Battle Of Hudson

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).

In an otherwise compelling game where there was a ton of action with nine goals and over thirty shots on goal for each team – along with the predictable early bout between current enforcer Krys Barch and former enforcer Eric Boulton – one overriding theme dominated the Islanders’ 5-4 win in Newark last night.  And if you don’t know what that is, clearly you don’t read my article titles.  New Jersey’s special teams looked more like they required special needs classes last night, not only failing on five power plays in the game (and nearly conceding a shorthanded goal to Michael Grabner late in the second when he hit the post on a breakaway), but the PK failed in even more spectacular fashion, going 1-4.  .250 isn’t even a great batting average in baseball, but it’s hideous when it’s your penalty kill percentage.

Even those numbers don’t tell the whole story.  Three little words described both the success of the Islander PP and the failure of ours: Shots on goal.  With five full power plays, the Devils’ new ‘shooting’ power play under Matt Shaw managed only nine shots in ten full minutes with the man advantage.  Granted, their first couple of power plays had good movement and some promising opportunities but later on in the game the Devils reverted back to an overpassing nature.  Although the Isles had almost as many power play chances (4 to our 5), they only spent 4:14 on the man advantage – because they were scoring so fast.  And with that 4:14 they put a whopping fourteen shots on net, many of them coming in the one power play that actually did not score.  Not as if they needed a lot of time to score, since the three goals themselves came in a combined 2:14.

As annoying as the special teams were last night, this game deserves far more coverage than just my venting on how special teams cost us three points in the standings last night (more on that later), despite our third straight OT/SO loser point.  Give the Devils credit with this much: they did come back no fewer than three seperate times in the game, in a strange matchup that seemed ominous from the start.  In our prior three games, the Devils had gotten off to bad starts – and yet somehow got the lead in every game.  Clearly it was a point of emphasis for coach Pete DeBoer and the Devils did in fact come out flying last night, putting ten of the first eleven shots on net.  And yet this time the Devils were the ones to fall behind after some great goaltending by Evgeni Nabokov held the fort long enough for the Isles to take advantage of their first power play after a defensive breakdown led to both Brad Boyes and John Tavares being wide open down low, and Boyes found Tavares for a quick one-timer to put the Isles ahead at 14:31.

I guess what goes around does indeed come around, although it is odd that in four straight games the team that’s dominated early found themselves behind.  The hole would only get deeper early in the second with – wait for it – yet another Islander power play goal, after Keith Aucoin snuck down low and Travis Hamonic split the D with a pass to find a wide-open Aucoin, and he eventually batted home a rebound at 2:41 of the second period.  Just when it looked like it was going to be one of those nights where nothing went right, the Devils’ amazing fourth now third line of Ryan Carter, Stephen Gionta and Steve Bernier struck back, with Bernier batting home a rebound after his linemates both took shots toward the net.  Just three minutes later, Carter would figure in yet another goal with an assist this time from Matt Anderson (a Cinderella story in himself, being that he’s a 30-year old AHL lifer playing just his second game), who found the gritty winger open in the slot, and Carter would bat home a second-chance rebound at 6:21 to tie the game.

Just as the Isles’ lead wouldn’t last long, neither did the Devils’ tie, as Tavares would strike again just seventy seconds later after Nabokov sent the rebound of a David Clarkson shot right to Matt Moulson, who somehow found Tavares down the ice with a pass off the boards.  Tavares got a step on Bryce Salvador, and seemingly willed the puck through Martin Brodeur (after it changed direction off Salvador’s stick) to give the Isles the lead back.  Good forechecking and good passing got the Devils even once again before the end of the period, when Henrik Tallinder dumped the puck in towards Travis Zajac, then Tallinder circled back to the opposite point where Zajac found him with a return feed.  Seemingly stunned at being wide open and not knowing what to do for a second, a wide-open Tallinder finally shot, and scored at 17:12.  Ironically, the stay-at-home Tallinder has been the subject of trade speculation lately, given the Devils’ glut of defensemen, but he hasn’t let it affect his play to this point.

