have to play very well TO get in.  If you assume something to the degree of 92 points is the last playoff spot – that’s been around the cutoff line almost every season since the lockout – the Devils would have to get 66 points in their last 56 games, which equals ten games over .500.

Again, I’m not saying I believe it’ll happen but IF it does, then why wouldn’t you give the Devils a chance to be competitive in the playoffs if they played at that level for that long?  They aren’t going to make the playoffs with a 7-9 record like the random winner of the NFL’s NFC South very well could.  With all the parity in the league in recent years, why not hope for a run at the very least until the team’s realistically out of it.  If you’re 2-10 or 3-9 and mathematically eliminated from the playoffs like a couple of New York NFL teams we know that’s one thing.  Cashing out now after 2/3 of the season remains is another.  The 2012 Kings and last year’s Rangers were pretty mediocre for long stretches and both went on sustained runs, the Kings winning a Cup while the Rangers went to the Finals.  Look at what’s already going on in the league this year with expected cellar dwellers like Calgary, Winnipeg and Florida doing better than expected while playoff teams like the Sharks, Flyers and Colorado have been dissapointments.