Devils stumble in 5-2 loss

The New Jersey Devils stumbled from the starting gate in dropping a 5-2 decision to the Philadelphia Flyers at the Rock in Newark.
The Devils allowed the first four goals of the game before Brian Rolston (1) scored on the power play in the third period.
Jamie Langenbrunner scored the games final goal (1) shorthanded.
The Devils are off today (thank goodness) and cross the river Monday night against the Rangers.

Hell Raisers

1) Marty Brodeur was not very good on this night.
I don't say that often,but it was true as the Flyer goals ranged from fluky to simply soft.
Two of the goals were just the soft shots from angles and players that usually are less than strong offensively,but Marty has been vulnerable to that in the past.
Just a bad night for Brodeur.
At least I hope.

2) The Devils did kill off the Flyers power play on every Philly PP chance.
So there is a positive note.

3) When did the Devils seem to dip emotionally?
When the Devils had a full two minutes of a 5 on 3 power play and put a whopping one shot on net.
That is not going to cut the mustard in any circumstance.

4) The Devils did have a few chances in the first period,but the puck didn't bounce their way on rebounds against Ray Emery.
Emery was excellent until the last ten minutes,when he had a large enough lead to relax with.

5) Obviously the PP needs work,but one unit was much worse than other.
The Langenbrunner,Zajac,Clarkson line didn't move the puck much and did a lot of freeze framing.
The Devils always seem to go from one extreme to the other-non-stop movement at the cost of not shooting or standing around and waiting for the puck to magically appear in the net.

6) Color me unimpressed with the defense tonight.
Paul Martin was OK,but the rest were weak.
Johnny Oduya made mental error after mental error and newcomer Cory Murphy had better use his advertised offensive skills,because defensively he was easy to move off the puck and less than physical.

7) Brian Rolston might have been the Devils best player,not just for his goal,but for his other offense as he seemed to be the only Devil that attacked the Flyer zone and challenged Ray Emery.
Rolston fired six shots on the night and might be back to his Minnesota form.

8) Andrew Peters is going to be a liability against teams that can skate a bit.
Boy,is he slow.
I hope Jacques Lemaire will mix Peters and Pierre (3L) LeBlond up from game to game depending on the matchup.

9) I did like Lemaire trying a five forward power play to try to kickstart the offense.
Things like that are worth the effort and sometimes can change the flow of the game,even if a goal doesn't result.

10) Finally,it is just one game and I'll try not to read too much into it,but very disappointed in the effort more than the result.
It just seemed like after the missed power play,the teams energy was dead.
Hope for a better effort Monday,I'll be listening to the game unless the DirectTv-Versus issue is settled....

Photo Credit
Bill Koustroun-AP Photo