Now tied at three, the third period settled into more of a straightforward game and seemingly one more break either way could make the difference.  That break came when Adam Larsson (one of two Adam’s making his season debut for the Devils) made a costly gaffe, deflecting a soft shot by Mark Streit past Brodeur at 11:32 to put the Isles ahead once more.  Although Larsson played reasonably well otherwise in his nearly eighteen minutes – and was even a +1 on the night in spite of this goal – that gaffe marred his evening, after finally getting off the bench thanks to Mark Fayne‘s ‘minor’ arm injury.  Fortunately, our other Adam – Mr. Henrique – would take the Devils off the griddle one more time, when he beat Nabokov with a nifty backhander off a rebound of a David Clarkson shot at 13:50.  In his New Jersey season debut after thumb surgery, number 14 quickly revived the chants of ‘Hen-rique!’ at the Rock.

Late in the third period came the most pivotal point in the match…a too many men on the ice penalty against the Isles gave the Devils a power play in the final minute and thirty of regulation.  A goal here would almost certainly give the Devils a two-point win over their division rivals.  However, the powerless play stunk yet again.  I wouldn’t so far as to say the Devils were playing for OT but the overpassing was wearing on my last nerve to put it mildly.  Of course, the Devils’ PP failed, of course Tallinder would take a penalty in OT and of course the Isles would score with the resulting 4-on-3 after a mere fourteen seconds.  Yes, Brodeur made a mistake puckhandling and then another one desperatly flailing into position, but let’s be honest, the Isles were scoring one way or another anyway.  Instead of a +2 point differential in our favor, the night wound up being a -1 against us – the three-point swing I spoke of before.  All because we couldn’t convert a power play at the end of regulation.  At least Jack Capuano‘s club showed us what a power play is supposed to do, put the darn puck on net.

Although the Devils still kept their six-game point streak alive, these lost points hurt considering the Isles look like they’re serious about contending for a playoff spot this year in a short season.  Not to mention after a cozy early start of the season in terms of games played for the Devils, they’re now on the verge of a twelve game in twenty-two day stretch.  Not to mention including last night, eight of our next ten games are division tilts including a whopping three against both Pittsburgh and the Isles.  Adding in Opening Night, the Devils and Isles will have faced off a whopping four times in the season’s first month, including their next matchup Super Sunday on Long Island.  Before that however, comes a trip to Pittsburgh against a Penguin team also in the midst of a division stretch.  After being embarassed at home by the Isles a couple nights ago, Pittsburgh returned the favor against the Rangers last night.

While there’s still some intrigue to how the Devils will handle their eight defensemen, the ‘unsigned’ Devil in Matt Darche and the Devil in limbo (Stefan Matteau) while the team decides whether to burn an ELC year off the first-round pick’s contract, at least the return of Henrique means they’re completely healthy for the moment – last night’s missed game by Fayne aside.  Speaking of the underappreciated Fayne, if anyone had any doubt as to how important he is to the team, just look at how pitiful the penalty kill was last night.  Going into last night’s game the PK was 23-26, close to 90% which is in line with their record performance of last season – and two of the goals they had allowed were on a four-on-three and a five-on-three).  Not to mention the defense as a whole looked out of sorts as the Isles peppered the Devils with 34 shots in the game’s last 50+ minutes.

If you’re fantasy goalie-watching, DeBoer has already announced that Brodeur will get the nod at the Consol Energy Center tomorrow afternoon, while Johan Hedberg will make his second start of the season on Sunday, after a strong outing in Boston two nights ago.  Presumably Brodeur will be back in net for Tuesday’s showdown with the Rangers – the teams’ first game since last season’s epic Conference Finals.  After that game, the Devils will be through almost all of the speculated ten-game ‘evaluation period’ (our tenth game is Thursday against the Lightning at home).  It’ll be interesting to see what dominoes will fall, but if the Devils are going to keep up their point total, the PK’s going to have to get back in gear and the PP’s going to have to be more consistent.  Special teams are just too critical in this short season with whistles more frequent.

In case you missed it last night, Nail Yakupov won another game for Edmonton. The 2012 first overall selection scored in overtime to beat the Coyotes. It was a power play goal with over a minute remaining.

Yakupov’s fourth in his rookie campaign was met with resistance from vet defenseman Derek Morris. He took exception to the gifted Russian’s goal celebration. It wasn’t like Yakupov went over the top like his Theo Fleury imitation. This time, he only waved his arms following the winner. Apparently, somebody pissed in Morris’ cornflakes.