ree goals against Toronto and as they deserved found themselves down 3-1 with 3:04 remaining in the game.Things looked quite bleak for the Devils in the Ilya Kovalchuk debut,but an amazing final three minutes found the Devils with a 4-3 win,a needed two points in the pocket and hopefully some momentum going into MSG tonight against the Rangers.....
Devils goals to Travis Zajac (17 power play),Dean McAmmond (6),Dainius Zubrus (4) and the game winner to Jay Pandolfo (4).....
Hell Raisers
1) Ilya Kovalchuk assisted on the Zubrus and Zajac goals and was welcomed with several rousing ovations by the Devil faithful.
Kovalchuk showed the wheels that Devils fans have seen from him in the past,moving the puck up the ice and he seemed to be just a hair out of sync,which is understandable with the changes in team.
Once he gains some familiarity-look out!
2) Anssi Salmela saw a large amount of ice time (almost 20 minutes) in his return to the red and black and although I didn't think he was as bad as John over at ILWT did,he did seem a bit over aggressive at times and like Kovalchuk-a bit out of sync.
The learning curve should be a bit less steep for Salmela with his history with the team and one can only hope that is the case as the Devils already have some soft spots in the corps....
3) Forgot to mention last night that the Devils will be swapping picks with Atlanta in the second round in the draft this year.
I don't think that there will be a huge difference between the Devils first rounder and the Thrashers second rounder and that makes the deal even better.
4) The player that I would have given a star for the game though did not receive one-Dean McAmmond's goal that he flipped over Jonas Gustavsson was the impetus for the comeback.
Until that point,the Devils seemed almost asleep and looked to on the way to a disappointing evening.
5) The second period was awful though and only the middle Toronto goal (A PP caused by a phantom penalty on Kovalchuk) could be blamed on anything other than poor play.
And that goal was kinda a soft one,so the power play could be questioned,but not the score.
6) The third goal was the worst with Colin White and Jamie Langenbrunner spending more time whining about a penalty as they allowed the puck to just sit there for Richard Wallin.
I didn't see anything to complain about and it was a boneheaded move by both...
7) Had to like the bull rush by Dainius Zubrus in the first on his goal and his near goal in the third that forced Alexei Ponikarovsky to trip him to avoid handing the Devils the tie.
Those are the types of plays that Zubrus flashes occasionally enough to keep people hoping for more from him.
8) The Devils watched Zubrus raise the puck on Jonas Gustavsson and then didn't do it again for almost two periods.
Gustavsson drops to the ice and makes him susceptible to raising the puck and soft rebounds,yet the Devils hardly did that all until the games end.
9) Which leads to the game winner by Jay Pandolfo,which was scored on just such a rebound.
Pando seems to get stopped so often in these situations and it was cool to see him get a big goal for a change.
10) All and all,excited about the win and encouraged by the fortitude shown by the Devils,but the effort for the second and most of the third was pretty bad and these defensive weaknesses need to be addressed either internally or externally.
However,a win is a win and they all count the same!
Photo Credits
Kovalchuk-Andy Marlin-Getty Images
Pandolfo-Jim McIssac-Getty Images
No comments:
Post a Comment